PACIFIC COD FISHERIES 



433 



The net lifter generally is set on the port side, forward of the fore 

 rigging, although it will work about as well when set on the star- 

 board side or when close aft of the fore rigging. 



At my instance the Union Fish Co., of San Francisco, with its 

 usual progressiveness, purchased the necessary number of gill nets 

 for an experiment on a moderate scale, a net lifter, and a 4-horse- 

 power Imperial engine to operate it. 



The gill nets were 125 yards long each and were made of 12/3 cord 

 linen. A specially made line was used for head, foot, and side lines. 

 The nets were of T^-inch stretch mesh and were 15 meshes deep. The 

 floats, which were made of white cedar, were 2 inches by 5 inches 



Fig. 10. — Machine used for hauling in cod trawls 



and had been soaked a number of times in boiling linseed oil in 

 order to make them waterproof. Fifty of these were used to the net 

 and were hung from the cork line and not strung on. The leads, 

 which were Zy 2 inches long with a diameter of thirteen-sixteenths 

 inch, weighed 7 ounces each, were made t,o close on the line and not 

 to be strung on and were set opposite the floats. 



As the nets were primarily for use during the winter season, when 

 the spawning cod are on the inshore banks, the work carried on dur- 

 ing the summer was merely preliminary and mainly for the purpose 

 of accustoming the men to use the nets. 



Boxes with flaring tops (so that they would nest) were constructed, 

 and in these the nets were stowed, with the lead line at one end and 

 the cork line at the other ; these boxes held about four nets each. 



