244 MACKEREL NETS. 



or autumn. To be eaten in perfection, this fish should 

 be very fresh. 



The most common mode of fishing for mackerel, and 

 the way in which the greatest numbers are taken, is 

 by drift-nets. The drift-net is twenty feet deep, by 

 one hundred and twenty feet long; well corked along 

 the top, but without lead at the bottom. They are 

 made of small fine twine, which is tanned of a reddish- 

 brown colour, to preserve it from the action of the 

 sea-water, and it is thereby rendered much more 

 durable. The netting measures one inch and a half 

 from knot to knot, forming a mesh of three inches. 

 Twelve, fifteen, and sometimes eighteen of these nets, 

 called rands or breadths, are attached lengthways, by 

 tying them along a thick rope, called the drift-rope, 

 and lacing the end of each net or rand to the end of 

 the rand which pi'ecedes it on the drift-rope. When 

 arranged for depositing in the sea, a large buoy, fre- 

 quently an empty barrel of considerable size, attached 

 to the end of the drift-rope, is thrown overboard, the 

 vessel is put before the wind, and as she sails along, 

 the rope with the nets thus attached is passed over the 

 stern into the water, till the whole extent of the net is 

 run out. The net thus deposited, hangs suspended in 

 the water perpendicularly twenty feet deep from the 

 drift-rope, and extending from three-quarters of a mile 

 to a mile, or more, depending on the number of nets 

 belonging to the party or company thus engaged in 

 fishing together. When the whole of the nets are thus 

 handed out, the drift-rope is shifted from the stern to 



