INTRODUCTION. 19 



towards the shore, is enclosed. As the fish follow the 

 rising tide, they are carried between the nets, and 

 arrive in the hollow of the V ; but, in their return on 

 the falling tide, they are inevitably carried into the 

 purse at the apex. The nets are visited when the tide 

 is falling, and the fish are removed before they are 

 damaged by exposure out of the water. 



There are, inside the sea-walls of the island of 

 Foulness, some shallow pits filled with sea- water, which 

 formerly were in use for keeping the catch alive until 

 there should be a convenient occasion for sending it 

 to market. The more valuable fish (Turbot, for 

 instance) had a string with a cork at the other end 

 fastened round their tails, so that the fisherman who 

 caught them out of these stewes, when the time came 

 for dispatching them to market, knew exactly where to 

 dip his large landing net, and could draw them up 

 without risk of injury. 



Kettle-netting would, no doubt, be successful on all 

 our coasts, were it not for the large quantities of 

 Zostera marina floating about, blocking the nets and, 

 by its weight, sometimes overturning them. A further 

 difficulty is that large portions of the shore are too 

 soft and muddy for the men who are engaged 

 in watching and attending to the nets to move 

 about on while emptying, clearing, and setting 

 them up. 



