72 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



ten thousand eight hundred mackerel, and the 

 next day two boats brought seven thousand 

 fish. Early in the month of February, 1834, 

 one boat's crew from Hastings cleared 100 

 by the fish caught in one night, and a large 

 quantity of very fine mackerel appeared in the 

 London market in the second week of the same 

 month. They were cried through the streets 

 of London three for a shilling, on the 14th and 

 22nd of March, 1834, and had then been plen- 

 tiful for a month. The boats engaged in fishing 

 are usually attended by other fast sailing 

 vessels, which are sent away with the fish 

 taken. From some situations these vessels sail 

 away direct for the London market ; at others, 

 they make for the nearest point from -which 

 they can obtain land-carriage for their fish. 

 From Hastings and other fishing towns on the 

 Sussex coast, the fish are brought to London 

 by vans, which travel all night.' 7 



Different modes of fishing are employed in the 

 capture of mackerel ; one mode is by means of 

 drift nets united together, which hang in the sea 

 perpendicularly about twenty feet deep, stretch- 

 ing out like a curtain for a mile or mile and a 

 half. The meshes of such nets are large enough 

 to admit the entrance of head, gills, and pectoral 

 fins, but too small to permit the rest of the body 



