116 BRITISH FISH AND FISHERIES. 



opposite the tide coming in, as indicated by the 

 arrows ; a narrow passage, or open gateway, d, 

 leads into netted chambers, into which the fish, 

 conducted by the position of the nets consti- 

 tuting the embouchure, are gradually forced, 

 and from which they cannot escape. These 

 nets catch the fish ascending with the tide, but 

 other stake-nets in the opposite direction, 

 against the ebb of the tide, intercept many fish 

 descending with it. In the centre of the stream, 

 men in boats are engaged with sweep-nets, by 

 which they surround several fish at a time. Dur- 

 ing the summer, when the fish rove along the 

 sea-shore, seeking the mouths of the rivers pre- 

 viously to commencing their autumnal ascents, 

 in order to the capture a long net is projected 

 from the shore into the sea, making a consider- 

 able bend or half-moon ; from its remote or 

 seaward extremity long cords extend obliquely 

 to another part of the shore, and by these cords 

 the net is drawn in, from time to time, inclos- 

 ing in a more and more circular sweep the fish 

 within its flexure. This mode can only be 

 used in particular localities, where the shore is 

 favourable. In some rivers, dams are partially 

 thrown across the stream, with openings lead- 

 ing into inclosed chambers or crevices ; into 

 these crevices the ascending fish enter, but are 



