SHELL FISH AND CONGER HUNTING, ETC 341 



seaward in 'little reefs, and between each reef will be a strip of 

 sand ; such places are best worked with the shrimper's net 

 illustrated on page 339. But beware of weevers, stinging fish, 

 whose portraits may be seen at the end of Chapter XIII. For 

 their sake go not bare of foot. 



A deadly way of catching prawns is to lower a number of 

 hoop nets exactly the same as for lobsters (p. 343), but smaller, 

 to the bottom of pools and leave them there for a while. The 

 net, which may measure eighteen inches in diameter, must be 

 baited with dead crabs or other offal placed across it on a skewer. 

 The cork at the end of the rope is laid hold of by means of a 

 stick with a forked end a clothes-line prop in miniature and 

 the net lifted. These nets are occasionally used from boats, 

 but are best suited for those parts of the coast where there 

 are large pools left among the rocks by the receding tide. 

 Prawns and most other marine creatures appear to be most 

 active as the tide begins to flow, and the first quarter of an 

 hour of the flood tide is usually the most successful time to 

 catch them. Where the prawns are plentiful the net is lowered 

 into the pool and raised at the end of a few minutes, the rope 

 being held meanwhile in the hand. 



Another method of catching prawns is by setting what I 

 may term fine-meshed lobster pots. Two are illustrated along 

 with the shrimp net. They have to be baited with crushed 

 crab to induce the fish to enter them. 



Of the shrimp I need say but little. It is a fish of sandy 

 shores, and no great exercise of skill is required to wade in knee 

 deep and push the shrimp net along. Boys should not be 

 allowed to use a man's shrimp net, but should be content 

 with something half the size. Important shrimp fisheries are 

 carried on in large estuaries and other places by small trawling 

 boats, and, as I have said in a previous chapter, these fine- 

 meshed trawl nets catch immense quantities of immature flat 



