SURFACE-FEEDING SEA FISH 383 



with some little touches and additions of his own, just to give 

 'an air of verisimilitude to a bald and otherwise unattractive 

 narrative.' 



There are four methods of mackerel fishing. The largest 

 catches are usually made by means of drift nets which are 

 simply walls of netting, buoyed on one side, that drift with the 

 tide during the night. The mackerel run against them, push 

 their heads through the mesh, and are held captured. As the 

 fish swim near the surface, the nets are not so deep as those 

 used for herrings, and are often very much longer, eleven or 

 twelve nets knotted together extending, perhaps, two and a 

 half miles. 



After mackerel have spawned in the spring they quickly 

 recover their condition and, coming nearer the shore, take a 

 bait eagerly. Then the net fishermen, in addition to capturing 

 them in drift nets, use the seine, and surround the shoals which 

 are seen breaking the surface inshore, chasing the britt or sile, 

 as the young herrings and sprats are variously termed. At 

 night I have known them to come on the sand in only a few 

 inches of water, probably to feed on sand-eels. I have described 

 at an earlier page how, wading on shore one night when my 

 boat was stranded, I walked through a shoal of mackerel which 

 made the sea beautiful by stirring up the phosphorescence. 

 This phosphorescence, by the way, is sometimes called by the 

 fishermen ' marfire ' (i.e. sea-fire, from mare or mer), ' brimming,' 

 and ' waterburn.' It is not favourable to drift-line fishing, as it 

 no doubt discloses the position of the nets. On the other 

 hand, it is helpful to the fishermen in search of the shoals, for 

 as the fish swim near the surface their position is distinctly 

 visible on the darkest night. I have heard of fishermen knock- 

 ing a piece of wood against the outside planks of a boat, and 

 when they noticed numbers of fish darting away, making a trail 

 of light as they went, the nets would be shot. 



