OUR FISHERIES 63 



called " shooting " by the fishermen, just as they also talk of 

 " breeding " nets, and not making them — and the best time for 

 taking it up. For red mullet the trammel is usually laid on 

 soft ground close to rocks just before sundown, and is taken 

 up again just after sunrise. A trammel is a somewhat cheaper 

 net than most, one of 50 fathoms and 6 ft. in depth, with a 

 2i-in. mesh for the middle net and a 1 2-in. mesh on both the 

 outer, would be worth, roughly, about ^^lo, or f^\i if 8 ft. 

 in depth instead of only 6 ft. As a matter of fact, the lesser 

 depth is the more manageable, particularly in a strong tide. A 

 Cornish boat would work a " fleet " of trammels, numbering 

 perhaps ten, each of them 40 fathoms in length and \\ fathom 

 deep. (Note. — A fathom is equivalent to 2 yards, or 6 ft.) 



There are other fixed nets in use on our coasts, but none 

 of the importance of the trammel. There are single walls of 

 netting, identical with the " gill-nets " used on the American 

 coast for cod, which catch the fish by strangulation — surface- 

 fish, such as hake and herring, and ground-fish, such as cod 

 and turbot. Then, again, there are the long stake-nets used 

 for plaice on the Lancashire coast, a yard in width and as 

 many as 300 yards long, the maximum length now fixed 

 by statute. This net, unlike the trammel, is set across 

 the tide, and is stretched on stakes driven into the sand, the 

 fish caught in its meshes being removed at low water. Hedge 

 baulks, long wicker walls with a trap between, are also very 

 fatal to plaice alongshore ; but the stream-nets, once so destruc- 

 tive in Lancashire estuaries, are now illegal. Another somewhat 

 special fixed net, only known in a i^w localities, such as the 

 mouth of the Thames and the waters inside the Isle of Wight, 

 is the stow-net, used to catch sprats in winter. It is to all 

 intents and purposes an immense funnel, 60 yards in length, 

 and with an opening 25 ft. square or more. This mouth 

 is kept wide open by wooden spars, and the net is set in 

 the tideway close to the boat that works it. When the tide 

 has nearly finished ebbing, the mouth of the net is closed by 



