ANCIENT PRACTICE. 255 



net is tolerably straightforward easy work, but the 

 knowledge of how to mend a net is more essential to 

 the fisherman than the ability to make one. By 

 netters in general, net-mending is but little thought 

 of, but the owners of fishing nets entertain great res- 

 pect for a good mender, as the saving to them is enor- 

 mous. The Saviour of mankind, walking by the sea 

 of Galilee, " saw James the son of Zebedee, and John 

 his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mend- 

 ing their nets." * We learn, besides, that then, as now, 

 net-fishing was practised in the dark, Simon saying, 

 " we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing : 

 nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net,"t 

 when the influence of their Divine Master produced 

 for them the miraculous draught. 



The net, of which an engraved representation of a 



part only is here given, is the trammel or flue net, 

 * Matthew iv. 21. t Luke v. 5. 



