TRAWLING. 29 



the purse is reached ; it is at this point the entrance 

 to the pockets is placed, and the arrangements are 

 such, that those fish which try to escape by returning 

 along the sides of the purse, are pretty sure to get into 

 the pockets, and there, the more they try to press for- 

 wards, the more tightly they become packed. The 

 pockets are not separate parts of the net, but are made 

 by simply lacing together the upper and under parts 

 of the trawl for a length of about sixteen feet on each 

 side, in a line from the outer edge of the bag down- 

 wards and inwards to its small end and the commence- 

 ment of the purse or cod. The lower portion of the 

 main body of the net is thus separated into three 

 spaces of nearly equal breadth ; the central space is 

 that through which all the fish pass which enter the 

 purse ; it allows a free passage in that direction, but 

 a valve or curtain of netting, called the " flapper," 

 prevents their return. On each side of, and beyond, 

 the flapper, however, is the entrance to a pocket ; and 

 the fish, being unable to return through the passage 

 closed by the flapper, make their way into the pockets 

 and press on, till at last the gradual narrowing of the 

 space stops their further progress in that direction. 

 To understand clearly the facilities offered to the fish 

 to enter the pockets, it is necessary to remember, that 

 the trawl, when at work, is towed along with just 

 sufficient force to expand the net by the resistance 

 of the water. But this resistance directly acts only 

 on the interior of the body of the net between the 

 pockets, and then on the purse ; it does not at first 

 expand the pockets, but rather tends to flatten them, 



