SEANS AND STOW-NETS.] FISHERIES chards cured by the sean owners at St Ives are all scut to the Italian markets ; 1 and we have to thank Messrs Fox for the fol lowing statistics of shipments since 1815. The fluctuations are almost entirely due to the variations in the great sean fisheries : Export of Pilchards to Italian Ports from 1815 to 1877. Year. Hogsheads. Year. Hogsheads. Year. Hogsheads. 1815 15,000 1837 15,349 1859 3,289 1816 20.000 1838 7,580 1860 4,981 1817 24,000 1839 12,856 1861 11,078 1818 1,700 1840 23,372 1862 17,854 1819 2,900 1841 9,605 1863 25,677 1820 800 1842 20,735 1864 22,439 1821 2,000 1843 8,859 1865 9,929 1822 9,123 1844 13,976 1866 14,294 1823 24,109 1845 30,807 1867 15,832 1824 7,611 1846 34,137 1868 19,993 1825 12,651 1847 41,623 1869 15,143 1826 10,670 1848 7,591 1870 6,048 1827 5,238 1849 25,588 1871 45,683 1828 1829 26,018 700 1850 1851 25,530 26,736 1872 | 1,1382 18,406 1830 22,010 1852 15.233 1873 31,019 1831 26,648 1853 21,276 1 Q7J. J 8192 1832 31,930 1854 6,845 lo/-t < 7,543 1833 10,037 1855 6,103 1875 7,337 1834 25,295 1856 18,833 1876 9,903 1835 23,833 18,57 15,921 1877 9,477 1836 18,762 1858 18,479 The special sean fisheries for mackerel are along the Chesil Beach near Portland, and on the Sussex coast, at and near Brighton; but they do not call for particular notice. Slow-net Slow-net Fishery. This fishery appears to be entirely fishery, confined to the Solent, inside the Isle of Wight, the estuary of the Thames, and the Wash, between the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts. It is specially for the capture of Sprals. sprats, although many young herrings are sometimes caught, and it is worked most extensively at the entrance of the Thames. The stow-net is a gigantic funnel-shaped bag having a nearly square mouth, 30 feet from the upper to the lower side, and 21 feet wide. It tapers for a length of about 90 feet to a diameter of 5 or 6 feet, and further diminishes to about half that size for another 90 feet to the end of the net. The whole net is therefore about 180 feet or 60 yards long. The upper and lower sides of the square mouth are kept extended by two wooden spars called " balks," and the lower one is weighted so as to open the mouth of the net in a perpendicular direction when it is at work. The size of the meshes varies from an inch and three-eighths near the mouth to half an inch towards the end, where, however, it is again slightly enlarged to allow for the greater pressure of the water at that part. The mode of working the net is very simple. Oyster smacks are commonly used in this fishery, although shrimping boats are also employed in it in the Thames. The smack takes up a position at the first of the tide where there are signs of fish, or in such parts of the estuary as are frequented by the sprats during that part of the season ; she then anchors, and at the same moment the net is put overboard and so handled that it at once takes its proper position, which is under the vessel. It is kept there by a very simple arrangement. Four ropes leading, one from each end of the two balks, and therefore from ths four corners of the mouth of the net, are united at some little distance in front, forming a double bridle, and a single mooring rope leads from this point of union to the vessel s anchor ; so that the same anchor holds both the vessel and the net. The net is kept at any desired distance from the bottom by means of two ropes, one from each end of the upper balk to the corresponding side of the smack, where be remembered that, though the fishery season lasts several months, it is only at intervals that the nets are put into the water, and the tide may be unfavourable when the fish are heading towards the bay. It is quite clear that, as the sean fisheries of 1871 and 1873 were the most successful on record, there has been no gradual diminution of pilchards from over-fishing. 1 A fishery for pilchards has recently been established along the f Galicia, and Spanish pilchards, cured in the same manner as tbe Connsh fish, are making their way in the Italian markets. - Previous season s fish. it is made fast. The open mouth of the net is thus kept suspended below the vessel, and the long mass of netting streams away astern with the tide. The strain of this immense bag-net by the force of the tide is often very great, but if the vessel drags her anchor, the net being made fast to the same mooring, both keep their relative positions. Here they remain for several hours till the tide slackens, the vessel s sails being all taken in, and only one hand being left on deck to keep watch. The way in which the fish are caught hardly requires explanation. The sprats, swimming in immense shoals, are carried by the tide into the open mouth of the uet and then on to the small end, where they are collected in enormous numbers ; from this there is no escape, as the crowd is constantly increasing, and they cannot stem the strong tide setting into the net. The first thing to be done in taking in the net is to close the mouth, and this is effected by means of a chain leading from the bow of the vessel through an iron loop in the middle of the upper balk down to the centre of the lower one, and by heaving in this chain the two balks are brought together and ultimately hoisted out of the water under the vessel s bowsprit. The net is then brought alongside and overhauled till the end is reached, and this is hoisted on board. The rope by which it is closed having been cast off, the sprats are then measured into the hold of the vessel by about three bushels at a time, until the net has been emptied. The quantity of sprats taken in this manner by many scores of fishing craft during the season, which lasts from November to February, is in some years simply enormous ; the markets at Billingsgate and else where are inundated with them, and at last they can only be disposed of at a nominal price for manure ; and in this way many hundreds of tons are annually got rid of. The stow-boats do not generally take their fish on shore, but market boats come off to them and buy the fish out of the vessel s hold, and carry it away The mode of working is the same in the Solent and the Wash as that we have described in the Thames, and large quantities of sprats are landed by the Southampton boats. " Whitebait," or young herrings, as they should properly white- be called, are caught in the Thames by a net which is bait, practically nothing else but a very small stow-net, and it is worked in essentially the same manner. Line Fisheries. Hand-lining and long-lining are worked Line more or less all round the British Islands, and various fisheries, kinds of fish, such as cod, haddock, whiting, coalfish, pollack, bream, and conger are taken regularly on the English coast, some being more abundant in one part and some in another. The cod fishery in the North Sea, North however, is the one specially deserving notice ; it has been Sea cod carried on in a systematic manner, and on rather a large fisher y- scale for a great number of years. Welled smacks were in use at Harwich as early as 1712, and in them the cod were brought alive into port just as they are at the present clay. The idea of keeping the fish alive appears to have been taken from the Dutch fishermen, and in the interval between 1712 and 1715 three vessels fitted for that purpose were built, but very inferior to those afterwards con structed. 3 In the year 1720 the number had increased to 12, and in 1735 to 30. Of that number Mr Nathaniel Saunders, the progenitor of several generations of fish- factors and salesmen at Billingsgate, had six, and with four of these, which were very superior to the other two, he visited the coast of Scotland in the course of his fishing expeditions, and was at that time the chief medium i or conveying goods to and from the north of Scotland. In 1 76G 3 Our notice of the early history of the cod fishery as carried on from Harwich is taken from a statement prepared by Mr Groom of Har wich, and given to the Royal Sea Fisheries Commissioners in 1864.
