FISH AND FISHERMEN 



fear, swim hither and thither among the fleet, uncon- 

 sciously betraying their whereabouts by the phosphorescent 

 track they leave behind. Following such a track with his 

 eye, an experienced skipper can give directions to the men 

 who are waiting to shoot the seine from the small boats, 

 and can even tell when the net is in danger of being over- 

 crowded. 



The clearing of the net is a case of " the mountain's 

 going to Mohammed " ; not of the net's being brought to 

 the ship, but the reverse. The moment the seine is full, 

 the vessel pulls round alongside of it ; the cords are drawn 

 up and hitched to the bulwarks, so that the whole catch 

 is taken in tow ; and a fresh net is shot. If the crew are 

 busy, the fish caught can stay where they are till morning ; 

 then they are baled out of the purse at intervals, as 

 occasion offers, and stacked below, to be taken ashore 

 either immediately or when the call-boat comes round. 

 The reason why the net is not hauled bodily on deck, as 

 in trawling, is pretty obvious when we bear in mind that, 

 at one shooting, the seine is sometimes found to contain 

 as many mackerel as will fill a thousand good-sized barrels. 



But what is the result of such enormous catches ? Year 

 by year the mackerel-fleets find themselves forced to go 

 farther and farther away from the shore ; for the spring 

 fishing disturbs the shoals in their northward migration, 

 causing them thereby to take a wider sweep from the coast, 

 so that, in time to come, mackerel-seining must become as 

 much an ocean -fishery as codding. 



The shark and his various amiable relatives are rarely 

 the fisherman's allies ; yet, where American mackerel are 



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