74 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



way in the direction in which the nets are laid during the hauling to 

 make the work easier, or, frequently, it is started forward for a short 

 distance, after which the engine is stopped until the fishermen have 

 gathered in the slack, when the operation is repeated. After the lifting 

 of eight nets, which usually consumes from fifteen to forty minutes, ac- 

 cording to the depth of water, the fishermen relieve each other, those 

 removing the fish and stowing the net coming on deck to begin haul- 

 ing the next nets, while the others take the places vacated by them in 

 the hold. 



Mode of reeling gill-nets. — As soon as the fish have been properly iced 

 all hands, including the shoresmen, turn their attention to spreading or 

 reeling nets. The reel is a wooden frame, about 10 feet long and 5 to 6 

 feet square. It is composed of three pairs of wooden arms, nailed at 

 right angles to each other, one at either end and the other at the mid- 

 dle of a central axis, which revolves upon two wooden uprights. To 

 the outer ends of these arras are nailed 6-inch boards, extending length- 

 wise of the reel. The boxes containing the wet nets, usually four in 

 a box, are brought from the tug to the reel-yard, the ends of the nets 

 are secured to one of the arras of the reel, and the net, which varies 

 from 5 to 6 feet in breadth, is spread out upon it as the reel is revolved, 

 the lines being advanced slightly towards the opposite end of the reel 

 at each turn. One reel in this way serves for about eight nets, during 

 the spreading of which, requiring from thirty-five to forty-five minutes, 

 it makes about ninety complete revolutions. The nets are allowed to 

 remain until thoroughly dry, when they are removed by the shoresmen, 

 one of whom places the floats in rows along one end of the net box 

 while the other carefully arranges the leads at the other end, the net- 

 ting forming a bunch in the center. Eight of these dry nets are stowed 

 into a box nearly twice the size of the one for wet nets. Rapid workers 

 will box a reel of eight nets in fifteen to twenty minutes. When boxed 

 the nets are set aside until the steamer arrives, and the boxing must be 

 completed by this time in order to make room for the new stock of wet 

 nets. 



Mode of cleaning gill-nets. — If gill-nets are to be kept in proper con- 

 dition for any extended period the greatest care must be taken for their 

 preservation. It is a common practice among fishermen to wash them 

 frequently j some of the sail-boat netters wash their nets as often as 

 once a week, and boil them in hot water containing soap and tan- 

 bark at frequent intervals. The tug fishermen have a decided advan- 

 tage in having steam constantly available for boiling the nets. They 

 usually remove the corks about once a month, and on their way from 

 the fishing-grounds slacken the speed of the tug and pay out a bight 

 of 6 to 15 fathoms of netting from the stern of the steamer, dragging 

 it slowly through the water, a fisherman hauling in on one side of the 

 bight as fast as the netting is paid out on the other. This process re- 

 moves the greater part of the dirt and slime which may have accumu- 



