566 FISHING NETS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE OTTER-TEAWL. 



and it is suggested that the Phoenicians, in the course of their 

 wanderings, taught the use of this net to the men of Cornwall.* 

 However this may have been, it is interesting to note that in passing 

 from the shores of the Mediterranean to the coasts of Great Britain we 

 can mark out every stage in the evolution of the beam- and otter-trawls 

 from the primitive ground- or long haul-seine. The word seine is thus 

 generic, and on historical grounds Dr. Petersen is quite entitled to call his 

 otter-traivl a seine, but so many forms of nets are already included under 

 this term that it is advisable to limit its applicability. In England 

 seine is applied only to those nets which are hauled in on the shore, and 

 so strict is the usage that one and the same net may have different 

 names. "When hauled in on the shore it is a seine ; when hauled in on 

 a boat it is a tuck-net. Ptightly speaking, trawls are therefore tuck-nets, 

 but as these latter are only used from small boats in shallow water, and 

 the term has arisen from the peculiar method of hauling in the net, the 

 word traui is more strictly applied to the apparatus for deep-sea 

 fishing. Though the fields denoted by these three terms overlap to 

 a slight extent, they are quite distinct, and it prevents confusion 

 to limit the use of the terms correspondingly. 



In its simplest form the seine is simply a weighted ground-rope and 

 buoyed head-rope, between which hangs the net. The mode of working 

 is likewise simple. A boat pays out the net some little distance to 

 sea, the ropes attached to each end are brought ashore at a suitable 

 spot, and the whole net is then gradually drawn to the beach. 



The changes rung on this simple form are almost too numerous 

 to mention. The length and depth vary, the mesh may be large or 

 small, the size of mesh is different in different parts, the " wings " may 

 be of great length, it may have a " bunt " or " bag " in the centre, and 

 so on. Each kind of net has its distinct uses, and each has its distinct 

 name, as a rule, according to the fish sought after. Usually each 

 net has two sizes of mesh, often three or even four, those in the centre 

 or bunt being smaller than those in the wings, in order to entrap but 

 not mesh the fish. In this form the ground- or long haul-seine is in use 

 in almost all countries of Europe,! but in none is it employed to such 

 an extent as in the United States. All the aids that modern invention 

 can give, a steamer for shooting the net, and steam winches for hauling 

 it in, are there employed. 



* See Couch, Fishes of the British Islands, vol. ii. pp. 91-6. aayt)vq was transformed 

 through the Latin Vulgate sagena into the Anglo-Saxon segne, and this has become the 

 English and French seine or scan, the Dutch zegen. 



t It is the Tratta or Sciatica of Italy, the Boiirgin or Seine of France, the Zegen 

 of Holland. The sight of the swarthy, half-naked fishermen hauling in their long seine 

 on the beach at Posilipo, near Naples, is one of the things which cling to one's memory 

 of tliat famous city. 



