THE DREDGE. 241 



piece of galvanised chain along the ground-rope. These trawls 

 have come into favour amongst yachtsmen on account of a 

 beam not being required, which is a very ugly thing on board 

 a yacht. A correspondent from the eastern counties speaks 

 very highly of the otter-trawl, and avers that he takes much 

 more fish than when he used the beam. The regular beam- 

 trawl, however, is too firmly established ever to be superseded 

 amongst fishermen. 



My correspondent's words are as follows : ' The use of 

 the otter-trawl is very simple ; there is only one thing to be 

 cautious about, which is that you must weight the foot-rope 

 exactly right, neither too heavy nor too light ; if it is too heavy 

 you get such a quantity of mud, weed, and stones that you 

 require powerful tackle besides all hands to get the net on 

 board, but you at the same time catch plenty of fish. If you 

 do not weight it sufficiently your net does not drag the bottom 

 nor open properly, so you catch no fish, as the cork head-rope 

 and the leaded foot-rope come together. I found my net, after 

 altering the leading twice, go quite right, and catch double the 

 quantity of fish that the professional trawlers here catch with 

 the beam-trawl. My head-rope is forty-two feet long, foot-rope 

 the same ; at every half fathom of foot-rope I wrap a piece of 

 sheet-lead round once and a half ; when all is on, I serve the 

 whole foot-rope over with one strand of an old Manilla hawser, 

 which makes it very thick and prevents it cutting into the mud 

 too much ; I think if I did not it would pick up a fourpenny 

 bit.' 



The Dredge is a very important implement, the amount of 

 money earned by its use being very great. It may be briefly 

 described as a heavy scraper with a net at its back, that part 

 rubbing on the ground being formed of iron wire-rings con- 

 nected together, and of such a size that gravel and small shells 

 will escape, whilst Oysters and larger objects are retained. The 

 dredges vary in number according to the craft or the nature of 

 the ground ; about 30 inches is the average width. For grounds 

 which have been little dredged, or new and unbroken grounds, 

 a very heavy kind are used with teeth ; these are called break - 

 ing-up dredges, as they will break through a bank of Oysters 



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