286 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



nets are shot in the direction in which the wind is blowing ; 

 for the vessel being to leeward of the line of nets, and of 

 course offering more resistance to the wind than they do, 

 drifts more rapidly, and consequently pulls upon the warp 

 and the nets fastened to it, and keeps them comparatively 

 straight. This being the case a large number of fishing 

 boats are enabled to work at short distances from one 

 another, their nets being in nearly parallel lines. There 

 is no advantage, however, in the vessel drifting with the 

 wind so fast as to drag the train of nets through the water ; 

 on the contrary, so long as the line of nets is kept tolerably 

 straight, that is all that is wanted ; and when there is a 

 good deal of wind so as to blow the vessel away, more 

 swing-rope is allowed, the " spring " of the warp easing the 

 strain on the nets. 



After the nets have been in the water a few hours, they 

 are hauled in again, and this operation is performed in the 

 same systematic manner as was mentioned in connection with 

 shooting the nets. The men all have their regular stations, 

 and a certain number of them work at the capstan by which 

 the warp and with it the nets are hauled on board. As 

 soon as the fish are all shaken out of the nets they are 

 sprinkled with salt, and then stowed away in proper com- 

 partments of the hold of the vessel. The night's fishing 

 being over, the mast is got upright again, the sails are 

 set, and the vessel either returns to port with her fish, 

 or moves to another likely place for the next night's 

 fishing. 



Drift-nets for mackerel are made and worked on pre- 

 cisely the same principle ; but as these fish generally keep 

 near the top of the water, the nets are well corked so as to 

 make them float quite at the surface. They are not so 

 deep as herring nets, but the train is very much longer, 



