PILCHARD. . 85 



high hills and grounds without being guilty of trespass; 

 and it also permits other persons to attend the seans or nets 

 for the purpose of landing or carrying away the fish thus 

 caught. Persons, however, who came thither out of mere 

 curiosity were subject to a penalty for their intrusion. 



There still remain many local appearances which shew that 

 the fish thus caught were not always carried away, but were 

 salted and prepared for exportation at the places where they 

 had been brought to land; but there is also evidence to 

 shew that the quantity thus caught could not in any individual 

 instance have been large, while the fishermen must have been 

 often tantalized at observing the large abundance of schools 

 which obstinately maintained a position at a somewhat greater 

 distance than in their method of proceeding they were able 

 to reach. 



It is within the extent of our information, derived from 

 aged fishermen, and reaching back to more than a hundred 

 years, that some considerable changes have taken place in the 

 times at which the larger bodies of these fish have come to 

 our coast, and which appear more unaccountable than the 

 merely capricious movements pursued in ordinary seasons, but 

 which must have considerably influenced the methods pursued 

 in the fishery, and especially on its success. Thus for upwards 

 of thirty years at the middle of the last century, the most 

 successful portion of the fishery was carried on after the 

 autumnal equinox, and consequently by drift nets, since the 

 seans could scarcely be then exposed to the risk inevitable 

 from the stormy weather, and the long and dark nights. But 

 towards the end of the same century a change took place, 

 and the principal success was from the beginning of August 

 to the end of September, when a large increase took place in 

 the number of seans, and a profitable fishery was experienced 

 by all of them. It is now again found that after a nearly 

 equal extent of time, the winter fishery along the southward 

 coast is alone or chiefly successful, and a diminution in the 

 number of seans is the necessary result. There are not at 

 this time more than a fourth part so many as were in use 

 fifty years ago; and it is certain that it was not the withdrawal 

 of the bounty alone that caused the lessening of the number. 



But when in the summer the fishery is about to begin, it 



