42 THE BOAT-SHAPED RIG. 



on the south-west coast of England and elsewhere. The boat- 

 shaped sinker has probably descended to us from our Scan- 

 dinavian ancestors, for varieties of it were numerous in the 

 Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish departments of the Inter- 

 national Fisheries Exhibition of 1883, held at South Kensington. 

 This form has not been chosen without design. A boat at anchor 

 is liable to be moved to the right or left of a right line by force 

 of wind or stream of tide, and when a lead is cast overboard it 

 is always likely from this cause to get foul of the lines already 

 down, which hang under the boat at an angle when the boat 

 is thus deflected from the line of her anchor. The boat-shaped 

 lead, when cast overboard, as it strikes the water, sheers out 



FIG. 7. Boat-shaped Rig. Lead and Section with brass wire, and Cross 

 Section showing form of cavity. 



from the side of the boat from which it is thrown, and conse- 

 quently has a better chance of avoiding the lines on the other 

 side of the boat than if it descended perpendicularly. In the 

 woodcut, fig. 7, a represents the lead with a brass wire cast into 

 it projecting from both ends and answering to the bow-sprit 

 and mizen-boom of a boat, which serve to keep snood and line 

 apart in descending, as in the Dartmouth Rig, and thereby to 

 prevent fouling, A swivel is shown at b (two-thirds length) of 

 sufficient strength for offing Whiting-fishing, and a section of 

 the lead c to show its form, whilst in d we have lead, brass 



