568 nSHIN'G NETS, WITH SPECIAL REFEKENXE TO THE OTTER-TKAWL. 



advantage of this net is its handiness : it may be packed into small 

 compass, and can be worked bv two men. It mar be used either from 

 the shore or as a tuck-nei from a boat. The method of working it 

 as a tuck-nct is the same as that employed by the Danes for their 

 so-called plaice-seines. The boat is moored some distance from the 

 shore, and the net carried round by rowing and the help of the tide in 

 a semicircle — in Denmark a second boat may aid in shooting it — 

 then the net is dragged over the ground by hauling on the anchor- 

 rope. When the boat is close over the anchor, the net is quickly 

 hauled in, care being taken to keep the foot-rope tight and the 

 head-rope slack, i.e. to " tuck " the net. 



The Danish " tuck-net " and plaice-seines are probably the same as 

 the above, but the lack of any description of them prevents certainty 

 on the point. It is very similar to Petersen's otter-trawl, but has 

 no "funnel" in the bunt. This is an advantage rather than the 

 reverse, because the mesh is already so small that any additional 

 impediment would prevent the water passing freely through the 

 "bunt," and thus inhibit its fishing capability. Pockets are only 

 of use when the apparatus having them is working for some time — an 

 hour or more. In these fine nets for shallow water they are un- 

 necessary as well as an impediment, because the gear is hauled in 

 at short intervals. 



Since the ground covered by these ground-seines, plaice-seines, or tuck- 

 nets is necessarily limited, we may endeavour to increase it in two ways 

 — by fixing otter-boards to the end of the wings, or by towing the net 

 between two boats. The former method was adopted some twenty 

 years ago by the Danish fishermen, and will be referred to more 

 particularly later. The latter seems to be an ancient method, and, as 

 it displays the historical development of our modem English trawls, 

 may be briefly described here. It is the ordinary method of deep-sea 

 fishing on the southern shores of Italy (the cocchia) ; * of France (Jilets 

 de hceuf) ; * and of Spain {parcjas). 



In the filets de hceuf the spread of the net is about 80 feet 

 (25 m.) ; and, since the boats in towing separate as widely from one 



the foot-rope of 4-strand hemp. At the end of each wing both head-rope and foot-rope 

 are continued out one foot, "hitched" round a pole six feet high, and meet together 

 ten to twelve feet farther in an "eye." The drag-ropes, thirty to fifty fathoms long, 

 are fastened to each " eye." A heavy piece of sheet-lead is fastened round each pole 

 just above where the foot-rope is hitched on (L). 



The complete net as above described costs £5. A larger net of same make, 100 meshes 

 in the "bunt"' and twelve fathoms in the wings, costs a little over £6. 



* Faber, The Fisheries of the Adriatic; Gourret, Z^s Pkheries et les Poissons de la 

 Mfditerranif, Paris, 1S94. 



In the Italian trawls there is a series of four to five hoops, probably of bamboo, which 

 help to supjiort the main body of the long net. 



