BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 311 
Holdsworth states that “ the differences between them relate to the 
appliances in use for its effective working rather than to the principle 
of its construction or the object for which it is to be employed. In all 
cases it has the general form of a triangular bag or purse, and the vari- 
ations in shape or fittings are due to the different plans adopted for 
insuring the mouth of the bag being kept open, so that the fish may 
enter whilst the net or bag itself is towed along out of sight at the 
bottom.” 
As has been stated, the trawl is triangular in form, and if one can 
imagine an elongated flat-iron-shaped purse lying on the ground, with 
the upper part of its mouth slightly raised and straight and the lower 
part very much hollowed out, so as to form a deep curve, he will have, 
perhaps, a fair idea of a trawl net. The upper surface of the net is 
called the “back,” and the underneath part, which rests on the ground, 
is termed the “belly.” The several sections of which the back and 
belly are composed are made separately, after which they are joined 
together to form the net. They are known by the names of the 
“square,” “baitings” “batings” or “ upper,” “wings” or “ gorings,” 
“belly” or “ground,” and “cod” or “cod-end.” The “square” is the 
front upper portion of the net; its straight edge is fastened to the beam, 
and it is usually about one half the length of the whole trawl. The 
section called the “baitings” 1 is also on the upper surface of the trawl, 
and is joined on one side to the square and on the other to the cod-end. 
The lower part of the trawl corresponding to the square is “ cut away 
in such a manner that the margin forms a deep curve below, extending 
from one trawl-head to the other, close to the ground, and with the 
center of the curve or bosom at some distance behind the beam and 
front of the net. The usual rule for the depth of the curve is that the 
distance from the beam to the bosom should be equal to the length of 
the beam. In French trawls it is very much less. There is, however, 
in all cases a considerable space of ground over which the beam and 
back of the net must pass before the fish lying on the bottom are dis- 
turbed by the under part of the net. The Yarmouth trawlers use a 
beam about 36 feet in length, and a much shorter ground rope in pro- 
portion than is employed by the Brixham and Grimsby fishermen ; 
there being an idea on their part that when working in strong tides on 
the Dogger Bank the large-mouthed nets are liable to close up; a diffi- 
culty, however, which does not appear to have been discovered by the 
fishermen from other ports. 
We were told by the Grimsby fishermen that trawls rigged chiefly for 
catching soles have foot ropes about four-fifths as long as those for 
general fishing. 
1 The portion of the trawl called the ‘ ‘ baitings ” by the Grimsby fishermen is known 
to the trawlers in the south of England as the “ upper,” according to statements made 
to the writer by Grimsby smackmen, while the sections which the latter term the 
“belly” and “wings” are, they say, designated the “ground” and “gorings” by 
the Brixham and Plymouth men. 
