MARKS AND HOW TO TAKE THEM. 7 



position, but instead of so doing, the boat should be rowed 

 back again a short distance, until the cross marks are a little 

 open of each other, or one of them is hidden, as the case may 

 be, taking into consideration the direction of the wind and tide, 

 and then drop the killick, or sling-stone, veering out the cable 

 until the marks are correct. A little practice will soon enable 

 anyone accustomed to sea- boating to attain the necessary pre- 

 cision. In order to bring up conveniently, your cable should 

 certainly be half as long again as the depth of the water where 

 you purpose to fish, that you may have sufficient scope to veer 

 and haul upon ; but in bringing up at a place which requires 

 great precision, veer as little as will suffice to hold, as you will 

 not then swing so far out of the spot when the boat sheers on 

 one side by the force of the current or flaws of wind. The 

 depth of water being marked at nineteen fathoms, use a rope 

 not less than thirty in length, as much scope is sometimes 

 required if the wind freshens ; on sand it is of course best to 

 bring up with an anchor. On a rocky bottom, a sling-stone or 

 killick should always be used in lieu of an anchor, which 

 frequently gets irrecoverably hooked in some projection or 

 crack in the rock (see fig. 57, p. 201). If the ground be of 

 a mixed character, the anchor may be ' scowed ' (see the illus- 

 tration, fig. 58, p. 202). After the boat is brought up, if 

 you find you are somewhat to the left of your position, make 

 fast your cable about two feet from the stem of the boat on the 

 port side, which will cause the boat to tend to the right ; but 

 if you are to the right of the required position, make fast the 

 cable on the right or starboard bow, which will cause her to 

 move to the left. This is termed ' putting a boat on the sheer,' 

 and in a tideway the helm may be lashed sometimes with 

 advantage, as an additional aid. Another method of taking 

 marks, but less commonly used, consists in seeing one object 

 over another at a considerable angle, such as the top of a hill 

 over a narrow dip or depression in the edge of a cliff, or the 

 top of a tower, summit of a steeple, vanes of a windmill, or 

 base of any building, seen or just hidden as the case may be ; 

 for instance, near Budleigh Salterton, Devon, is a fishing- 

 ground known as 'Two Stones/ the mark for which is the 



