THE SEA FISHERIES 275 



throdgh air or water it will move in a direction outwards. 

 The well-known method of poaching for trout by means of 

 an " otter " is based on this principle. A flat piece of 

 wood set at an angle is drawn through the water by the 

 poacher on the bank. As he goes forward the " otter " also 

 goes forward, but owing to the angle at which it is set it 

 moves ever further out from the bank, towing behind it a 

 string of lures which are thus presented to fish lying far 

 beyond the reach of anyone upon the bank fishing in a 

 sportsmanlike manner. 



In the case of the otter-trawl two " otters " or " doors " 

 are used. To these the sides of the net's mouth are 

 attached, and they are set at such angles that as they are 

 drawn over the sea bottom they diverge farther and 

 farther from the centre of the net's mouth until an equi- 

 librium point is reached and the mouth of the net is stretched 

 agape (Plate 100) . The upper edge of the mouth of the net 

 is in this case not straight, but like the foot-rope it curves 

 backwards, but the foot-rope is the longer of the two so 

 that the net immediately behind the head-line forms a 

 roof over it. The tremendous strain upon the bag of the 

 net as it moves through the water keeps the mouth of the 

 net open vertically. The otter " doors " are made ot 

 heavy iron-bound wood and are eight to nine feet in length, 

 and four to five feet high. The lower edge that runs along 

 the sea bottom is heavily encased with iron to form a shoe 

 three inches thick. 



In the case of the beam-trawl we saw that the opening 

 of the net was limited by the size of the frame. Above a 

 certain size the frame becomes too large and cumbersome 

 for practice. With the otter-trawl, on the other hand, 

 the opening that a net may have is limited only by the 

 actual opening of the net itself, the " doors " being 

 practically the same size for any net, their weight alone 



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