8 THE PISS Of DORSET. 



The seine net is probably the oldest fishing net known, and 

 by its means by far the greater number of fish on our coast are 

 taken. They vary in size and cost, according to the nature of the 

 fishing in which they are employed and the means of the owners, 

 from the large mackerel seines of 150 to 200 fathoms, and costing 

 10 to 60, to the small team seines or tuck nets of 30 or 40 

 fathoms, used in harbours or mouths of rivers. The cost of seines 

 has been much reduced of late years, as the greater part, if not 

 the whole, can be made by machinery, while a trawl cannot. The 

 seine consists of three parts, that is, two wings and the middle or 

 bunt. The wings are made of straight net roped top and bottom, 

 the top having corks and the bottom leads. The outer ends of 

 the wings aie generally of larger mesh, and the size of the mesh 

 is reduced several times before the bunt is reached. The bunt is 

 formed by the net being not only much wider, but also by being 

 gathered closer together along the ropes, so that it forms a bag, 

 and sometimes a cod like that of a trawl is added. Seines are used 

 in two ways, the most general being that a long rope is made fast 

 to one end of the net, and the free end of the rope being left on 

 the shore, the boat is rowed out to sea, the rope being paid out on 

 the way. When all the rope is out the net is shot in a semi-circle 

 and the corresponding rope at the other end taken on shore, when 

 both ropes are hauled on and gradually brought together and the net 

 dragged on shore with anything it may have caught in it. In the 

 other way the ropes are dispensed with, the net being shot round a 

 shoal of fish seen, and in the form of a horse shoe, the circle being 

 completed by a smaller net called a stop seine being shot across 

 the ends. The whole is gradually brought together, with the fish 

 enclosed, into the boat. Great quantities of mackerel, herrings, 

 pilchards, and sprats are taken in this way, besides other fish. 

 Drift nets are long rows of plain net supported by a corked line 

 but with no leads. They hang perpendicular in the water like a 

 wall, and the fish are caught by getting their heads only through the 

 meshes, their gills preventing their getting out, the size of the 

 mesh being proportionate to the sort of fish expected, whether they 



