626 KEPORT OF COMMISSIONEE OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [160] 



pit, nine to teu flat-boats, each containiug txAO men, are rowed into the 

 pond. The middle boat contains the lishing master, who directs opera- 

 tions. From these boats the hirge seine is cast and is drawn towards 

 the shore by ten men, while the boats gradually approach the fisli-pit 

 in a semicircle, constantly growing narrower, and whose diameter is 

 the length of the fish-pit along the shore, so that the fish are finally 

 entirely inclosed in the seine. As soon as this is accomplished the fish 

 are taken from the seine. While some men catch the tender perch-pi 1^(^ 

 singly with the hands in sorting- vans held floating on the water, 

 others carry them to the kegs in tubs ; other men, armed with purse-nets 

 and dip-nets, catch the carp, occasionally mixed with pike, antl carry 

 them to the tubs, from which they arc sorted and weighed, xls the 

 taking of the fish from the seine is, of course, a much more rapid pro- 

 cess than the sorting and weighing, the fish are first X)ut in the outer 

 row of tubs and thence in the middle row, wliere they are sorted. For 

 sorting the fish are taken from the tubs with i)urs^-net8 — if possible 

 direct from the ponds — and ])l;u;e(l on the sorting-vans, wlun^e fresh 

 water is poured over them several times by a man specially engaged for 

 that pnrj)ose, whereupon they are sorted in tlie tubs to 1 he right and 

 left, whence they are taken to the scales. It is of course understood 

 that in a pond as large as the one in question several persons are en- 

 gaged in sorting. As long as the fish are in the tubs, water is continu- 

 ally ])our('d ovrr thciii with the water-dii)pers, and they are occasionally 

 stirred carefully with the same instrunu^nts, so that the same fish ;iiv 

 not kept at the bottom all the time, and also for the purpose of con 

 tinually introdncing fresh air into the water. 



Close to the scales there is placed a tub of the same size as the sort- 

 ing-tubs, the interior and sides of which are thickly covered with reeds, 

 over which a piece of linen is spread. These reeds are arranged in 

 X7. ^ o such a way as to form in the tub an inclined 



...S ' plane, whose highest point is on the side 



-'""" ""•--. near the scales. When the fish are quick! \ 



|S^i— __ _.----""; taken from the scales they gently slid<' 



down into the hands of the persons count- 

 ing them, and there is very little chance 



^'^^ of their being hurt. Two men stand ueai 



this tub and eouul the fish into a large piece of cloth held up by 

 two women, each holding two of the four corners. After 12 fish 

 (or, if they are not very large, 15) have been counted, each woman 

 twists her two corners together and hands the cloth to the next 

 two women, of whom a double row extends all along the scarp of the 

 dike. Thus the fish i)ass from hand to hand until they reach the keg 

 Here they are received by two men standing on the wagon. The 

 one twisted end of the cloth is stuck into the opening of the keg, am! 

 the other lifted up, so the fish glide slowly into the keg without touch 

 ing the edges of the hole. As soon as one cloth has been emptied int( 



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