DRIFT-NET FISHING. 61 



fish are all shaken out of the nets, they are sprinkled 

 with salt and then stowed away in their proper com- 

 partments in the hold of the vessel. When the night's 

 fishing is over, the mast is got upright again, the sails 

 are set, and the vessel either returns to port, or, if the 

 catch of fish has been small, shifts to a fresh berth for 

 the next night's work. 



Drift nets for mackerel are made and worked on 

 precisely the same principle ; but as these fish generally 

 keep near the top of the water, the nets are well 

 corked so as to make them float quite at the surface, 

 and there is no occasion for such a depth of netting as 

 is used when fishing for herrings. A " fleet or train " 

 of mackerel nets, as used by the Yarmouth boats, is, 

 however, of very great length, and is made up of 

 eleven or twelve score of nets, extending to as much 

 as 2^ miles, or double that of a herring fleet. The 

 meshes are of course larger than those in a herring 

 net, there being usually twenty-two or twenty-three to 

 the yard. Cotton is also being adopted for mackerel 

 nets, whenever the old twine ones become unfit for 

 use ; but the change is only being made gradually, as 

 the outlay necessary for a complete fleet of mackerel 

 nets is very large. 



Pilchard drift-nets, principally used on the coast of 

 Cornwall, are about the size of those used for herrings, 

 with a slightly smaller mesh. Shrunk herring-nets 

 are frequently employed in the pilchard fishery, when 

 the meshes have become too small for their original 

 purpose. 



The circumstances which guide the drift fishermen 



