INTRODUCTION xxvii 



for which " drift-netting " must be employed. 

 Drift-nets are chiefly used for the capture of 

 herring, mackerel, and pilchards. A " train " or 

 " fleet " of herring nets may be as much as two 

 miles long and over ten yards in depth. It is 

 supported on a line carrying cork floats, which 

 is again attached to ropes and buoys which support 

 the net at a variable distance from the surface. 

 The whole contrivance floats or drifts with the 

 tide as a vertical wall of netting which the herring 

 shoal encounters. The fish striking the net 

 penetrates the mesh of the latter, and, if it is 

 a small fish, passes through. But if it is of a 

 suitable size, its head slips through, and the 

 increasing diameter of its body fixes or " meshes " 

 it, in which position it is taken when the net 

 is hauled. The size of the mesh of a drift-net 

 will, of course, vary with the kind of fish it is 

 designed to catch. A herring net has generally 

 about thirty-three to thirty-six meshes to the yard, 

 a pilchard net forty-five or more, and a mackerel 

 net from twenty-five to twenty-eight. Fishing 

 for all these fishes is carried on at a variable 

 distance from shore, or, it may be, in bays or 

 estuaries. 



Seining. — By a simple modification the drift- 

 net becomes converted into the " seine " and 

 " draw-net." The seine is an ancient form of 

 fishing implement, and it resembles generally a 

 drift-net, but the manner of using it is very 



