UNITED STATES 



concerned, they must be considered as such ; for one of 

 them will pursue a whole shoal swallowing a mouthful 

 now and again as opportunity arises for fifty and sixty 

 miles, coming as close in to shore as he dares. It is then 

 that the shore-weirs mentioned above come into play. 

 They are of two sorts: shoal-(shallow)-water weirs and 

 deep-water weirs. The first are simple enclosures made by 

 walls of stakes, bushes, etc., into which the fish swim 

 helter-skelter, on the " any port in a storm " principle, 

 where they are either cut off from retreat by a sliding 

 door of hurdles as soon as a big capture is made, to be 

 left high and dry when the tide goes out ; or are baled 

 out by the score as they come into the trap. 



The deep-water weir is considerably less primitive, and 

 is composed of a series of net walls cunningly arranged 

 so that entry is simple enough, but exit to the dull- 

 witted mackerel a matter of impossibility. Parallel to 

 the shore is one long sheet or wall of netting, buoyed and 

 weighted like a seine ; from one end of this, running out 

 into the sea at right-angles, is a similar wall, from a 

 hundred and fifty to two hundred yards long; the 

 " leader," as it is called. At the other end of the first 

 net is a third wall, about a quarter the length of the 

 leader and parallel to it, at the end of which is yet 

 another, which goes more than half-way towards making 

 the fourth side of a square, leaving, however, a good 

 wide opening for the fish to come in at. Sometimes the 

 fourth side doubles back, parallel to the leader, and has 

 yet another net perpendicular to it, inside the square, 

 making the beginning of a sort of key-pattern labyrinth. 



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