120 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



capturing fish, as I have already treated it at great length in the first 

 volume of the Reports of the IT. S. Fish Commission. I may simply re- 

 mark that the use of the net extends back to a very remote antiquity, 

 possibly as great as that of the hook and line, if it be not still older. 

 That the inhabitants of the pile dwellings of Switzerland and Central 

 Europe used the net is shown by the finding of many specimens of the 

 netting and the sinkers. The employment of the net by all civilized 

 nations proves that it has been handed down to them from a high an- 

 tiquity. The seine was used in the pre-Columbian epoch by the Indians 

 of Korth America, as it is not unusual to find on the rivers and shores 

 large numbers of small rounded stones, notched on two sides, to serve 

 as weights, of precisely the same character as those in use at the pres- 

 ent time by the Indians of the northwest coast of America. 



The principal forms of the net are the hand or scoop-net, the dip-net, 

 the casting-net, the seine, the trammel-net, the gill-net, the purse-net, 

 and the stake-net. 



The scoop-net is familiar to every one. It has various shapes, and is 

 used for landing fish caught with the hook, or capturing fish, particu- 

 larly the small varieties, penned up in restricted localities. 



The dip-net maybe considered a modification of the scoop net, being 

 suspended at the end of a long handle. 



The casting-net is largely in use by the Spaniards and Italians, both 

 in Europe and America. This is circular, varying in diameter from 12 

 to 15 feet. It has leaden balls around the edge, and a long rope attached 

 to the center. This is thrown very skillfully to a considerable distanee 

 in such a way as to fall flat upon the water, and dropping rapidly to 

 the bottom incloses any fish that may happen to be beneath it. When 

 the rope is hauled on, the leaden balls at the edge come together at the 

 bottom, so that the net is pursed up when drawn from the water, and 

 the fish are found therein as in a pocket. 



The seine is also familiar to all. This is a continuous net, with floats 

 of cork, glass balls, or light Wood along the upper margin, and weights 

 of lead or stone along the lower or bottom. Sometimes it has a bag in 

 the center, for the greater facility of holding the fish. This net is some- 

 times worked from the shore, one end being held on or near it, and the 

 other carried around so as to form a sweep when the two ends are hauled 

 in simultaneously. Sometimes this is dropped in the sea and made to 

 inclose a school of fish. This becomes a purse-net when there is some 

 arrangement for bringing the lower edge of the net together, like the 

 inclosure at the mouth of a purse, so that the fish find themselves closely 

 confined, both laterally and below. 



The trammel-net is a very efficient means for capturing fish in waters 

 where dragging is not possible or convenient. This consists of three 

 nets bound together at the edges, the outer ones on either side having 

 a large mesh, and the central one a fine mesh and much fuller than 

 the others. Fish swimming incautiously against this net pass through 



