SEINE NETS 341 



size is not at all a difficult net to work ; the best net 

 of this description known to us is that used by the 

 Saltash fishermen in the Tamar, briefly described 

 below. Such a net can be easily worked by two men 

 with a small rowing boat, and may be procured locally 

 for about £6, including poles and hauling warps. 



A tuck seine should be set somewhat slack on the 

 head and ground ropes, which are each about 48 yards 

 long ; each wing is 20 yards long and about 2 \ yards 

 deep, and the mesh decreases from the pole to the bunt, 

 the depth of the net remaining the same, or increasing 

 very slightly (e.g., the wings may be set up at 2j-inch 

 mesh sixty deep, and made down to ij-inch mesh 

 ninety deep). The bunt is about 6 yards long, about 

 300 meshes round where it joins the wings, and of the 

 same mesh as their inner ends, tapering nearly to a 

 point without any great reduction in the mesh. The 

 head and ground ropes are hitched round the poles 

 (which are each 6 feet long) a short distance beyond the 

 ends of the wings, and are then carried out and joined 

 round an eye to which the hauling warp is shackled. 

 The mesh must, of course, depend upon the size of 

 fish which it is desired to capture. 



The Mid-Water Otter Net. 



Although the " Young -Fish Net," or mid-water 

 otter net,* originally designed hy Professor Petersen 

 of Copenhagen, is in reality little more than a very 

 large and special tow net, it may be conveniently 

 included here as being the only net hitherto designed 

 which is suitable for the capture of small fishes at the 

 surface or in mid water. The net itself is made of 

 some coarse-meshed material such as " screw cloth," 



* The writer is indebted to Mr. G. P. Farran for much 

 information with regard to this net. 



