ON THE ENGLISH SEA FISHERIES. 73 
and cry.” The huer stands in some commanding position; he 
first looks for a slight discolouring of the sea, something like a 
leaden cloud passing over its surface. This is a schull or shoal 
of pilchards. As soon as he sees the shoal of fish approaching 
the land, he gives a signal, which others standing near take up, 
and pass down to the beach. His purpose is now to direct the 
operations of those who have gone off in the boats—three in 
number for each party. The stop sean is a long net 1,200 feet 
in length, and 72 feet in depth. It is buoyed along the head 
rope with corks, and weighed down with lead. The first boat 
carries this net. A second boat, called the volyer, has a seine 
from 600 to 720 feet long, and about 108 feet deep at its deepest 
part. This is called the tuck sean. It differsin shape as well as 
dimensions from the stop sean, the middle being formed into a 
hollow. The third boat is called the lurker, and has no sean. 
The crew attending a sean consists of eighteen men and one or 
two boys; seven of these are assigned to the large boats, and the 
remaining four, including the master seaner, to the lurker. 
When the presence of the fish is discovered, the lurker proceeds 
to the place to ascertain the size of the shoal and the direction 
in which it is moving. When everything is favourable, a warp 
from the end of the sean is handed over to the volyer, whose place 
it is to keep all taut; the lurker continuing near the fish to watch 
their motions, and to point out to the sean boat what is to be 
enclosed. 
The sean boat is rowed by four men, the other three being 
employed in throwing the net; and such is the vigour exerted 
on these occasions, that the great body of net, rope, corks, and 
lead is thrown into the sea in five minutes. The sean at first 
forms a curved line across the course of the fish, and while the 
two large boats are employed in warping the ends together, the 
lurker’s station is in the opening, where, by beating the water, 
the fish are kept away from the only place of escape. 
When the seine is closed, and the ends are laced together, if 
the body of the fish be great and the sea be strong, the net is 
secured by heavy grapnels, which are attached to the head ropes 
by hawsers. It is thus not more difficult to take 1,000 hogs- 
heads than it is to take a single hogshead. 
