UNITED STATES 



waters or when they are making for the common ground 

 further east. 



A favourite spot for the spring mackerel-fishing is off 

 Cape Hatteras, where the water reaches a remarkable 

 depth ; and here a fleet of yawls, and even schooners and 

 brigs, is to be seen working day and night really more 

 night than day as long as the shoals of mackerel remain. 

 A large vessel is necessary, if only as a storehouse, for 

 the catches are so enormous that only big craft could find 

 room for them. 



The net used is a development of the old-fasioned seine, 

 probably introduced by the French and Portuguese 

 emigres, and known as the "purse-seine"; it requires 

 considerable depth of water and, like the trawl, a sandy 

 or shingly bottom, free from rocks. As a rule it is single, 

 i.e. a plain sheet of netting, with cords at top and bottom 

 which will draw it together in the form of a bag ; some- 

 times, however, it is pocket-shaped. To cause it to hang 

 perpendicularly, the upper edge is buoyed with a cork-line, 

 while the lower is weighted with lead ; it can either be 

 moored to a couple of boats or anchored buoys, or it may 

 be towed gently between two or more boats. 



The fact that mackerel are not essentially a bottom fish 

 will explain why the work is more easily accomplished in 

 the dark than by daylight. In the daytime the fish are 

 rather shy of coming near the surface, with the result 

 that only the lower meshes are to be relied upon as long 

 as the light remains. By night it is different; a man 

 standing at bow, or stationed at the mast-head, can easily 

 follow the movements of a shoal, which, seeing nothing to 



126 



