A piece of clean deal without knots is strong enough, and of course lighter than ash.

Two strong pieces of stick being fastened in the ends of the board, inclining slightly outwards, the net is supported on a stout cord tightly stretched between these and a piece of stick lashed crosswise on the staff.

The net is secured to the thick back edge of the board by loops of thin leather nailed to this edge with copper tacks, at intervals of about four inches.

The Shrewsbury thread is quite strong enough for this net also, but should be edged with double or stouter twine, through which a cord should be run for convenience in fixing.

If desirous of packing the net snug for travelling, you have merely to cast off the cross piece and unship the staff, when you can easily withdraw the sticks from the ends of the board, and the whole affair will not occupy more space than a gig umbrella.

Where the sea-grass abounds you will of course push the net in the direction of the lay of the weed, or you will double your labour with little result.

The best receptacle for Shrimps or Prawns is a common fishing basket, but the better kind of basket is not so well adapted for this purpose, being usually too shallow and having too wide an opening; in fact, the front and back should be of equal height, and the mouth somewhat narrower than the bottom.

Shrimps and Prawns should be sought for during spring tides; that is to say, from three days before new and full moon until three days after, when the greater reflux of the water renders their haunts more accessible than at neaps.

Never wade after Shrimps or Prawns with bare feet, lest you tread on the back-fin of a Weever (Trachinus draco), a little fish which has the habit of lying hid in the sand with the said prickly back-fin just beneath the surface, wounds from which are most painful. The author of 'Fish and its Cookery' says: 'The most effectual cure for a wound of this kind is to make a strong brine, and then plunging in the wounded part to keep the brine as hot as the patient can bear it.' Mr. Couch says that smart friction with oil soon restores the wounded part to health. An old pair of shoes will entirely obviate the risk. The common

Weever is from three to five inches long, but the greater Weever is of more elongated form, being from ten to twelve inches in length. These fish are exceptionally taken with hook and line, being caught in seines and trawls shot for other kinds. Pennant observes, 'The first dorsal fin consists of five very strong spines, which, as well as the intervening membranes, are tinged with black; this fin, when quiescent, is lodged in a small hollow. The covers of the gills are armed with two very strong spines.' These may inflict painful wounds.

The Baited Prawn-Net (fig. 76).-This description of net

FIG. 76.

The Baited Prawn Net.

On such parts of

is much used on the south Devon coast, being baited with stale Rock-fish (locally called Curners), Gurnards, Horse-Mackerel, &c., a dozen or twenty being shot at short distances apart, and raised occasionally by aid of a buoy-line attached to each.

They should not exceed two feet diameter, depth sixteen inches.

An iron hoop is superior to those of wood, round bar three-quarters of an inch, if used on an open exposed coast, but of half an inch in more sheltered localities; if wood be used, they must be weighted with lead or stones, a clumsy method.

Iron hoops should be galvanised, being much cheaper in the long run, although a little more expensive at first.

Hermit Crabs for bait or Green Crabs may be taken in these nets; also Whelks, particularly if baited with a piece of fresh Ray or Skate, to be placed between the double string shown in the cut crossing the net, and then secured by a leather slider on each side, or a piece of string tied once or twice round.

the coast as afford facilities for so doing by a moderate rise and fall of tide, and where a succession of

pools exists among the rocks, or the rocks are flat, and long canal-like channels run up towards the land, these nets can be used without a boat, with a short piece of line, and a single cork at the end, of the size of a large bung-cork; these nets, being sunk alongside the rocks, may be raised by aid of a forked pole to catch the cork. Try on a rising tide.

In boats, this fishing is quite near the shore, and is carried on in small boats, each provided with a dozen or more nets, slung by a buoy-line, which are placed a few fathoms apart, and baited in turn. A few Crabs and Lobsters are sometimes captured at the same time, and numbers of Velvet-Crabs, which, although never eaten in England as far as I am acquainted, are, together with the Spider-Crabs, regularly sold in the markets in the Channel Islands and France. The VelvetCrabs are commonly called 'Fiddlers' in many parts of the kingdom.

Freshwater Eels may be also taken by baiting with Herring, Pilchard, or Mackerel offal, &c., in harbours,

The quantity of Cray-fish and Lobsters to be taken in this manner in South Africa and on the North American coasts is very great.

