TRAMMELS OR SET-NETS. 301 



and exactly opposite each other, with the small-meshed net 

 between them : and a fish, in trying to pass through the 

 first one, meets the second, which is very slack, and carries 

 a portion of it through the third net, thus producing a bag 

 or pocket beyond it. The more the fish struggles in this 

 bag the more it becomes " trammelled ; " and sometimes 

 in its efforts to become free, it carries the pocket back 

 through the adjoining large mesh, making its case still 

 more hopeless. The advantage of a walling on each side 

 of the slack net is twofold ; it obliges the fish to strike it 

 just where it can be forced through the large mesh beyond 

 it, and it makes the trammel equally effective if the fish 

 strike it on one side or the other. It is very much used at 

 Guernsey for catching the red mullet, for which that island 

 is celebrated ; and many yachting men, in these days when 

 so many people have a turn at sea-fishing on their own 

 account, carry a trammel on-board-ship for use when they 

 find a suitable locality for working it in. Professional 

 fishermen in this country, however, do not very readily take 

 to this particular kind of net. Set-nets of a more simple 

 description, but in many places called trammels, are in 

 general use for catching several kinds of fish. They are, 

 however, only single nets, anchored and buoyed in the 

 same manner as the true trammel ; but, whilst the back 

 and foot of the net are kept tight, the body of netting is set 

 rather slack, and the fish are caught in it by being meshed 

 just as in a drift-net. Herrings, hake, turbot (on some 

 parts of our eastern coast still called by the old name of 

 " bratt "), and skate among unlikely fish are thus taken ; 

 and under the name of " gill-nets," this particular kind of 

 net has for the last few years been largely used instead of 

 lines for the capture of cod by American fishermen. We 

 hear, however, that rill-nets have caused some disappoint- 



