124 BRITISH IND US TRIES. 



any appreciable extent with the success of the line 

 fishermen working in the same locality. 



I need only add further about the fisheries from 

 Brixham and other places in Torbay, that mackerel, 

 herrings, a few pilchards, and plenty of sprats, are 

 taken every year either by drift-nets or seans, the latter 

 nets being especially used, and the sprats being caught 

 by them alone. 



From Torbay for a long stretch of coast as far as 

 Sussex, the fisheries are mostly of the ordinary inshore 

 character, consisting in a great measure of lining and 

 seaning, the latter fishery being especially worked 

 along that extensive line of shore terminating to the 

 eastward in Portland, and commonly known as the 

 Chesil Bank. The seans are here used for catching 

 mackerel, and are of large size, being usually 150 

 fathoms long and ten fathoms in their greatest depth. 

 They are used as ground seans, and are hauled up on 

 the beach. From April to October is the general 

 season for this fishery. We may here mention that 

 pilchards are rarely caught on the English side of the 

 Channel eastward of Portland, although they are said 

 to be found much farther up Channel on the French 

 side. We occasionally hear of pilchards as far east as 

 the Thames, but they are not numerous even on all 

 parts of the Devonshire coast. We must go to Corn- 

 wall or to the south of Ireland to see them in abun- 

 dance, and to the Cornish coast to find out their real 

 importance. 



In the Solent the only novelty in the fisheries is the 

 somewhat extensive use of the stow-net, described at 



