236 FISHES I HAVE KNOWN 



In company with hundreds of boats, the Mary 

 Anne (whose crew consisted of the skipper, four 

 men, and a boy) sailed away to the fishing-ground, 

 a good store of rough salt in her hold, a mass of 

 nets, and plenty of " tucker," in case the herrings 

 should be slow in making their appearance, when 

 she might be out three or four days, or even a 

 week. 



When clear of the roadstead, where the bones of 

 sundry coasting vessels showed what winter gales 

 could do, the skipper lit his pipe, and was at 

 leisure to talk. "Miles of net? Yes," he said, 

 " I reckon that each boat carries from one and a 

 half to two miles of it, so that, taking Yarmouth 

 and Lowestoft together, say two thousand boats, 

 there might often be two thousand miles of 

 drift-net down at one time." z He told me 

 that the nets are no longer made of hemp, but 

 of cotton, which is less visible to the fish. 

 They are in pieces, each piece being 50 yards long 

 and from 20 feet to 30 feet deep. At one edge 

 they are fastened to a " back-rope," which holds 

 them together. To this are attached, at intervals, 



1 In the year 1904 there were landed at Yarmouth no less 

 than 40,559 lasts, or 533,378,800 herrings, sufficient to provide 

 every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom with a 

 score of herrings apiece. 



