FISH AND FISHERIES. 147 
‘Sooner or later other methods may be discovered of treating our fine 
species of mullet. Whether or no, we have no doubt that its fishery is 
destined to be a most important industry. The mode of capturing this 
fish is a matter which requires consideration. At present the fishermen 
catch them after they enter the harbours, bays, inlets, &c., and follow 
them up to their spawning grounds, scattering them and effectually ‘inter- 
fering with them in the discharge of these necessary functions. Such 
a wanton destructive mode of fishing should not be tolerated. The 
breeding of the fish need not be interfered with, for they can be got in 
any quantity at the mouths of the bays or in the open sea. For this 
mode of fishing, drift nets, such as are used for the herring and mackerel 
fisheries, but with larger meshes, might be found to answer. But the 
description of net chiefly used in the menhado fishery, on the coast of 
Maine, is we think still more likely to be suitable. It is thus described 
by Mr. Simmonds in the “Commercial Products of the Sea,” page 
222 :—“ The seines are made of strong cotton twine and are 130 fathoms 
long (780 feet), and from 80 to 100 feet deep. At the eastern end of 
Long Island, where the fishing is in deep water, the depth is even 
greater. Along the bottom of the seines run lines so arranged that 
they can be drawn up like an old fashioned purse—whence the name 
‘purse seine.’ The top of the seine is attached to buoys of cork or 
wood, and these, when the whole is thrown into the water, hold the 
upper edge at the surface, while the remainder hangs vertically beneath 
it. The seine is loaded into two boats, which also form a part of the 
outfit of the yacht, and are always with her when not engaged in taking 
fish. Thus furnished the yachts start on a cruise in search of the fish, 
which go in immense schools. When a school is met with it is necessary 
to drop the seine in front of them, otherwise no fish would be taken, as 
they would swim away in front before the seine could be closed round 
them. The boats get ahead of the school and pay out the seine as they 
separate. When the school is fairly in the seine the boats come together 
and completely surround the fish. At the pointwherethe boats first started 
a heavy weight called a ‘tom’ is attached to the bottom of the seine, 
and to this weight, which rests upon the bottom, are fastened the lines 
which ‘purse’ up the bottom and prevent the fish from escaping below. 
When the bottom is drawn together the men haul the seine into the 
boats, and shake the fish down into the bunt, as the purse formed by the 
seine is called. ‘The fish are taken out of the seine into the ‘carry-ways’ 
by means of dip nets.” The “carry-ways” are additional vessels 
attached to each yacht for taking the fish ashore. 
A system also of having a look-out kept along the coast to the south 
upon the movements of the shoals of mullet, so that information might 
be telegraphed to the fishing stations, as is done in the case of the 
tunny in the Mediterranean, would be most useful as a guide to the 
people engaged in this fishery. 
The “maray ” (Clupea sagaz) is a very rich, oily, well tasted fish of 
the herring family, which passes north along our coast about midwinter 
in enormous shoals. The same fish has been seen to pass south along 
the east coast of New Zealand in the month of February, so that there 
is every reason to infer that it is a migratory fish in the truest sense. 
Some idea of the vast extent of the shoals of these fish may be formed 
from the following quotation. Professor M‘Coy, of Melbourne, in 
