TUCKING PILCHARDS. 175 



as soon as possible. Step into that little boat that is 

 just going out, and you will be in time to see the tuck- 

 net east. The tuck-net fits inside the now contracted 

 seine, much as one's two hands, set scoopwise, would fit 

 inside a small wash-hand basin. At the thumbs are two 

 " hooks," or foot-ropes ; where the fingers touch is a 

 " cork-rope ; " where the wrists touch, a " brace," or rope, 

 which is to be pulled in to the "hooks" as soon as the 

 loose, baggy end of the tuck has s-unk under the fish. A 

 boat lies close by the two " hooks," and the fish are kept 

 away until .the bag is formed beneath them, by the 

 simple process of bobbing up and down a big " boulder- 

 stone," Then the bag is lifted, and all its treasures are 

 emptied out into the boats, the utmost care being taken not 

 to break the fish, which, unless quite sound, are unfit for 

 bulking. A tuck-net will hold as many as seven hundred 

 hogsheads ; but for this reason the men do not care about 

 lifting more than two hundred at once preferring, if the 

 take be large, to tuck twice or thrice before they empty 

 the seine. Sometimes they " miss tuck" that is, the 

 fish sink, or else escape between the hooks; in which 

 case they must try again, hoping the weather will keep 

 calm. Now and then, it is said, a " school " has been 

 kept in seine till salt for bulking has come over from 

 France; but occasionally a close-packed "school" will 

 nearly all get crowded to death if they are kept in too 

 long. 



When the boats begin loading, the spectacle is as at- 

 tractive as it is curious. The silvery mass flashes brightly 

 in the sunshine, and heaves and struggles " as if it were 

 one being, instead of myriads of collective lives." We 

 have often gazed upon it with interest, and felt something 



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