32 
FISHES. 
from the fact that many of the most valuable 
Fishes have the habit of herding together in 
shoals. The engraving, copied from an Egyp- 
tian sepulchre, represents a very ancient form 
of drag-net used in the Nile ; the fishers are 
stationed in part on the bank of the river, and 
in part on board of their fishing-boat, on the 
rigging of which the fishes are seen hanging up 
to dry for preservation. 
Fishing by means of nets is frequently alluded 
to in the Scriptures, and in particular, it was the 
mode practised by several of the disciples of our 
blessed Lord, both before and after their sacred 
association with Him. The lovely Sea of Galilee 
often bore upon its waves the Son of Man, who, 
seated in the fishing-vessel of John or Simon, 
cheered their toil with His gracious words, as 
they launched out into the deep, and let down 
their nets for a draught. 
Many are the varieties of this important ac- 
cessory to human industry, the fishing-net ; from 
the hoop-cast, which the fisher throws by hand 
over the surface- swimming fry to secure bait, to 
the elaborate tonnaro of the Italian shores, a mile 
in length. Most of those kinds, the pursuit of 
which is sufficiently important to be styled a 
fishery, are taken by nets of some kind or other. 
Thus on our own coasts, the Mackerel, the Her- 
ring, and the Pilchard, are taken chiefly by drift- 
nets, that is, nets of great length suspended per- 
pendicularly from near the surface by a rope, 
to which corks are attached, and kept extended 
by a buoy, at one end ; and by the fishing-boat 
riding on it, as if on her cable, at the other. 
The Sprat and the Whitebait are taken by bag- 
