464 



APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CATCHING FISH. 



Of these there are two important modifications : — " Pound-nets " (in various 

 forms) for shallow-water fisheries, and " gill-nets " for deep-water. 



The pound- net essentially consists of a long net, the so-called " leader " pro- 

 jecting at right angles to the shore for from 300 to GOO yards, and supported by 

 strong stakes of the necessary length, 30 to 00 feet, driven at an interval of 5 or 

 6 feet. The rim-line of the leader is secured to these at the water-level, 

 while the bottom line is weighted with stone-sinkers. Fish swimming 

 towards the leader are diverted by it into the " heart," a A-shaped chamber, the 

 funnel-shaped narrow end of which projects into a " pot " or " crib " some 80 feet 

 square, the floor and walls of which are formed of net, the walls projecting two 

 feet above the water-level. The mesh of the leader is 6| to 7 J inches, of the 

 heart 3 to 5 inches, of the funnel 3, and of the pot frequently only 2 to 2i, to 

 the destruction of immense numbers of immature Whitefish. Beyond the first 

 crib a second leader, terminating in the same way, and a third — indeed, as many 

 as twenty have been arranged in " strings," if the shallowness of the water admit 

 of it. Lake Erie obviously permits of such destructive use of this kind of 

 apparatus more extensively than any of the other lakes, so that as many as 900 

 pounds exist on its American side. The average value of a pound-net is from 



M W COR CRIB STAKt 



i^ £.COR CP-lB 5tak«. f 



BReAST Keabt stake. 



Pound-Net. 



$250 to $500, and five men are re.juired to work three nets. A boat of peculiar 

 form is generally used, schooner-rigged with wide square stern, and plenty of 

 beam so as to permit of lifting the pockets or cribs of the pound. They must be 

 able to take a large load of fish and yet have little draught. A special scow is 

 used for driving and pulling stakes, in the spring and winter respectively. 



The Fyke-net is essentially a miniature pound, the crib being replaced by two 

 funnels of netting, one opening into the other, and the heart by wings leading to 

 the door of the outer funnel at an angle of 45 degrees. They are used for 

 catching Perch, Catfish, etc. A similar device is the trap-net wLich is simply a 

 miniature movable pound, the crib of which is held in position by weights and 

 floats. 



.Pound-nets have largely superseded seines for inshore fishing, but in some 

 favorable places with sandy bottom the latter are still used, as in the Detroit 

 and St. Clair Rivers. They may be 1,000 feet long by 12 feet deep in the middle, 

 where the mesh is nai-rowest, but shallower and with larger mesh in the wings. 

 Horse-power is sometimes used for hauling the seines. 



The second important variety of net used is the gill-net, so-called as the 

 mesh is arranged of such a size (4} to^4f inches for Whitefish — 3^ for Herring) as to 

 catch fish striking the net behind the gill-cover.s. These nets are set vertically 

 at diflerent depths in deep water, often at right angles to the shore, the lower 

 borders being weighted with stones or leads or iron rings (according to the kind 



