282 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



used on some parts of the Irish coast. Cotton nets are 

 now in general use ; they are finer in the line and more 

 flexible than those made of hemp, and they are generally 

 believed to be more effective in meshing the fish. Very 

 beautiful and ingenious machinery is employed in making 

 these nets, as may be seen in the Exhibition, and large 

 supplies for some years past have been turned out from 

 the factories at Bridport, Musselburgh, and other towns. 

 When new, cotton nets are first saturated with linseed oil, 

 then squeezed through a machine, afterwards dried, which 

 takes some days, and finally they are put into a vat, and 

 hot bark liquor poured upon them ; in this they remain 

 for two or three days. The bark liquor is a preparation 

 in which catechu, an Indian gum possessing great tanning 

 properties, is an important ingredient, it having practically 

 superseded the oak bark formerly used for tanning nets. 

 In some cases, however, the nets are dressed with coal tar 

 instead of being barked. The herring-nets come from the 

 factory in "pieces " 60 yards long and 9 or 10 yards deep, 

 the depth of the net containing 200 meshes ; and it is the 

 custom of the fishermen when speaking of the size of a net, 

 to say that it is so many yards long and so many meshes 

 deep. Each "piece" is divided into two nets 30 yards 

 long. When a net is prepared for use, it is " mounted " or 

 fastened along one edge of its length to a small line only 

 1 8 or 20 yards long, that length of line being appropriated 

 to the 30 yards of net, so that the " lint," or netting, is set 

 slack and gives way a little when the fish strike it ; and 

 from its flexibility the net meshes the fish better than 

 would be the case if it were fully stretched. The ends of 

 the net are called the "heads," the roped edge of the 

 length the " back," as that is uppermost when the net is in 

 the water, and the lower edge the " foot " or " sole.* 1 The 



