APPARATUS USED IN CAPTUEING FISH. 



265 



Ms 



The Pot, Bowl, or Crib, (Fig. 7.) — The pot is in the shape of a room, having four walls 

 and a floor. It is thirty feet square, and, in height, extends from the bottom to three 

 feet above the surface. In the middle of the side next the heart is an opening ten feet 

 wide and sixteen feet high, beginning at the bottom, in which is placed the tunnel. A 

 pile is driven on the outside, at each corner, and one in the middle, on three sides, 

 while on the heart side there are two, ten feet apart and ten feet from the corners. To 

 all the piles, but the two mentioned, the net is made fast at the top by three- feet guys ; 

 at the bottom of each pile is sunk a stone of from seventy-five to eighty pounds' weight, 

 and on the top of the stone is lashed a bull's-eye, (Fig. 10,/.) A rope tied to the bot- 

 tom of the net, opposite the stone, is rove through the bull's-eye and passes upward 

 to the top of the pile, where the end is made Pi g n 



fast, leaving plenty of slack. When the net c 

 is set, the ropes are hauled taut and secured 

 by half-hitches to a pin driven into the top 

 of the pile, which serves .also to coil up the 

 slack. The mesh of the pot is from one and 

 a half to three and one-quarter inches. 



The Tunnel, (Figs. 7, 8.) — The tunnel is a 

 netting, shaped some- 

 thing like a truncated 

 cone. Its longer end is 

 fitted and laced into the 

 sides of the opening (d, 

 fig. 8) in the heart side 

 of the pot. The smaller 

 end projects into the 

 pot about sixteen feet 

 and narrows to its out- 

 let, an opening two and 

 one-half feet by six, (h, 

 fig. 9.) Short sticks are 

 attached to the upper 

 and lower sides of the 

 outlet, havingsmall bri- 

 dles to which lines are 

 made fast. The lower 

 one is rove through a 

 hole in a cleat (g, fig. 10) 

 nailed to the side of the 

 middle pile, opposite the 

 tunnel outlet, and at 

 five feet from the bot- 

 tom, and from there 

 passes upward to the 

 top of the pile, where the 

 end is made fast, leav- 

 ing plenty of slack. The 

 upper line passes di- 

 rectly to the top of the 

 pile. When hauled taut 

 they keep the tunnel ) 

 standing open, for the s l 

 free passage of the fish. 



In the sides of the tun- 

 nel entrance are fast- 

 ened hoops, five on each ^ 

 side. These hoops are 

 put over the top of the ===l 

 adjacent piles, and al- 

 low the net to slide up and down readily, when the tunnel is closed for the purpose of 

 taking out the fishes, and again when it is reset. To the bottom hoop is fastened a 

 slender pole, called the shover, (c, fig. 11,) for use in closing and opening the tunnel 

 entrance. The mesh of tli£ tunnel is the same as that of the pot. 



How the fishes get in. — The schools of fishes, in moving along near the shore, find the 

 long leader obstructing their way, and although the meshes are large enough for them 

 to pass through, so wary and cautious are their instincts that they will not come in 

 contact with the net, but swim withiu a few inches of it, out from the shore, until they 

 enter the heart. 



At first sight the heart would appear of unnecessary dimensions, but it is contrived 

 in accordance with a knowledge of the habits of the fish, which are not inclined to 



HilL 



