IN TROD UCTOR Y 1 7 



and new moon occur the neap tides. The tide in most places 

 rises or flows for seven hours, then ebbs or falls for five hours ; 

 and it is not difficult to understand that if a given quantity of 

 water has to rise twenty feet in seven hours, it will flow with 

 much greater speed than the same quantity of water when it 

 has only to rise fifteen feet in the same time. Therefore the 

 currents of the spring tides are very much more rapid than 

 those of the neap tides. 



River fishermen are well aware that the incoming of fresh 

 water caused by rain, or the rising of springs, or the melting 

 of a glacier, as a rule brings the fish on the feed. Doubtless it 

 stirs up their food, and, perhaps, also sharpens their appetite, 

 as a good blow from a nor'-easter does ours. The increased 

 current in the sea during spring tides may, therefore, account 

 for the fact that the fish feed better then than at other times. 

 This I lay down simply as a general rule, having met with not 

 a few exceptions. At some places the tidal currents may be so 

 strong during spring tides that it is almost impossible to fish at 

 all except with drift lines near the surface. In the Solent, for 

 instance, are very strong currents, and the fishermen of the 

 Medina rarely attempt to catch whiting, which are plentiful off 

 Cowes in the autumn, during the spring tides. Even in the less 

 strong currents of the neaps, the only fishing carried on is during 

 the two hours immediately before and after the turn of the tide. 

 Not only are the tidal currents overwhelmingly powerful, but 

 they bring with them at times immense quantities of floating 

 seaweed which load the lines and offer such resistance to the 

 water that very heavy leads are lifted off the bottom. Leaving 

 out of consideration long lines which lie on the bottom and are 

 heavily weighted to prevent fish from going off with them, it is 

 mainly owing to the strong tidal currents that the sea fisherman 

 sometimes has to use most ponderous leads on his substantial 

 lines stout, not more for strength than for comfort in the 



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