CHAPTER XIII 

 THE PILCHARD THE STURGEON 



The Cornish fisherman The pilchard Shoaling Drift - nets and 

 seines The " seine-boat "Shooting the net The stop-seines 

 Sharks ! " Tucking "Taking the fish ashore The factory The 

 sturgeon Russian sturgeon and sterlet fishing Isinglass and 

 caviare. 



CORNWALL and the pilchard are as closely asso- 

 ciated in one's mind as Devonshire and cream, and 

 any one who has seen the coast-line between the 

 Lizard and St. Ives will also unconsciously connect pil- 

 chard-fishing with danger. Certain spots do not get such 

 names as the Devil's Frying-pan or the Lion Rocks for 

 nothing. 



The Cornish fisherman takes himself far more seriously 

 than the happy-go-lucky fellows of the south and east 

 coasts. Instead of their quaint survivals of Saxon 

 paganism, he holds certain gloomy predestinarian views, 

 and devoutly believes in the ultimate perdition of the 

 Devonshire trawlers. But he is a fine man all the same, 

 and if his opinions give him the courage to face a rock- 

 studded sea that, even in the brightest of weather, would 

 be uninviting to most landsmen, he had better stick to 

 them. 



From October to July he is occupied as fishing jack-of- 



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