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FISHERIES 



13 



chards cured by the wan owners at St Ives arc all sent to the 

 Italian markets ; ' and we have to thank Messrs Fox for the fol- 

 lowing stutistios of sliipmeuts since 1816, The fluctuations are 

 aluio.it entii'vly due to the variations in the great sean fisheries : — 



Export of Pilchard!, to Italian I'ortafrom 1815 to 1877. 



Tlie special sean fisheries for mackerel are along the Chesil Beach 

 near Portland, and on the Sussex coast, at and near Brighton; but 

 they do not call for particular notice. 



Stow-net Fishery. — This fishery appears to be entirely 

 confined to the Solent, inside the Isle of Wight, the estuary 

 of the Thames, and the Wash, between the Norfolk and 

 Lincolnshire coasts. It is specially for the capture of 

 sprats, although many young herrings are sometimes caught, 

 and it is worked most extensively at the entrance of the 

 Thames. Tiie stow-net is a gigantic funnel-shaped bag 

 Laving a nearly square mouth, 30 feet from the upper to 

 the lower side, and 21 feet wide. It tapers for a length 

 of about 90 feet to a diameter of 5 or 6 feet, and further 

 diminishes to about half that size for another 90 feet to the 

 en I of the net The whole net is therefore about 180 feet 

 or 60 yards long. The upper and lower sides of the square 

 mouth are kept extended by two wooden spars called 

 " balks," and the lower one is weighted so as to open the 

 mouth of the net in a perpe.idicular direction when it is at 

 work. The size of the meshes varies from an inch and 

 three-eighths near the mouth to half an inch towards the 

 end, where, however, it is again slightly enlarged to allow 

 for the greater pressure of the water at that part. The 

 mode of working the net is very simple. Oyster smacks 

 are commonly used in this fishery, although shrimping 

 boats are also employed in it in the Thames. The smack 

 takes up a position at the first of the tide where there are 

 signs of fish, or in such parts of the estuar)' as are 

 frequented by tlie sprats during that part of the season ; 

 bIic then anchors, and at the same moment the net is put 

 overboard and so handled that it at once takes its proper 

 position, which is under the vessel. It is kept there by a 

 very simple arrangement. Four ropes leading, one from 

 each end of the two balks, and therefore from the four 

 corners of the mouth of the net, are united at some little 

 distance in front, forming a double bridle, and a single 

 mooring rope leads from this point of union to the vessel's 

 anchor ; so that the same anchor holds both the vessel and 

 the net. The net is kept at any desired distance from the 

 bottom by means of two ropes, one from each end of the 

 upper balk to the corresponding side of the smack, where 



be remembered that, though the fishery season lasts several months, it 

 is only at intervals that the nets are put into the water, and the tide 

 may be unfavourable when the fish are heading towards the bay. It 

 is qnite clear that, as the sean fisheries of 1871 and 1873 were the 

 most su(!ces.sful on record, there has' been no gradual diminution of 

 pilchards from over-fi.shing, 



' A lishery for pilchards has recently been established along the 

 coast of Oalicia, and Spanish pilchards, cured in the same manner as 

 the Cornish fish, are making their way in the Italian markets. 



* Previous setson's fish. 



it is made fast. The open mouth of the net is thus kept 

 suspended below the vessel, and the long mass of netting 

 streams away astern with the tide. The strain of thia 

 immense bag-net by the force of the tide is often very great, 

 but if the vessel drags her anchor, the net being made fast 

 to the same mooring, both keep their relative positions. 

 Here they remain for several hours till the tide slackens, 

 the vessel's sails being all taken in, and only one hand 

 being left on deck to keep watch. The way in which the 

 fish are caught hardly requires explanation. The sprats, 

 swimming in immense shoals, are carried by the tide into 

 the open mouth of the net and then on to the small end, 

 where they are collected in enormous numbers ; from this 

 there is no escape, as the crowd is constantly increasing, 

 and they cannot stem the strong tide setting into the net. 

 The first thing to be done in taking in the net is to close 

 the mouth, and this is effected by means of a chain leading 

 from the bow of the vessel through an iron loop in the 

 middle of the upper balk down to the centre of the lower 

 one, and by heaving in this chain the two balks are 

 brought together and ultimately hoisted out of the water 

 under the vessel's bowsprit. The net is then brought 

 alongside and overhauled till the end is reached, and this 

 is hoisted on board. The rope by which it is closed having 

 been cast off, the sprats are then measured into the hold of 

 the vessel by about three bushels at a time, until the net 

 has been emptied. The quantity of sprats taken in this 

 manner by many scores of fishing craft during the season, 

 which lasts from November to February, is in some years 

 simply enormous ; the markets at Billingsgate and else- 

 where are inundated with them, and at last they can only 

 be disposed of at a nominal prfbe for manure ; and in this 

 way many hundreds of tons are annus'ly got rid of. The 

 stow-boats do not generally take t°. . fish on shore, but 

 market boats come off to them and buy the fish out of the 

 vessel's hold, and carry it away The mode of working ia 

 the same in the Solent and the Wash as that we have 

 described in the Thames, and large quantities of sprats are 

 landed by the Southampton boats. 



" Whitebait," or young herrings, as they should properly 

 be called, are caught in the Thames by a net which is 

 practically nothing else but a very small stow-net, and it 

 is worked in essentially the same manner. 



Li7ie Fisheries. — Hand-lining and long-lining are worked 

 more or less all round the British Islands, and various 

 kinds of fish, such as cod, haddock, wiiitiug, coalfish, 

 pollack, bream, and conger are taken regularly on the 

 English coast, some being more abundant in one part and 

 some in another. The cod fishery in the North Sea, 

 however, is the one specially deserving notice ; it has been 

 carried on in a systematic manner, and on rather a large 

 scale for a great number of years. Welled smacks were 

 in use at Harwich as early as 1712, and in them the cod 

 were brought alive into port just as they are at the present 

 day. The idea of keeping the fish alive appears to have 

 been taken from the Dutch fishermen, and in the interval 

 between 1712 and 1715 three vessels fitted for that purpose 

 were buMt, but very inferior to those afterwards con- 

 structed.* In the year 1720 the number had increased to 

 12, and in 1735 to 30. Of that number Mr Nathaniel 

 Saunders, the progenitor of several generations of fish- 

 factors and salesmen at Billingsgate, had six, and with 

 four of these, which were very superior to the other two, 

 he visited the coast of Scotland in the course of his fishing 

 eixpeditions, and was at that time the chief medium for 

 conveying goods to and from the north of Scotland. In 1766 



• Our notice of the early history of the cod fishery as carried on fhnu 

 Harwich is taken from a statement prepared by Mr Groom of Har- 

 wich, and giren to the Royal Sea Fisheries Commissionen in 1864. 



