256 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



rouud to tlie starting point and completely encircle them. If he fails in this, the wings of the seine 

 must be towed together before it can be pursed up, and in the time thus occupied there is a chauce 

 of losing the fish. A skillful skipper rarely fails in makiug the ends of the seine meet. In seining 

 on George's, or any other place where there is a strong tide, it requires much skill and judgment 

 to set the seine in such a manner that it shall not be tripped and thrown out upon the surface of 

 the water. Under these circumstances, to prevent " tripping," the seine should be so set that the 

 bunt of it will be in the direction from which the tide runs; the force of the tide then aiding the 

 act of pursing the net. 



When the skipper is near enough to satisfy the conditions of the above problems he orders the 

 men at the seine to " put out the twine." They begin their work, the oarsmen in the mean-time 

 rowing as fast as possible. The skipper steers the boat around the school in such a manner that 

 when the seine is fully out the cork-line approximates more or less closely to the form of a circle. 

 Two of the men who did not get in the seine-boat now appear on the scene of action in the dory in 

 which they have closely followed in the wake of the seine-boat until the act of setting begins. As 

 soon as the first end of the seine has been thrown overboard they row up to it and seize the buoy 

 at the end of the cork-line, which they hold until the seine-boat has made a circle, merely rowing 

 fast enough to keep the end of the seine in its place and to prevent it from swagging. When the 

 seine-boat has completed its circle, it approaches the dory, which is holding fast to the buoy. When 

 the two ends of the seine meet, the men in the dory get into the seine-boat to assist in pursing; 

 sometimes, however, the ends do not meet, and in this case they are brought together by means of 

 a line, about 20 fathoms in length, which is always taken in the dory and is fastened by the men 

 in the dory to the buoy and carried to the seine-boat.* 



The work of " pursing up " is now to be performed with all possible speed. Until this is begun 

 the seine is in the form of a hollow cylinder, and the fish, in order to escape, have only to dive down 

 and swim away under the lead-line. In pursing, the bottom of the seine is to be closed up, and in 

 this operation the saying of the men, "A man who won't pull every pound he can and an ounce 

 more is not fit to be a fisherman," is fully exemplified. 



The men stand six in one end of the seine-boat and seven in the other end, holding the two 

 ends of the purse-line, which, having passed through the rings in the bridles on the lead-line of the 

 seine, pass round the two blocks of the purse-davit and through the snatch -blocks on the opposite 

 side of the seine-boat, one of which is forward and the other aft. One of the uses of the bridles 

 now appears. As soon as the men in the seine-boat commence pursing up the seine, the rings, 

 which before this have been banging downward below the lead-line, now extend the same distance 

 laterally from this line. We have only to remember that they all extend toward each other to see 

 that they considerably diminish the open area at the bottom of the seine. To be sure, the spaces 

 between the bridles are open, but the fish are not likely to escape through these, for in such an at- 

 tempt many of them would strike the bridles and finding such obstacles would turn, hoping to find 

 an outlet in some other direction. 



The men stand, as has been said, when pursing up the seine, six in one end of the boat and 

 seven in the other. They are divided into three rows of three and one of four men. On the side 



* Capt. Nelson A. McKeniiey, of Gloucester, states that two men usually go in a dory, one of whom pulls a little 

 while the other holds to the end of the seine. If the one having the oars is an expert (and as a rule only old hands 

 do the rowing), he will quickly and dexterously turn the dory as the seine-hoat approaches "close to," so that the 

 latter may shoot alongside of the former iii such a manner that the purse-line held by the man in the stern of the 

 dory may be easily transferred to the larger boat. As soon as this is done both of the doryuieu jump aboard the 

 gciuo-boat and assist iu "pursiug up" thu sumo. 



