Observations Conducted on Sailing-SMps 



67 



perienced hands are too numerous and exciting to be pleasant, and the 

 commonest is that, after painstaking manipulations occupying a long 

 period of time, the trawl is found to have been upside down and the 

 net empty. 



Perhaps the simplest form of trawl and the one least likely to go 

 wrong is the ' Agassiz ' trawl. Its iron frame may bend, but is not 



Fkj. 5. 



1. Trawl with muslin net, A, and sprat net, B, attached. 



2. Method of placing the nets on the trawl. 



3. Dimensions of the sprat net : A, top ; B, bottom ; C, sides. 



easy to break, whereas wooden ' beam ' trawls on unsuitable ground 

 and deep water possess this unfortunate propensity. The ' Agassiz ' 

 trawl has the further advantage that it does not matter which side up 

 it fishes. It is a splendid instrument for the capture of interesting 

 Crustacea, though it takes a goodly number of fishes too. 1 Trawlers 



1 In one haul with this net we obtained seventeen fish of five different species, 

 besides a great quantity of Crustacea, starfish, Mollusca, etc. 



9—2 



