98 BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 



THE KETTLE NET. 



This is a curious arrangement of stakes and nets, in 

 use only in certain localities along the line of coast 

 between Beachy Head and Folkestone. Its purpose is 

 especially to catch mackerel when they come tolerably 

 close to the shore, and it acts very much on the same 

 principle as that of a fishing weir, being constructed so 

 as to turn the fish in a particular direction, and to lead 

 them into an enclosure in which they are ultimately 

 captured. The kettle net is divided into two distinct 

 portions, of which one consists of a circular row of 

 stakes eleven feet high and eight feet apart, forming 

 what is called the " pound," often 200 yards in cir- 

 cumference ; this is placed so, that the outer part of 

 the circle is just beyond low- water mark at neap tide, 

 and the pound is completed by fastening to the whole 

 series of stakes a train of netting reaching from the 

 tops to the ground. Old herring-nets are generally 

 used for this purpose, as the mackerel are too large to 

 be caught in meshes of what is called herring-size. 

 The pound is, therefore, an enclosure of netting sup- 

 ported by stakes. The entrance to the pound is made 

 on the land side, and is about thirty-five feet wide. The 

 other portion of the kettle net consists of a straight 

 barrier of stakes and netting, just the same as in the 

 pound ; but it extends in a straight line from high- 

 water mark to a short distance within the entrance to 

 the pound, so as to act as a barrier to any fish attempt- 

 ing to pass between the pound and the shore. The 





