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ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
of the skipper of the boat deems sufficient. This is an 
expedient experience has taught the drift-net fishermen to 
handle with great care, for the fish are found swimming at 
various points of depth between the surface and the bottom. 
When the water is burning, both classes of fishermen 
can tell the depth the fish are swimming at when seen ; but 
otherwise it is only guess-work. To obviate the difficulty 
of guessing, the following good expedient is sometimes 
resorted to: — The end of the net is spread over the gun- 
wale, and bit by bit let down to the bottom, and allowed 
to remain for a time in this upright position. It is then 
drawn up, and where it is seen the fish have struck the net, 
to that depth will it be let down by the bow strings. The 
net is shot in nearly a straight line, and when it is all out 
it is made fast to the boat, which is allowed to drift with 
the wind or tide till the following morning, when the net, 
with whatever it contains, is again drawn into the boat. 
While the trawling system is by far the most laborious, 
and undoubtedly, on the whole, the most lucrative, more 
strength of muscle than ingenuity is required in its prosecu- 
tion. On the other hand, to be successful with the drift- 
net principle, the men employed in it must display a greater 
amount of intelligence. Instinctively, or rather intuitively, 
they must be able to tell, even out in the wide deep sea, 
where, and to what depth, they must cast their nets; and 
like the bloodhound following on the scent, able to follow, 
night after night, the day wanderings and altered positions 
of the shoals. This shifting of the fish is in itself an 
interesting study. While the moon is in its first quarter, 
and darkness "broodeth over the face of the deep," the fish, 
after their day's wanderings, rest at night near the shore — 
sometimes, indeed, they are seen in amongst the rocks — but 
as the moon advances in brightness they shift further 
