132 BRITISH IND USTRIES. 



mals have of rising a few inches from the ground when 

 they are disturbed, and consists in leaving a space of 

 two or three inches between the lower edge of the 

 mouth of the net, and the beam to which it is fastened 

 at the two ends and the centre. Through this narrow 

 opening, sand, seaweed, and such small rubbish as is 

 likely to be met with on the shrimping ground, easily 

 pass, whilst the shrimps spring above the gap and find 

 their way into the net. 



The shrimping boats are small-decked smacks about 

 thirty- two feet over all ; they carry a good deal of 

 lofty sail, but for the sake of convenience have no 

 main boom. The best season is during the early part 

 of the summer ; the shrimping is worked, however, by 

 some of the boats throughout the year. Two or three 

 of these nets are used by each boat, and are kept down 

 from a quarter of an hour to an hour at a time, depend- 

 ing on the wind and the extent of ground they have 

 been over. The shrimps are sifted as soon as caught, 

 and those of the size permitted to be landed under 

 the regulations of the Thames Conservancy are at 

 once put into the boat's well to be kept alive till 

 they are taken on shore in the afternoon. They 

 are then boiled, and sent off by train in time for 

 the London market the next morning. As many as 

 2000 gallons of shrimps are sometimes sent from 

 Leigh in one day. 



Some small trawlers work at the mouth of the 

 Thames for flat fish and prawns, or "red shrimps," 

 using the ordinary form of beam-trawl, with beams 

 sixteen or eighteen feet long. Besides these fish, 



