294 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



are not required here, as the upright stick keeps the mouth 

 of the net open. The net itself is about twelve feet long 

 and tapers rapidly to the cod-end. The meshes are 

 necessarily very small in order to retain the shrimps, and 

 are made of three sizes, ranging from half an inch square 

 at the mouth of the net to a quarter of an inch at the small 

 end. A simple but ingenious plan is adopted to prevent 

 stones and small rubbish entering the net whilst it is being 

 towed over the ground, and at the same time not to 

 interfere with the capture of the shrimps. It is founded on 

 the observed habit of these animals to rise a few inches 

 from the ground when they are disturbed, and consists in 

 leaving an open space of two or three inches between the 

 lower edge of the mouth of the net and the beam or 

 scraper to which it is fastened. Through this opening, 

 sand, seaweed, and such small rubbish as is likely to be 

 met with on the shrimping ground, easily pass, whilst the 

 shrimps spring above the gap, and find their way into the 

 net. A three-span bridle from the two ends of the lower 

 beam or scraper and the top of the central stick is made 

 fast to the warp by which this shrimp-net is towed. The 

 shrimping boats are small-decked smacks about thirty-two 

 feet over all ; they carry a good deal of lofty sail, and are 

 no doubt familiar to all who are in the habit of visiting the 

 mouth of the Thames, where, in the early part of the 

 summer especially, a large fleet of shrimpers may generally 

 be observed at work. Two and sometimes three of these 

 nets are used by each boat, and they are kept down from a 

 quarter of an hour to an hour at a time, depending on the 

 wind and the extent of ground they have been over. The 

 shrimps are sifted as soon as caught, and those of the size 

 permitted to be landed under the regulations of the Thames 

 Conservancy are at once put into the boat's well to be kept 



