THE PILCHARD THE STURGEON 



order to throw the connecting line at the other end on 

 board of her, paying out part of her stop-seine as she 

 goes. The lines are seized by the waiting crew, drawn 

 together, and the two stops joined so that they are like 

 one net ; and then the meeting-point is lowered like the 

 rest. The result of this manoeuvre is that a second seine 

 has been shot making, with the first, an oval or a letter 

 D, according to the length of the stops in front of the 

 shoal, thereby arresting the fish that had been swimming 

 towards the shore away from the large seine and driving 

 them back to it. 



Now the three boats, all pulling together, begin slowly 

 towing in till shallower water is reached. Then another 

 halt is made, for the area covered by the nets is larger 

 than is necessary, now that there is no longer danger of 

 the fish swimming under the net. The small boats again 

 make for the "joins 11 ; each one separates its own end of 

 the stop-net from the wing of the seine, and between 

 them they rapidly draw these wings together till the 

 whole forms a rough circle ; then the stop-net is removed 

 and towing begins once more, and continues till some 

 time after the lead-line has begun to scrape along the 

 bottom, when the net is moored. 



By dawn the men will be off again, for sunset and sun- 

 rise are the two favourable times for catching. The nets 

 are paid out as before, the morning work being perhaps a 

 little more leisurely done, because light is coming instead 

 of going. Occasionally while at this morning fishing, the 

 cork-line is suddenly seen to sway and bob, and perhaps to 

 be drawn under altogether, as though a shoal had been 



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