280 BRITISH FISHERIES 



trawling, is a most destructive method of fishing, 

 so far as young fishes are concerned. Various 

 kinds of gear are used, the commonest being the 

 shrimp trawl. This apparatus has the same general 

 form as the large beam-trawl, but it is smaller, the 

 beam being about 25 feet long, and its meshes are 

 usually about half an inch square. It is dragged 

 from a sailing boat, and is " shot " and hauled in 

 the same way as the fish trawl. There are various 

 modifications in common use. The " shank " net 

 or " bow-net " is a trawl in which the mouth is 

 formed by a rectangular frame of wood, 10 or 

 more feet long, and about a foot or more high. 

 One edge of this frame drags on the ground, instead 

 of the foot-rope in the proper trawl. Sometimes, 

 as in the Thames estuary, the upper and lower 

 bars of the frame are supported by a central vertical 

 bar, and sometimes a rope or a second bar of wood 

 is stretched a few inches above the bar which 

 drags on the ground, and the lower margin of the 

 mouth of the net is attached to this upper bar or 

 rope. The object of this latter contrivance is to 

 minimise the quantity of fishes captured. When 

 the frame encounters a shrimp, the latter jumps, 

 clearing the top bar or rope, and so entering the 

 net. The fish, on the other hand, often swims 

 through the space below the net, and so escapes 

 capture. 1 On some parts of the coast, the " bow- 



1 See Holdsworth, Deep-sea Fishing and Fishing Boats, London, 

 1870, for an account, with figures, of these nets. 



