26 APPARATUS. 



form of net much used to search for prawns in the 

 ponds which are found on the mud flats is shown 

 on Plate VI, No. 1 ; it is made with a stout piece 

 of iron rod bent into the shape of the letter D, 

 with the straight side of the letter as the front, to 

 travel over the ground ; from the centre of the 

 bow a point sticks out, so as to be driven into the 

 handle with which it is guided, or it may be 

 formed into a socket and the pole inserted, the 

 net being stretched on the wire so as to hang in a 

 kind of bag terminating in the usual purse. A 

 round net made in the same way is used to catch 

 prawns which are left by the tide in holes amongst 

 the rocks at the mouth of the Thames, particularly 

 at Gravesend, and in some other places a kind of 

 trawl net is much used for capturing the gray 

 and the red shrimp, tons of which are caught in a 

 season for the London Market. 



Another kind of net is sometimes used for the 

 purpose of closing a narrow part of an estuary, so 

 as to retain any shoals of fish which may be in 

 the upper waters at the time, the gray mullet 

 being the fish usually sought after in this kind of 

 fishing. The proceeding is as follows. Having 

 decided on the spot, a long line of poles is placed 



