DRIFT-NET FISHING. 51 



the fish become meshed in their attempts to pass 

 through. 



It is found that certain conditions are favourable for 

 drift-net fishing. It will be readily understood that 

 the more indistinct the net is in the water, the more 

 likely the fish are to swim against it and to become 

 meshed. The night is therefore, with extremely rare 

 exceptions, the time chosen for drift fishing ; and it is 

 noticed that just after sunset and just before sunrise, 

 when the change is taking place from light to dark- 

 ness, or the reverse, herrings especially are most likely 

 to " strike " the net, as it is called. This is a point in 

 connection with the habits of the herring which is 

 little understood. A ripple on the surface of the 

 water is also a favourable condition ; and this is easily 

 explained ; for if the surface of the sea be at all 

 broken, such light as falls upon it is reflected by every 

 little wave, and therefore does not penetrate to the 

 nets so as to make them visible. Some very interest- 

 ing observations have also been made on the Scotch 

 coast, with respect to the temperature of the sea during 

 the herring season, and its possible relation to a suc- 

 cessful fishery. The late Marquis of Tweeddale, who 

 was President of the Meteorological Society of Scot- 

 land, provided a number of deep-sea thermometers to 

 be used by the fishery officers and the fishermen, for 

 the purpose of testing the temperature of the sea at 

 different periods of the fishery. The results for the 

 years 1874 and 1875 only have as yet been made public, 

 and the Committee of the Society state that the con- 

 clusions arrived at must therefore only be considered 



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