ENGLISH FISHERIES. 115 



carry on the various drift fisheries for mackerel, 

 herrings, and pilchards, which form such an essen- 

 tial part of the occupation of the Cornish fishermen. 

 Three different classes of boats are used, but they are 

 all built in the same style and rigged with large fore 

 and mizen lugsails. The largest boats are used for the 

 mackerel fishing, and range from thirty to forty feet ? 

 and occasionally more, on the keel, with from eleven to 

 thirteen feet beam. The smaller boats are employed in 

 the herring or pilchard fishing, but all are either 

 entirely decked or have a large hatchway, which can 

 be covered over when desirable. These luggers are 

 all built with a sharp stern, and the mizen-mast is 

 stepped well forward so as to allow free movement of 

 the tiller behind it. The cost of the boats ranges 

 according to size, from 120Z. to as much as 600Z. The 

 mackerel fishery on the Cornish coast is a very im- 

 portant one ; it begins about February, sometimes a 

 little earlier, at some distance from the land, and con- 

 tinues till June. During the season, the quantity of 

 fish sent away by railway from Penzance to the 

 London and other markets amounts to some thou- 

 sands of tons. This fishery is entirely by drift nets 

 during the greater part of the season; but when 

 towards the end of it the mackerel come close in- 

 shore, seans are used whenever practicable. 



A new industry in connection with the pilchard 

 fishery has within the last few years been established 

 at Newlyn, in Mount's Bay, and at Mevagissey, farther 

 to the eastward. This is the manufacture of " sar- 

 dines," in precisely the same manner as has long been 



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