490 



Fart III — Eleventh Annual Report 



termed here, ' buckies.' The lines are mostly underrun and not lifted 

 and re-shot. 



Shrimps (Crantjon) are taken (1) by trawl-nets of two types, one 

 resembling a fluke-trawl, but with smaller meshes, and having a rope- 

 foot or ground-rope, and the other a shorter net from beam to cod end, 

 with a chain foot-rope. The boats using the first kind employ one net 

 up to a 25-foot beam. Those using the chain ground-rope use 

 two 20-foot beams, and are the only boats which use the Barking or 

 stirrup-irons, all other boats using nearly the Brixham pattern. (2) 

 Shank-nets, which are a development of the hand-shove net. These nets 

 are 10 feet wide, and each boat drags four, covering, therefore, 40 

 feet. They consist of a beam, lying on the ground, of pitch pine or 

 greenheart, weighted with twenty pounds of iron, and iron uprights to 

 carry a piece of wood for the top of the net to be fastened to. Altogether 

 there are thirty-one pounds of iron to weigh the wood on the ground, and 

 so stir up the shrimps out of the sand. (3) Stake-nets are also used for 

 shrimps, being simply bag-nets, stretched between stakes, and are dry at 

 low water. (4) Hand-nets are also used 7 feet wide, and the fisher- 

 men have wading suits, so as to be able to follow their fishing in winter. 

 (5) Horses and carts are used for shrimping of late years ; they drag three 

 shank-nets behind the cart, having a boom across the shafts, to the ends 

 of which the warps are fastened to give a spread to the nets » a man or 

 lad drives the horse, and sorts the shrimps in the cart. 



1 Sprawns,' as they are locally called (Fandalus annulicornis) , are 

 taken only by trawl-nets, with heavy Manilla ground-ropes, wound with 

 chain or wire-rope, so as to lay weight on the bottom. As the ' Knarrs ' 

 or 1 Ross ' (sand ridges built up by the agency of Sabellaria), on which 

 the prawns lie to feed on the Sabellaria, are very destructive to the nets. 

 The nets are heavily clouted on the under side. 



Hand-line fishing for codling is much followed in the channels, the 

 bait being principally the common lug-worm. Cockles are taken (1) by 

 means of a rake with three teeth, locally called a ' craam,' the cockles are 

 then got by show (excreta, or the holes left by the withdrawal of the 

 syphons, and sometimes by zoophytes growing on the shell) ; (2) by 

 rakes a foot wide, and numerous teeth ; and also (3) by shovel and riddle, 

 surface sand containing the cockles being taken and riddled, leaving the 

 cockles in the riddle. They are also made to come to the surface by 

 means of the 'jumbo' (a recent invention), made of a piece of wood, 

 from 4 to 10 feet long, a foot broad, and from 1 to 3 inches thick 

 (the shorter the thicker), having two handles perpendicular to the surface 

 of the board, about 3 feet high. It is used by being rocked backwards 

 and forwards on wet sand, so as to render it lively or ' wicky,' and all 

 hard substances rise to the surface, and the cockles are picked up ; thus 

 imitating the gulls in their method of cockling. Mussels are got off the 

 dry beds by hand, and out of the water in boats by rakes about 2 feet 

 6 inches wide, having teeth about 9 inches long, and shafts ranging 

 from 10 to 40 feet long, according to the depth of water the men have 

 to work in. There are a few periwinkles {Littorina) gathered about 

 Barrow. At Fleetwood, American oysters are stored ; but there is, as a 

 rule, too much sand moving with the tide to suit oyster cultivation. 

 Although mussels do remarkably well transplanted to brackish water, 

 doubling in length in six summer months. 



The committee have made a number of bye-laws relating to the fisheries 

 of the district. There has been considerable trouble with the fishermen 

 in some districts, one hundred and seventy prosecutions having taken 

 place, but the great majority are well satisfied with the bye-laws. The 

 total value of the fisheries, excluding steam-trawling, is upwards of 



