262 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



bone harpoons, and the earliest fish-hooks were made of bone 

 or shell. The remains from the Age of Bronze include a number 

 of fish-hooks of that metal, and of these our modern devices of 

 the same nature are doubtless lineal descendants. The most ex- 

 tensive development of line-fishing in this country is exemplified 

 on the Scottish coasts, where such fishes as cod, haddock, and 

 ling are thus caught. A series of cod-lines may reach the great 

 length of eight miles, and carry 4680 hooks on attached " snoods ", 

 the favourite bait being whelks. The somewhat shorter haddock- 

 lines are mostly baited with mussels or lug-worms. 



Net- Fishing. This more wholesale method of capture has 

 the advantage of obviating the trouble and expense of bait. 

 Drift-nets afford the chief means of catching fishes which, like 

 herrings, pilchards, and mackerel, swim in large shoals at or 

 near the surface, and they are nearly always worked at night. 

 Such a net is practically a curtain, of which the upper edge is 

 floated by corks, while the lower edge is sunk by weights. If 

 by skilful manoeuvring a shoal can be induced to dash against 

 the meshwork, their heads easily pass through (the size of mesh 

 being adapted to the particular species), and the projecting gill- 

 covers prevent withdrawal. For herrings a series or "train" of 

 drift-nets may extend a distance of i J^ mile, while for mackerel 

 the length may be twice as great. Seines, which may be as much 

 as 1 200 feet in length, are hanging nets which are drawn round 

 shoals of fishes so as to enclose and secure them as in a bag. 

 After the catch is made it may be hauled on to fishing-boats 

 or drawn to shore according to circumstances. Certain other 

 smaller nets will be mentioned as occasion arises. 



Trawling. This is, of course, a variety of net-fishing, and 

 specially adapted for the wholesale capture of fishes that live 

 on or near the bottom. The " trawl " or " beam-trawl " (fig. 

 1191) is essentially a large, flat, tapering net, which is dragged 

 over the sea-floor, and may be as much as 100 feet long, with 

 a mouth 50 feet wide. The " beam " is a horizontal spar by 

 which the mouth is kept open, and which does not scrape along 

 the bottom as sometimes supposed. It would be out of place 

 here to describe all the elaborate details of construction. For 

 most purposes trawling, especially as practised by steam-vessels, 

 is rapidly superseding some of the older methods of fishing. 

 And as it not only means the capture of vast quantities of 



