DRIFT-NET FISHING. 279 



which the nets are worked. They are neither fixed, towed, 

 nor hauled within any precise limit of water, but are 

 " shot " the fisherman's expression for throwing out or 

 putting a net into the water at any distance from the 

 land where there are signs of fish, and are allowed to drift 

 in any direction the tide may happen to take them, until it 

 is thought desirable to haul them in. When at work, they 

 are extended in a long single line, with their upper edge 

 supported at or near the surface by means of floats, the 

 nets hanging perpendicularly in the water, and forming, as 

 it were, a perforated wall or barrier many hundred yards 

 long and several yards deep. The shoals of fish, in their 

 endeavours to pass through this barrier of netting, force 

 their heads into the meshes, the size of the mesh used, 

 of course, depending on whether herrings, pilchards, or 

 mackerel are expected to be caught, and being such as to 

 allow the head and gill-covers to enter, but not to permit 

 the thicker body of the fish to pass through. When the 

 fish has found its way through the net beyond the gill- 

 covers, it may generally be looked upon as effectually 

 meshed. There is then indeed very little chance of its 

 escape, for the mesh is only large enough for a fish of an 

 average size of its kind to push its way so far when the 

 gill-covers are pressed close to the neck ; but it is necessary 

 for them to open again that the fish may breathe, that is, 

 that the water which enters the mouth may, with the air it 

 contains, pass over the gills, and after purifying the blood 

 within them, just as the air we take into our lungs purifies 

 the blood they contain, escape through the gill opening on 

 each side of the head. This process must be familiar to 

 anyone who has watched a living fish in an aquarium. 

 While this is taking place, and the fish is at the same time 

 struggling to pass through the net, the mesh slips forward 



