44 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



boats which were successful on the previous night are 

 watched and followed, notwithstanding the fact that it is 

 an exceedingly rare thing for a boat to have two excep- 

 tionally successful nights following each other. 



Having chosen their water, the crew of each boat 

 begin to ' shoot ' their nets, which, while being * laid ' in 

 their boats, were united in a continuous train or drift, by 

 knotting together the ' back-ropes.' Each boat has a train 

 of nets about half a mile in length and lo yards in depth. 

 By corks attached at the top and weights at the bottom, 

 the nets are made to float perpendicularly in the water. 

 This wall of netting is suspended from buoys which allow 

 it to sink 20 or 30 feet below the surface. The nets are put 

 into the sea immediately after sunset, and most of the 

 crew then endeavour to snatch * 40 winks ' of sleep. In the 

 course of an hour or two some of the nets are hauled up 

 and examined to see whether the fish have been ' striking.' 

 If there should be good signs of fish in the locality, the 

 nets are allowed to lie for some time. The herrings are 

 caught by getting fixed in the meshes while trying to pass 

 through. The captain decides the proper time for taking 

 in the nets, and when he gives the word, all hands fall to 

 work. As the nets are got on board, the fish are shaken 

 out of them and fall into the hold, where, after a gasp or 

 two, they expire. If the night's labour has yielded 20 or 

 30 barrels of fish, the men think themselves fortunate ; but 

 it is no unusual thing for a boat to bring ashore 80 and 

 even 100 ' crans,' or barrels. 



" The return of the boats in the morning is an event of 

 much more importance and interest to people on shore, and 

 from an early hour anxious inquiries are made respecting 

 the fortunes of the night, while those who have leisure go 

 to make observations from the piers and cliffs. As the 



