BOATS AND GEAR 233 



30 h.p. to work the capstan. Trouville possesses one or 

 two large petrol vessels. The Libellule, an Arcachon 

 launch, is 38 feet long, 5 feet in beam, and 6 feet 6 inches 

 in depth. Its motor (by Conach, of Arcachon) is a 

 four-cylinder model of 15 h.p., which gives a speed of 

 slightly more than 9 knots. These motor-launches 

 fish for sardines nearly all the year, going as far as 30 to 

 35 miles from Arcachon. But motors are not found 

 only on small boats ; the largest live-cage schooner flying 

 the French flag, the Langousti, of Paimpol, is furnished 

 with a Dau four-cylinder motor of 50 h.p., which drives 

 a screw nearly 6 inches in diameter. At Dunkirk, 

 motors have been fitted to the herring boats (cutters). 

 Many Scotch herring boats have motors, as well as the 

 majority of German fishing boats, and nearly all the 

 Danish bouticlars. The numerous Sicilian fishermen 

 settled at Boston, U.S.A., employ motor-dories. In 1909 

 a few motor-boats were seen on the Newfoundland 

 banks fishing for cod. 



Ill 



The sundry species of fishing gear are as varied and as 

 numerous as the types of boats. 



The principle of capture depends upon four biological 

 facts: (i) the number of edible fish is immense ; (2) fish 

 are voracious ; (3) they are shortsighted ; (4) they are 

 subject to almost unchangeable hereditary instincts ; 

 and upon this fact of the oceanographical category : that 

 fish keep to depths and localities easily accessible and 

 recognisable. These premises granted, three methods are 

 available to the fisherman : he may capture the fish by 

 force, or he may leave it to get caught by its own action, 

 or he may attract it and take it. From these three 

 methods the three classes of device are derived. In the 



