Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/41

 FISHERIES to each seine. The seine is really a huge wall of netting, with buojs at the surface and weights beneath; this is dipped where the fish are seen to be thicicest, its ends are pulled together, and the fish are drawn out with a tuck net. Seine fishing can only successfully be practised in the shallows, and in the daytime. Drift fishing is quite different, and is usually practised at a distance of from 8 to 12 miles from land. The boats leave port about sunset, and are back with their capture in the small hours of the morning. The nets are long and deep, with a mesh of a little over an inch; they are laid, so far as can be judged, in the direct path of the fish, and these get caught by thousands in the meshes. Moonlight, or the phosphor- escence sometimes present on the surface, warns the fish of the trap laid for them ; a dark night is best for a good catch. Many of the fish are sold for immediate consumption, but a great number are taken by the preservers. This pre- servation consists chiefly of salting and pressing them in bulk in the fish-cellars ; after which, packed in barrels, they go to the foreign or local sardine factories. The pilchards have deserted many parts of the coast which they once fre- quented, but they are still plentiful in the S.W. As many as 20,000 hogsheads have beei taken at St. Ives in a few hours, each hogshead consisting of over 2000 fish. All visitors to Cornwall should make acquaintance wilh the pilchard in its fresh condition; the tin e may come when it will be a rarity. 23