346 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
bottom portion for 2 fathoms it is of small mesh and strongly reenforced, while 
the outer portion is of larger mesh (about 8 centimeters). The long ‘‘brazos”’ 
(arms), or “‘bandas,’’ extending out from each side of the mouth are 13 fathoms 
in length and 50 meshes (10 cm. each) in height. In making a haul, two 
canoas or balsas are used in putting the net, while itis drawn onto the beach 
by several men, often with two or three mules. 
Perhaps the most characteristic net is the anchobetera, a modification of 
the chinchorro, used in taking the little anchobetas, which occur in such vast 
schools. The bolsa, or copa, is 4 or 5 meters in depth, and, when flattened, 9 or 
10 meters wide (that is, 18 to 20 meters in circumference). The opening or 
mouth of the bolsa is surrounded by a sort of funnel, of four portions; the upper 
and lower ‘‘pechos” (breasts) with a mesh of 9-centimeter bar, and the right and 
left ‘‘sobacos”’ (armpits) with a mesh of 20-centimeter bar. From the sobacos 
the brazos, or arms, lead out on each side with a length of 5 or 6 fathoms, and 
a mesh of 4o-centimeter bar (16 inches). In surrounding small schools of 
anchobetas, the net is worked from canoas or balsas. A larger net of the same 
type may be used for ‘‘sardinas,”’ as referred to on page 342. It would be called 
a ‘‘sardinera” or a “red clara.’”@ 
In the way of line fishing, we find the simple still-fishing line, or “‘cordel,”’ 
the trolling line, or ‘‘cordel bonitero,’”’ and the trawl-line or bait-line—the 
“espinel.”’ 
The espinel is of particular interest, as one of the most effective methods of 
fishing and as being the only method by which one of the very best fishes of the 
coast is taken in any abundance. As used at Callao, Chimbote, etc., the espinel 
carries 50 to 100 hooks on short lines attached at intervals of 1 to 2 meters, and 
it is worked in 20 to 30 fathoms of water. ‘The espinel fishery, however, is best 
seen at Mollendo. Fishing in 46 fathoms at a trial on the usual fishing grounds, 
and using a line of 1,500 hooks, our fishermen took 256 congrios at one haul. As 
the hooks were attached (by 30-centimeter side lines) at intervals of 1 meter, 
the length of line fished was nearly 1 mile, but such a line is readily worked by 
‘one man with an assistant to control the boat. The line was set after 7 o’clock 
in the evening and taken up after midnight. The catch of about 400 pounds of 
the best fish, made at one haul of the line, was considered good, but not unusual, 
and the fishermen describe hauls of 700 pounds on 1,200 hooks kept in the water 
for four or five hours. 
a The name “clara,” it may be remarked here, is at first confusing, being applied to nets of very 
different types. The “clara” is the clear net—that is, the net which the smaller fish can pass through. 
Therefore, fishermen who speak of the anchobetera as “la red” (the net) would call the same form of 
net with larger mesh the “clara;”’ in another community, where the gill net for cabinsas was the net in 
most common use, and therefore spoken of as ‘“‘la red,” the “clara”? would be a net of somewhat larger 
mesh, such as the “‘lizera’”’ or the “bonitero.’”’” Thus in one community the “red clara” is a gill net, 
while in another community it is an entirely different type of net. 
