THE MACKEREL. 73 



to pass. This long series of nets is let down in 

 the evening, and usually not drawn up till the 

 morning ; the shoals roving in darkness through 

 the water strike the meshes of fine twine, and 

 as the fishes rush impetuously along, multitudes 

 become firmly fixed, and are secured when the 

 nets are hauled up by means of a capstan on 

 deck. On the coast of Cornwall, a long deep 

 net, with small meshes, managed by two boats, 

 is brought round so as to inclose the shoal, or 

 at least a large portion of it, and when the circle 

 is made, the men draw it together at the top 

 and bottom, and the fish thus confined are 

 either hauled on deck, or, where the circum- 

 stances will admit, drawn up on the beach. 



Mackerel bite freely at a bait, and numbers 

 are taken by the hook ; a slip of fish and a bit of 

 red leather, or of red cloth, are among the baits 

 commonly used ; the line is sunk by means of 

 a plummet, with a portion free beyond the 

 plummet, at the end of which is the hook ; the 

 boat is carried forwards by the breeze, the 

 plummet hanging at a proper distance above 

 the bottom of the water keeps the line steady, 

 but trails after it the baited hook, which the fish 

 dart at to seize ; in this manner, if the breeze be 

 smart, and the weather gloomy, two men will 

 take from five or six hundred to a thousand 

 c2 



