The Dredge. 
427 
lift the opening weight as well as close the cover. They are 
hung to the dredge by snap hooks, to each of which is attached 
two cords. The first of these is the cover cord, which passes 
through the pulley on the end of the frame, and is fastened to 
the cover. By it the weight opens or closes the dredge. The 
second cord is the releasing cord. This passes through the 
same pulley and is tied to the wire loop to which are fastened 
the cords supporting the dredge, and which attaches the dredge 
to the line. It is long enough to be slack when the weight is 
hanging at the full length of the cover-cord. Weight-hangers— 
stout fishing swivels — are attached to these cords at such a 
place that when they are hung on the weight-pins of the release, 
the weights are supported close to their respective pulleys, 
and both cover cords are loose. The opening weight is hung 
to the inner or narrower fork of the release, and the closing 
weight to the outer one. This arrangment of cords is well 
shown in Plate VII, fig. 1, where the weight-hangers are on the 
pins and the dredge is “set.” 
It will be seen that the cover-cord of the closing weight 
shows a large loop when the dredge is lowered with the cover 
closed. This loop gave much annoyance at first by becoming en¬ 
tangled, and thus preventing the dredge from opening. The 
difficulty was overcome by an elastic cord attached to the re¬ 
lease-cord of the opening weight and having at the other end 
an eyelet, through which ran the cover-cord of the closings 
weight. This elastic cord is of such length that it holds up the 
slack loop of the closing cord when the opening weight is “ set” 
by hooking its weight-hanger on the weight-pin of the release. 
When the opening weight is released the eyelet falls to the 
level of the cover, releasing the closing cord. It must not drop 
far enough to be shut in between the cover and frame when the 
dredge is closed. The eyelet is kept from being drawn into the 
closing pulley when the cover is drawn shut, by the loop of 
wire already mentioned (6r, PI. VIII, fig. 1) through which 
passes the closing cord just before reaching the pulley. This 
arrangement of cords reads as if it were complex. It is really 
simple. The cords do not become entangled, and need no ad¬ 
justment. The weights can be set by a single movement—- 
