198 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



until she is, by the small sail on the mizenmast, brought up 

 to the wind. The rolling then ceases, but there supervenes 

 a very lively game of pitch and toss, which threatens to 

 become livelier as time wears on. This, then, is to be our 

 condition for the night ; and the only comfort we can snatch 

 is that there are fully half a hundred boats in similar plight 

 within ken, looking for all the world like disabled craft 

 whose spars have been carried away in a hurricane. The 

 Seabird is now technically " driving "; the movement, if any, 

 being astern. 



Mugs of hot tea, solid ship's biscuit, and, when called for 

 by an epicurean member .of the crew, a herring fried very 

 brown to cover it, having been handed round, the word is 

 given to " shoot nets." Every member of the crew but 

 the cook and cabin boy engages in this work, which requires 

 care and occupies considerable time. The dark brown nets 

 lie stowed away in the hold, and the first work is to bring 

 them to light. 



It will simplify the description to explain at once that the 

 drift net is nothing more than a wall of netting extending 

 from the bows of the boat to a distance of about two miles, 

 sunk by means of a cable nine or ten yards deep, and kept 

 near the surface by small kegs called <; bowls " and by a 

 plentiful employment of large corks along the upper part of 

 the net. The herrings swim in shoals, run their unsuspect- 

 ing heads into the net wall, and become entangled in % the 

 meshes. This, however, is anticipating. The nets, or to be 

 strictly accurate, the series of nets, tied together in 

 an unbroken length as before explained, are not yet 

 shot. 



The skipper and three " hands " receive the nets, which 



