THE TRAWL. 



237 



The Trawl (fig. 71). The Trawl is a large bag-net dragged 

 along the bottom by a boat or vessel where the ground is free 

 from rocks, and captures a great variety of the best quality of 

 fish found in our seas, namely, Turbot, Soles, Plaice, Dories, 

 Red Mullet, and Whiting; also Hake, Cod, Dabs, &c., and not 

 a few large Oysters, Crabs, Scallops, &c.; to which may be 

 added numerous specimens of great interest to the marine 

 botanist and zoologist. 



I have given three engravings of trawls: the first, the net 

 itself as it appears spread out to dry on a beach or grass-field, 

 when it has the appearance of a large net-bag, its wide mouth 

 partly encircled by a stout rope termed the ground rope, 



FIG. 71. Trawl 



inasmuch as it scrapes along the ground when in use, and from 

 this acquires its name. 



In the sides of the trawl the reader will observe four darkly 

 shaded spaces, which are termed the pockets, and are formed 

 by sewing the back and belly of the net together from the sides 

 as far as the abrupt termination of the shading, thereby making 

 four inverted bags or pockets to entrap the Soles in their 

 attempts to escape, which are frequently rendered futile by this 

 arrangement, as the numbers found therein sufficiently testify. 

 Other fish are sometimes taken in these pockets, but Soles 

 predominate. Some trawls have five or six pockets, but the 

 ordinary number is two only, one on each side. 



