248 THE MACHINERY OF CAPTURE. 



They are not all practical fishermen who go down to the 

 sea for herring during the great autumnal fishing season. By 

 far the larger portion of those engaged in the capture of this 

 fish particularly at the chief stations are what are called 

 " hired hands/' a mixture of the farmer, the mechanic, and the 

 sailor ; and this fact may account in some degree for a portion 

 of the accidents which are sure to occur in stormy seasons. 

 Many of these men are mere labourers at the herring-fishery, 

 and have little skill in handling a boat ; they are many of them 

 farmers in the Lewis, or small crofters in the Isle of Skye. 

 The real orthodox fisherman is a different being, and lie is the 

 same everywhere. If you travel from Banff to Bayonne you 

 find that fishermen are unchangeable. 



The men's work is all performed at sea, and, so far as the 

 capture of the herring is concerned, there is no display of 

 either skill or cunning. The legal mode of capturing the 

 herring is to take it by means of what is called a drift-net. 

 The herring-fishery, it must be borne in mind, is regulated by 

 Act of Parliament, by which the exact means and mode of 

 capture are explicitly laid down. A drift-net is an instrument 

 made of fine twine worked into a series of squares, each of 

 which is an inch, so as to allow plenty of room for the escape 

 of young herrings. Nets for herring are measured by the 

 barrel-bulk, and each barrel will hold two nets, each net being 

 fifty yards long and thirty-two feet deep. The larger fishing- 

 boats carry something like a mile of these nets ; some, at any 

 rate, carry a drift which will extend two thousand yards in 

 length. These drifts are composed of many separate nets, 

 fastened together by means of what is called a back-rope, and 

 each separate net of the series is marked off by a buoy or 

 bladder which is attached to it, the whole being sunk in the 

 sea by means of a leaden or other weight, and fastened to the 

 boat by a longer or shorter trail-rope, according to the depth 

 in the water at which it is expected to find the herrings. 



