HERRINGS AND HERRING-FISHING. 
313 
Of the first we have man at the top of the list, no mean 
destroyer; and next to him come the porpoises and whales. 
The gulls and gannets are the most destructive of the bird 
tribe which prey upon these creatures. But of all its foes, its 
own relatives are the most formidable. The cod, ling, hake, 
coal-fish, conger, and dog-fish devour the adult herrings, whilst 
the sea-trout devote themselves to the fry, and various species 
of plaice and soles prey upon the ova. It would be impossible 
to compute the numbers that are annihilated by these several 
voracious members of the piscine class ; and while we wonder 
at the wholesale destruction of life which it involves, we cannot 
but look with reverence, on the surprising means adopted by 
the Great First Cause, to maintain a proper balance between 
the numerous and complex organisms that people the aquatic 
world. 
A word or two on the capture of herrings. The means 
used for this purpose in Great Britain are of two kinds. Both 
may be looked on as modifications of a common method, — 
netting* ; one variety is called the drift net, the other is termed 
the seine. The former is simply a plain flat piece of netting, 
whose area is to some extent a matter of choice, but whose 
meshes should not exceed the square of an inch. To this 
weights are attached at one border and buoys or floats at the 
opposite one, the latter being connected by ropes, so that the 
net (opposing a flat surface to the water and standing in it 
vertically) may be submerged to the required depth. This 
net is carried out to sea and sunk in the locality in which the 
shoals are supposed to exist. After having been in the water 
for a certain length of time, the buoys are observed to sink, as 
though unable to sustain the net ; this is then hauled in, and 
is found full of herrings, which, in endeavouring to force their 
way through it, have become entangled in the meshes. The 
seine net is of a somewhat similar form, but is employed 
differently. It has drag-ropes attached to it, and instead of 
being used in the open sea, it is more generally worked along 
shore in the following* manner : — One end of the drag-rope 
being held on shore, the net is placed in a boat which is 
“ pulled” out to some distance, the net being* payed out from 
the boat, which, having* described a semicircle, again touches 
land ; the second drag-rope being now brought to shore, the 
men haul in both ropes (thus converting the net into a sort of 
bag which incloses everything between it and the land), till 
eventually vast quantities of fish of all kinds are captured.* 
* Herrings have also been taken with an artificial fly and with bait 
(limpets). Two other methods of capture on the large scale still exist, though 
seldom employed, — the cruive and the inclosing net. The former is an appa- 
