ORE A T BRIT A IN. g i 



avoid the net suspended for their capture. In darker 

 weather, however, the mackerel force their heads through 

 the meshes beyond their gill-openings, which precludes 

 their being again retracted. The modes of capture must 

 vary with local circumstances, but generally during the 

 spring and autumn drift-nets only are employed, whereas 

 in the summer, as towards the end of May in Cornwall, 

 these fishes come nearer inland and seines are likewise 

 used. The two may be also in operation at the same time ; 

 thus in the first week of July, 1880, both drift and seine 

 fishermen were making large captures off the Cornish 

 coast. At this period a man termed a huer is appointed to 

 keep a look-out for the appearance of the shoals of these 

 fishes, on perceiving which he signals to the fishermen, 

 who at once depart in the direction of the anticipated 

 captures. Mr. R. Couch remarked in the ' Zoologist ' that 

 some of the fishermen believe " that if from any cause the 

 eastward migrations pass up mid-channel, the spring fish 

 first appear on the eastern fishing grounds about Brighton, 

 and spawn before they get so far west as the Cornish or 

 Devonshire coasts ; hence the eastern fishery is profitable, 

 while the western is a failure. If, on the contrary, they 

 pass up at short distances from the shore, the eastern 

 fishery is a failure and their boats come westwards to take 

 the fish " (p. 1410). The failure of the fishery, therefore, 

 frequently depends upon the fishermen looking for the fish 

 in a wrong direction, and thus they pass unnoticed. They 

 do not rise to the surface during spring and autumn as 

 they do in summer, so their presence has to be detected 

 by nets and fishing ; sometimes there are few near shore 

 while they are abundant in the deep water. In September 

 and October mackerel mostly retire to deeper waters, or 

 separate into small shoals, rendering this mode of fishing 



