348 DRIFT-NETS. 



depth of the nets as may be desired. At many parts of the 

 coast no weight is used on the foot-lines. 



These nets are shot at sunset and commonly remain until 

 daybreak, and the boat, being attached by a rope to the last 

 net, keeps the whole on a stretch, and the fish, either unable 

 to see the net or else rendered heedless by the obscurity, strike 

 into the meshes, which are of a size just sufficient to receive 

 the head of the fish. 



Neither Mackerel, Herrings, nor Pilchards mesh well on 

 moonlight nights, or when the water 'fires' or becomes 

 phosphorescent. 



The nets should be all in the water and the boat riding at the 

 end of the warp as soon as the sun is set or very little after, for 

 the first meshing of the fish often takes place before dark, after 

 which, should the ' brime ' or ' fire ' show itself, the fish will 

 not be likely to strike the nets again till just before dawn. 

 Hake, Conger, Cod, large Pollack, and Coal-fish may all be 

 taken, as the boats drive along with the tide, by hook and line. 



Of late years our drift fishermen or drivers, as they are 

 commonly called make much more lengthy voyages than 

 formerly in quest of the fish, particularly in the Mackerel and 

 Herring fishery. 



Soon after Christmas, the boats or vessels (for they are 

 entirely decked when the hatches are on) proceed to Plymouth, 

 or even farther west, and meet the Mackerel coming up 

 Channel, and forward their takes to London by rail, returning 

 to their own part of the coast when the fish make their appear- 

 ance there. 



The western Mackerel drift-fishery yielded 3o,ooo/. in 

 1867. 



Whilst the Mount's Bay men from Cornwall also seek the 

 Yorkshire shore, to partake of the Herring fishery during the 

 summer, and the boats from various localities migrate to the 

 shores of Sutherland and Caithness for a similar purpose, 

 French vessels of sixty tons and upwards bend their course to 

 the westward of Scilly and Cape Clear, salting their captures on 

 board and returning to port when loaded, a practice not 

 followed by British boats, salted Mackerel being of compara- 



