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upon the net, and then a very exciting, and on moonlight 

 nights a very beautiful scene sets in. Millions of silvery 

 little fish are sputtering and clattering on the surface of the 

 water in the tuck-net. Half a dozen men are in the midst 

 of them up to their knees in fish, handing them into the 

 boats in baskets, and working for dear life. Everybody 

 is giving orders at the top of his voice about everything, 

 and nobody is obeying anybody, and so the work goes 

 on until the coming tide stops them, and causes them to 

 run the risk of the escape of the fish before the next low 

 water. Most of the fish thus caught are salted for 

 export, but many find their way through the locality of 

 their capture in the cowels or baskets exhibited on our 

 Cornwall stall, and which are worn in the picturesque 

 way shown in the lithograph also exhibited there. A 

 strong woman can carry i cwt. of fish in the way shown, 

 and for miles. 



But the waving of a huer's bushes has a very curious 

 effect on any fishing village which happens to get sight, or 

 news of it. To the stranger it would appear that the whole 

 population of the place had suddenly gone lunatic. Every 

 available man, woman and child turns out and rushes 

 violently down the steep cliff to the sea shouting " heva ! 

 heva ! " Whence the word is derived, we do not know ; but 

 it is the signal that shoaling fish are in sight, and that the 

 population must turn out to be ready to receive them, for 

 all this fish-work requires to be done with the utmost 

 dispatch. 



A very curious thing, and entirely inexplicable, about 

 these shoaling pilchards, is that at uncertain periods they 

 shift their course for years together. For instance, fifty 

 years ago, St. Ives on our North coast had almost a 

 monopoly of the shoaling pilchard ; now she divides with 



