CHAPTER IV 



SHRIMPING, MUSSELLING, AND 

 LINE-FISHING 



Shrimps The push-net On board a Dutch visschers-boot Dutch 

 fishermen Preparations for boiling Hauling up the shrimp-net 

 Emptying The catch Sorting 'Ware crabs ! And fox-fish 

 Boiling Hot shrimps Danger of the trade Prawns and prawn- 

 catching Mussels What becomes of them all Transplanting 

 Mussels by the barge-load Line-fishing Hand lines Long 

 lines Ready-baited hooks Paying out the lines" Bending-on " 

 Two or three miles of lines Bringing in the catch Longer 

 lines" Bulters." 



SHRIMPS are never out of season ; and prawns only 

 during the last two months of the year. Prices 

 vary simply because the fish are so much more 

 plentiful at one time than another. 



The push-net, to be seen at all seaside places in the 

 summer months, is apt to mislead us into the belief that 

 the shrimp is a shallow-water fish, which he is not. In 

 shallows he is an accident ; in deep water a feature. The 

 men whom you see "ploughing the sand" with a hand 

 net at low water are either out of work or making over- 

 time, and we cannot allow their claim to the dignified 

 title of " shrimper."" Ask the Dutchmen or the Kent and 

 Essex fishermen what they understand by shrimping. 

 Push-netting, they will tell you, is children's amusement ; 



42 



