9 6 BRITISH IND USTEIES. 



ing away by the side and astern of the vessel. The 

 net is then hauled on board by a long-handled iron 

 hook, and overhauled till the " cod " or end of it is 

 reached. This is then hoisted in by help of a rope, 

 which, after closing the end of the net, leads up to the 

 vessel. This rope, or " pinion," having been cast off, 

 the fish are measured into the vessel's hold in quan- 

 tities of about three bushels at a time, the master 

 superintending the work, and using a kind of wooden 

 hook, called a "mingle," to hold the net in such a 

 manner, that only a certain quantity of fish shall pass 

 out at once. In this way all the fish in the long tube 

 of netting, of which the free end of the stow-net is 

 composed, are worked through the end of the cod or 

 dock-hose into the vessel's hold. " Stow-boating," as 

 this mode of fishing is usually called, is carried on 

 both by day and night during the season. When the 

 shoals of fish are of considerable size, and the captures 

 are proportionately large, it is found that few fish 

 besides sprats are taken ; but at other times young 

 herrings and other small fish are frequently mixed 

 with them. The sprats are usually sold out of the 

 fishing boats to persons who make it their business to 

 purchase, in order to sell again to the wholesale dealers 

 at Billingsgate, who resell them to the fishmongers, so 

 that the price at which sprats are sold in the shops, 

 low as it may appear, is far above what is paid to the 

 persons who catch them. In fact, the takes are some- 

 times so enormous from a large number of fishing 

 boats, that there is often a difficulty in getting rid of 



