180 THE MACHINEEY OF CAPTUKE. 



the tailor exhibit their newest fashions ; the hardware merchant 

 flourishes his most attractive frying-pans ; the grocer amplifies 

 his stock ; and so for a brief period all is couleur de rose. 



They are not aU practical fishermen who go down to the sea 

 for herring during the great autumnal fishing season. By far 

 the larger portion of those engaged in the capture of this fish — - 

 particularly at the chief stations — are what are called " hired 

 hands," a mixture of the farmer, the mechanic, and the sailor ; 

 and this fact may account in some degree for a portion of the 

 accidents which are sure to occur in stormy seasons. Many of 

 these men are mere labourers at the herring fishery, and have 

 little skill in handling a boat ; they are many of them farmers 

 in the Lewis, or small crofters in the Isle of Skye. The real 

 orthodox fisherman is a different being, and he is the same every- 

 where. If you travel from Banff to Bayonne you find that fish- 

 ermen are unchangeable. 



The men's work is all performed at sea, and, so far as the 

 capture of the herring is concerned, there is no display of either 

 skiU or cunning. The legal mode of capturing the herring is to 

 take it by means of what is called a drift-net. The herring- 

 fishery, it must be borne in mind, is regulated by Act of Parlia- 

 ment, by which the exact means and mode of capture are expli- 

 citly laid down. A drift-net is an instrument made of fine twine 

 worked into a series of squares, each of which is an inch, so as 

 to allow plenty of room for the escape of young herrings. Nets 

 for herring are measured by the barrel-bulk, and each barrel will 

 hold two nets, each net being fifty yards long and thirty-two 

 feet deep. The larger fishingTboats carry something like a mUe 

 of these nets ; son>e, at any rate, carry a drift which will extend 

 two thousand yards in length. These drifts are composed of 

 many separate nets, fastened together by means of what is called 

 a back-rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by 

 a buoy or bladder which is attached to it, the whole being sunk 

 in the sea by means of a leaden or other weight, and fastened to 

 the boat by a longer or shorter traU-rope, according to the depth 

 in the water at which it is expected to find the herrings. This 

 formidable apparatus, which forms a great perforated wall, being 

 let into the sea immediately after sunset, floats or drifts with 

 the tide, so as to afford the herring an opportunity of striking 

 against it, and so becoming captured — ^in fact they are drowned 

 in the nets. The boats engaged in the drift-net fishing are of 

 various sizes, and are strongly and carefully built : the largest. 



