288 APPARA TUS FOR FISHING. 



worked on various parts of our coasts, and in rivers and 

 other inland waters ; in fact, they may be used almost 

 everywhere if there is a tolerably smooth bottom, and 

 sufficient room to cast out the net in a sweep or semicircle, 

 or it may be used at some little distance from the shore as 

 a circle-net. For ordinary sea fishing seines may be 

 divided into three classes, namely, the circle-net or seine, 

 the tuck-seine, and the ground-seine. The two first are 

 especially used in the Cornish pilchard fishery, and as that 

 is of considerable importance, we will give some account of 

 the nets employed in it. . We may first mention, however, 

 that all these nets are used for surrounding or encircling 

 the fish. They consist of a long train of netting varying 

 considerably in dimensions, but are always of greater depth 

 at the middle or " bunt " than at the ends, which are called 

 the " wings " or " sleeves," and they are shot in a circle if 

 the net is to be worked entirely from a boat, or in a semi- 

 circle if it is to be hauled on shore. The back or upper 

 edge of the net is buoyed up by corks to keep it at the 

 surface, a point of great importance, as the net is princi- 

 pally used for catching surface-swimming fishes, such as 

 mackerel, herrings, and pilchards ; and the foot is weighted 

 with lead to keep that part of it down, so that it may hang 

 perpendicularly in the water. At St. Ives and a few 

 other places on the Cornish coast pilchard-seining is 

 carried on more or less every year, depending on whether 

 the fish come into certain bays which, for many years past, 

 have been so often visited by the shoals of fish that it has 

 been worth while to keep a number of seines there in 

 readiness for instant work when the fish make their appear- 

 ance. Two, or sometimes three nets are employed there 

 for enclosing a shoal of fish, or as much of it as can be 

 managed at the time. The first or principal net, there 



