298 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



the tide has nearly done, the sails being all taken down, 

 and only one man left on deck as a watch to see when it is 

 getting slack-water and to keep a general look-out. It will 

 be understood from what has been said that while the vessel, 

 and the net straining away under her, are thus anchored, 

 the shoals of sprats are being brought with the tide to the 

 mouth of the great funnel-shaped net, and, of course, 

 myriads of them are carried into it, and by the constant 

 pressure of the water are ultimately driven to its farthest 

 end, from which there is no chance of their getting out 

 until the net is taken up. As soon as the tide is becoming 

 slack, shortly before turning, all hands prepare to haul up 

 the net. The first thing to be done is to close the mouth 

 of the net so as to prevent the possibility of any of the fish 

 escaping. This is effected by means of a chain fastened to 

 the middle of the lower balk at the foot of the square 

 mouth, and leading through an iron loop at the middle of 

 the upper balk upwards to a small davit at the bow of the 

 vessel. By heaving in this chain the two balks are brought 

 close together, and ultimately hoisted above the surface of 

 the water under the vessel's bowsprit, the net with all the 

 contained fish streaming away alongside and astern of the 

 vessel. The net is then hauled on board by a long- 

 handled iron hook, and overhauled till the cod or end of it 

 is reached. This is then hoisted in by means of a rope 

 which has been fastened to the end of the net all the time 

 it has been in the water, and by which the extremity of 

 the net has been kept closed. This rope having been cast 

 off and the end of the net consequently opened, the sprats 

 are turned out and measured into the vessel's hold, in 

 quantities of about three bushels at a time, the master 

 superintending the work, and using a kind of wooden hook, 

 called a " mingle," to hold the net in such a manner that 



