70 BRITISH IND USTRIES. 



how much may depend on whether or not the shoals of 

 fish approach within a certain distance of a particular 

 part of the coast favourable for seaning operations. 



The distance from the land, and the direction in 

 which the pilchards are first met with every year on 

 the Cornish coast, appear to vary within some con- 

 siderable limits ; but it is probable that few of these 

 fish are taken during the regular season farther at sea 

 than ten or twelve miles, and they are usually south 

 rather than west of the Land's End. On the south 

 coast some of the shoals make an early approach to 

 the land, and the fish are at the same time captured by 

 both drift-nets and seans. They make an early ap- 

 pearance also on the south coast of Ireland, but they 

 are not generally found at St. Ives, or along the 

 northern part of Cornwall, till October and November. 

 It is believed that the shoals which strike the Irish 

 coast afterwards go southwards, a few being occa- 

 sionally met with at the mouth of the Bristol Channel, 

 but most of them appearing first near the Cornish 

 shore, a little north of St. Ives ; if they then in their 

 course westward enter St. Ives Bay, the seans may do 

 some profitable work ; the movements of the pilchard 

 are, however, so capricious, that it is as likely as not 

 that most of the shoals may pass at some distance from 

 the land, and under these circumstances the seans find 

 very little employment, and the newspapers report 

 another unsuccessful season at St. Ives. 



There is little to be said about drift-fishing for 

 sprats ; it is only carried on about Eamsgate, Deal, 

 and Hastings, by a few men in small boats, a short 



