336 FISHES AND FISHING 



mesh themselves, and, to prove efficient, should be set 

 so as to fish by night. 



A well-known firm has kindly supplied the following 

 quotation, which will serve as a guide to cost : 



" Splash-net, 70 meshes deep i.e., 8 to 9 feet deep 2.\ inch 

 mesh, 36/9 ply-cotton, barked and mounted on two lines 

 on top and bottom, corked and leaded ready for fishing, 

 yd. per yard." 



A train of drift nets, such as that next mentioned, 

 could be moored so as to fish as a gill net, if a properly 

 leaded ground line were fastened along its foot ; but 

 a drift net is ordinarily rather deep for use as a gill net, 

 and is not always mounted along the foot. 



The pollen fishers of Lough Neagh use gill nets 

 (locally termed " trammels ") made of exceedingly 

 light but strong linen thread ; these nets are made at 

 Lisburne, and possess the advantage over either hemp 

 or cotton nets of stowing into much smaller space and 

 wearing better. In cases where economy of room is 

 important, it might be well worth while to have nets 

 made of linen thread. 



Drift Nets (Fig. 214) are similar in their operations to 

 gill nets, but are constructed to fish at or near the surface ; 

 they are not moored, but drift on the tide. For commer- 

 cial purposes a train of drift nets, often far over a mile 

 in length, is used ; these nets are fastened end to end, 

 and carry sufficient cork on the head ropes to keep them 

 upright in the water, but not necessarily to keep the 

 head rope at the surface. At frequent intervals buoys 

 of wood or canvas are fastened to the head rope, and 

 the length of the buoy lines regulates the depth at 

 which the nets fish. Drift nets may or may not be 

 mounted on a foot rope ; in shallow water, where the 

 ground is rough, the absence of such a mounting may 



