I890-9I.] A Peculiar Mode of Fishing in the Thames. ^67 



the two eaglets, and commenced to descend. Simple as it 

 may look I had great difficulty in getting down. My hand 

 were rubbed and bleeding; my clothes ;ere torn; my "b 

 were bruised and cut, and I could feel the bloo'd tdcklt^ 



rocT^ it J "" TT' ''''''' -"ghly jolted against th^ 

 rock. I however got down, but my poor little eadets were 

 crushed to death, which I very much regretted, f W " 

 brought them home, and they are now t^ be seen stuffed in 

 the Museum of Science and Art. Donald havin. come 

 round we had some refreshment, which they thou^htfuDv 

 brought w.th them. The rope was left hanging n tit 2 

 of the rock, and there, I venture to affirm it is h ngt 



XII._Oi\r A PECULIAR MODE OF FISHING IN 

 THE ESTUARY OF THE THAMES 



By Mr A. B. HERBERT. 



{Read April 23, 1891.) 



My attention has recently been directed to a peculiar and 

 very primitive mode of fishing which is still practised at 

 Southend and other places in the estuary of the Thames and 

 this may perhaps be interesting to some of our members' It 

 IS what we might expect to find among savage tribes, and not 

 m iise among the most civilised of nations in the nineteenth 

 century. It has probably been adopted in the locality named 

 from a very remote period. It is at once simple and inaeni- 

 ous, and, I am informed, also very effective. You wilf see 

 trom what I exhibit tliat it consists of a long line, to which 

 are attached at intervals thinner lines of two strands about 

 SIX inches long, having at their ends, instead of hooks 

 tiiorns of the blackthorn {Prunus spinosa). A piece of the 

 twig about the same length as the thorn is left at its base 

 where the line is fixed in a very simple manner by a loop' 

 ihe long lines with baited thorns are pegged down in the mud 