Small pots similar in form to Crab-pots are much used, made of fine osiers very closely placed; they are commonly termed Shrimp-pots. It is somewhat remarkable that small Prawns almost universally receive the appellation of Shrimps.

Drift-Nets.-Drift-Nets are extensively used for Mackerel, Pilchards, and Herrings. They are attached to each other, and are shot in a long continuous line to the length of one thousand or fifteen hundred fathoms, more or less, in proportion to the size of the boat.

The nets are provided with corks on the head-line and weights on the foot-line (commonly stones), and are very frequently lowered to the depth of two or three fathoms, being sustained at this depth by large buoys of cork or inflated skins placed at intervals, with a small keg at the junction of the nets.

This is done as a precautionary measure, that vessels passing over them may not hook them and carry them off on their keels, and it also enables the fishermen to adjust the

depth of the nets as may be desired. At many parts of the coast no weight is used on the foot-lines.

These nets are shot at sunset and commonly remain until daybreak, and the boat, being attached by a rope to the last net, keeps the whole on a stretch, and the fish, either unable to see the net or else rendered heedless by the obscurity, strike into the meshes, which are of a size just sufficient to receive the head of the fish.

Neither Mackerel, Herrings, nor Pilchards mesh well on moonlight nights, or when the water 'fires' or becomes phosphorescent.

The nets should be all in the water and the boat riding at the end of the warp as soon as the sun is set or very little after, for the first meshing of the fish often takes place before dark, after which, should the 'brime' or 'fire' show itself, the fish will not be likely to strike the nets again till just before dawn. Hake, Conger, Cod, large Pollack, and Coal-fish may all be taken, as the boats drive along with the tide, by hook and line.

Of late years our drift fishermen—or drivers, as they are commonly called-make much more lengthy voyages than formerly in quest of the fish, particularly in the Mackerel and Herring fishery.

Soon after Christmas, the boats or vessels (for they are entirely decked when the hatches are on) proceed to Plymouth, or even farther west, and meet the Mackerel coming up Channel, and forward their takes to London by rail, returning to their own part of the coast when the fish make their appearance there.

The western Mackerel drift-fishery yielded 30,000l. in 1867.

Whilst the Mount's Bay men from Cornwall also seek the Yorkshire shore, to partake of the Herring fishery during the summer, and the boats from various localities migrate to the shores of Sutherland and Caithness for a similar purpose, French vessels of sixty tons and upwards bend their course to the westward of Scilly and Cape Clear, salting their captures on board and returning to port when loaded, a practice not followed by British boats, salted Mackerel being of compara

tively small value in the English market. Kinsale in Ireland has become an important station for this fishery.

The chief portion of our drift-boats are fitted with their masts to lower, in common with those of our French and Dutch neighbours, which eases much of the strain on both boat and net when riding in a gale of wind.

Moored Herring-Nets.-An ordinary drift-net for Herrings is, in sheltered bays or deep lochs of the coast, moored by an anchor or heavy stone at each end, and left for the night to itself. This is a common practice in the Scotch lochs, and is likewise followed in Babbacome Bay, Torbay, and Plymouth Sound, as well as Cawsand Bay, on the south coast of Devon, and elsewhere. Babbacombe Bay is the chief rendezvous of the Herrings on the south coast of Devon (although they are not confined to this neighbourhood), and consequently boats assemble there from October to January from the different ports and villages to the east and west, as the southerly trending of the land affords considerable shelter from the prevailing south-west winds. Pollack are also taken in moored nets, placed in deep water.

Peter-Nets are straight nets attached to the shore by one end, the other end extended seaward by an anchor. They are of the same depth as the water, and have corks on the head-line, and stone or lead sinkers on the foot. Pollack, Salmon-Peel, and Red Mullet are caught in them.

Drum-Net.-This net is very useful in preserving fish alive, particularly in hot weather. It is a net bag made of fine twine with a small mesh, distended by three cane hoops about twenty inches in diameter and eight inches apart. The bottom is drawn up flat, and a piece of sheet lead, of half a pound weight, stitched on to it. The top is much smaller, and three seven-inch hoops form a neck through which the fish are passed into the net as caught. A loop of strong line is fixed across the upper small hoop to suspend it by. When in use it is hung in. the water with the neck above the surface.

Tanning Nets.-The following method is both simple and convenient:

For a net of twenty-four pounds' weight previously un