42 FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



of the shore, and exposed at will to the ebb or flow. In this 

 kind of fishery, when the net is stretched and the tide coming 

 in, the fishermen get into their boats and wait for the turn, 

 and as soon as the sea has gone sufficiently out, they pull 

 up the stakes and put the nets with their contents into their 

 boats. Courtines of this kind are appropriately called 

 vagabonds, because of their continual change of position. 

 They cannot be used in the winter, because the violence of 

 the gales frequently endangers the safety of the nets. 

 Another sort of courtine is called volant, or flying courtine. 

 A peculiar system of nets also prevailed at Nantes, called 

 rets traversants ; and another on the coasts of Guienne, 

 which bore the local name of pullet. 



Some allusion to two or three quaint works published at 

 various times during the period described in the present 

 chapter may not be here out of place. One of the earliest 

 printed works, published on vellum in 1496, was that of 

 Dame Juliana Berners, a lady celebrated for her love and 

 knowledge of masculine sports. This Diana of the English 

 gives very practical and exact directions for the making of 

 hooks, observing at the same time that that portion of the 

 whole outfit was the most difficult to make. Amongst other 

 lore she describes twelve manners of impediments that cause 

 a man to take " noo fysshe." " Now shall ye wyte," says 

 this Rosa Bonheur of mediaeval literature, " that there ben 

 twelve manere of ympedyments whyche cause a man to 

 take noo fysshe, w^out other comyn that maye casuelly 

 happe. I, badly made harness. 2, bad baits. 3, angling at 

 wrong time. 4, fish strayed away. 5, water thick. 6, water 

 too cold. 7, wether too hot. 8, if it rain. 9, if hail or 

 snow fall. 10, if there be a tempest. 11, if there be a 

 great wynd. 12, if wind be east." And so forth through 

 twenty-three pages of the best vellum. A somewhat 



