THE SEINE OR SEAN. 287 



extending to as much as two miles and a half in length. 

 The meshes are of course larger than those of a herring 

 net, there being usually twenty-two or twenty-three meshes 

 to the yard. Pilchard drift-nets, principally used on the 

 coast of Cornwall for the pilchard is essentially a Cornish 

 fish in this country are about the size of those used for 

 herrings, but with a slightly smaller mesh ; in fact, shrunk 

 herring nets are frequently used in the pilchard fishery 

 when the meshes have become too small for their original 

 purpose. 



Drift-nets are occasionally used in deep water estuaries 

 for the purpose of catching salmon, but practically they are 

 employed only in the open sea ; and a very large proportion 

 of the enormous numbers of herrings, mackerel, and 

 pilchards, which are annually caught around our coasts, are 

 taken by mea ns of these nets. 



THE SEINE OR SEAN. 



The sweep-net, commonly known in this country as the 

 seine or scan, is one of the oldest implements of fishing of 

 which we have any record, for there is evidence of the seine 

 or draw-net having been in use by some nations long 

 before the Christian era ; and in the New Testament we 

 read of fishing having been carried on by some of the men 

 who afterwards became Apostles, in a manner which agrees 

 entirely with our present mode of working the seine. It 

 was well known to the Greeks and Romans, and in this 

 country its history in Cornwall dates back so far that it is 

 believed to have been introduced by the Phoenicians, who 

 were accustomed to use this net, and who at a very remote 

 period traded for tin and other things to that part of our 

 country which is now known as Cornwall. Seines are 



