THE DRIFT-NET FISHING. 179 



toning Teuton. There is great fun and no fighting, 

 though the fishermen occasionally turn sulky, and stand 

 out resolutely for a certain price. Soon all the country 

 round will smack of St. Ives. The " crystal clear " where 

 you were wont to water your horse is surrounded by 

 half-a-dozen women pulling off the pilchards' heads, and 

 then dexterously scooping out the insides with their fingers. 

 " I wish," says our authority, " they would understand 

 that, put at once ' to pile,' the fish offal makes the best of 

 manures quite as good as the refuse salt which is so 

 largely used but that left to lie about, it loses its good- 

 ness, besides decidedly being ' matter in the wrong place.' 

 It is a pretty sight," he adds, " to see a company of drift- 

 boats ranked like a miniature fleet in order of battle. A 

 line of nets, each some twenty fathoms long, will stretch 

 three-quarters of a mile. The chief danger to the gear 

 is from the keels of passing vessels, which are therefore 

 signalled off by burning a wisp of straw. For drifting, 

 the sea must not be too clear; sometimes, if you look 

 down, you can see the net through all its seven fathoms of 

 depth, gleaming like a lattice-work of fire. At such 

 times the fish are pretty sure to swerve aside. Two hogs- 

 heads per boat is a fair take, but a boat has sometimes 

 taken up twenty hogsheads at one haul. The drifters 

 always take their lines out with them, and find plenty of 

 work in capturing the hake, and conger, and pollack, 

 which are preying on the ' school,' even gnawing off the 

 fish caught in the drift-meshes. Dog-fish, too, good for 

 the lobster-pots, are sometimes cauglit in enormous num- 

 bers : they are so bold that you can catch them with the 

 hand as they run at the bait ; but beware of the terrible 

 hook with which their fins are armed." 



