3 2o APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



the trap terminates in a much narrower opening projecting 

 into the interior. It is what is commonly understood as a 

 mouse-trap entrance. The shape of the trap varies on 

 different parts of our coasts, but the peculiar form of 

 entrance is adopted not only by our own fishermen 

 generally, but by those who are engaged in the same kind 

 of fishing in other parts of the world, and in very many 

 cases it is applied to nets for true fish of different sorts 

 as well as to the ordinary kinds of Crustacea. In the 

 west of England the form of trap in universal use is the 

 flattened hemispherical contrivance made of basket-work, 

 commonly known as a " pot." The mouse-trap entrance to 

 this is at the top, and the bottom is weighted with stones in- 

 side to ensure the pot falling in the right position when it is 

 thrown overboard. The crabs and lobsters are attracted 

 by the smell of the bait usually some kind offish and crawl 

 down the funnel-shaped entrance at the top, but having 

 once made their way through the funnel and got into the 

 pot, they seem unable to find the inwardly projecting end 

 of the entrance tube, and so cannot escape. Several of 

 these crab-pots are worked together, all being fastened to 

 the same rope, but at some little distance apart ; and when 

 they are all sunk to the bottom, the end of the rope, 

 with plenty of slack in it to allow for the rise of tide, is 

 kept afloat by means of corks, and thus the pots can be 

 readily discovered and hauled up several hours after they 

 have been set and left by the fishermen. There is, we 

 believe, a heavy penalty incurred by any unauthorised 

 person who hauls up crab or lobster pots. This is a 

 necessary protection, as the pots must be left to take care 

 of themselves for many hours at a time. The apparatus 

 used on a very large part of our coast for catching crabs 

 and lobsters is of quite a different form and construction 



