MOORED HERRING-NETS. 249 



tively small value in the English market. Kinsale in Ireland 

 has become an important station for this fishery. 



The chief portion of our drift-boats are fitted with their 

 masts to lower, in common with those of our French and 

 Dutch neighbours, which eases much of the strain on both 

 boat and net when riding in a gale of wind. 



Moored Herring-Nets. An ordinary drift-net for Herrings 

 is, in sheltered bays or deep lochs of the coast, moored by an 

 anchor or heavy stone at each end, and left for the night to 

 itself. This is a common practice in the Scotch lochs, and is 

 likewise followed in Babbacome Bay, Torbay, and Plymouth 

 Sound, as well as Cawsand Bay, on the south coast of Devon, 

 and elsewhere. Babbacombe Bay is the chief rendezvous of 

 the Herrings on the south coast of Devon (although they are 

 not confined to this neighbourhood), and consequently boats 

 assemble there from October to January from the different 

 ports and villages to the east and west, as the southerly 

 trending of the land affords considerable shelter from the 

 prevailing south-west winds. Pollack are also taken in moored 

 nets, placed in deep water. 



Peter-Nets are straight nets attached to the shore by one 

 end, the other end extended seaward by an anchor. They are 

 of the same depth as the water, and have corks on the head-line, 

 and stone or lead sinkers on the foot. Pollack, Salmon-Peel, 

 and Red Mullet are caught in them. 



Drum-Net. This net is very useful in preserving fish alive, 

 particularly in hot weather. It is a net bag made of fine twine 

 with a small mesh, distended by three cane hoops about twenty 

 inches in diameter and eight inches apart. The bottom is 

 drawn up flat, and a piece of sheet lead, of half a pound 

 weight, stitched on to it. The top is much smaller, and three 

 seven-inch hoops form a neck through which the fish are passed 

 into the net as caught. A loop of strong line is fixed across the 

 upper small hoop to suspend it by. When in use it is hung in 

 the water with the neck above the surface. 



Tanning Nets. The following method is both simple and 

 convenient: 



For a net of twenty-four pounds' weight previously un- 



