FISHES. 595 
supported by empty barrels or cork-buoys, the lower edge being 
weighted with lead or stones, which are kept at a convenient depth 
by shortening or lengthening the cords by which the buoys are attached. 
The size of the mesh of the nets is such that the hérrings of a certain 
size are caught in by the gills and pectoral fins. If the first mesh is 
too large to hold them, they pass through, and get caught by the next 
or succeeding mesh, which is smaller. The herring-fishery is regu- 
lated by Act of Parliament, and the legal mode of capture is by means 
of what is called a drift-net. The drift-net is made of fine twine, 
marked with squares of an inch each, to allow for the escape of the 
young fish. The nets are measured by the barrel bulk, a net measuring 
fifty feet long by thirty-two deep, and each holding half a barrel. The 
drift is composed of many separate nets fastened together by means of 
a back rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by a 
bladder or empty cask. The process is that described by Dr. Bertram 
in an article published in the “ Cornhill Magazine.” The writer had 
made his arrangements for a night at the herring-fishery, under the 
auspices of Francis Sinclair, a very gallant-looking fellow, who sails 
his own boat from Wick, and takes his own venture. Bounding over 
the waves with a good capful of wind, they had left the shore and 
beetling cliffs far behind them; they reached their fishing-ground, 
where they tacked up and down, eagerly watching for the oily 
phosphorescent gleam which is indicative of herrings. “At last, after 
a lengthened cruise,” he says, “ our commander, who had been silent 
for half an hour, jumped up and called to action. ‘ Up, men, and at 
them !’ was the order of the night. The preparations for shooting 
the nets at once began by lowering sail. Surrounding us on all 
sides was to be seen a moving world of boats; many with sails down, 
their nets floating in the water, and their crews at rest. Others were 
still flitting uneasily about, their skippers, like our own, anxious to 
shoot in the right place. By-and-by we were ready ; the sucker goes 
splash into the water ; the ‘dog,’ a large inflated bladder to mark the 
far end of the train, is heaved overboard, and the nets, breadth after 
breadth, follow as fast as the men can pay them out, till the immense 
train is all in the water, forming a perforated wall a mile long and 
many feet in depth ; the ‘dog’ and the marking-bladder floating and 
dipping in long zigzag lines, reminding one of the imaginary coils 
of the great sea-serpent. After three hours of quietude beneath a 
beautiful sky, the stars— 
‘The eternal orbs that beautify the night — 
began to pale their fires, and, the grey dawn appearing, indicated that 
M M 2 
