method, however, which has long been
abandoned.

No portion of the prize is lost; the oil and blood is sold to the
curriers, the skimmings of the water in which the fish are washed before
packing is purchased by the soap-boilers, and the broken and refuse fish
are sold for manure. The oil when clarified forms an important item in
the profit.

The pilchards, however, are not always to be entrapped near the shore.
At most times they keep out at sea, where the hardy fishermen make use
of the drift-net.

Two sorts of boats are employed for this purpose; one is of about thirty
tons burden, the other much smaller. They use a number of nets called
_a set_, about twenty in all, joined together. Each net is about 170
feet long, and 40 deep. United lengthways they form a wall
three-quarters of a mile long, the lower part kept down by leads, the
upper floated on the surface by corks. Sometimes they are even much
longer.

Within the meshes of this net the fish, as they swim rapidly forward,
entangle themselves. They easily get their heads through, but cannot
withdraw them, as they are held by the gills, which open in the water
like the barbs of an arrow. Their bodies also being larger than the
meshes, they thus remain hanging, unable to extricate themselves.

The driving-boat is made fast to one end of the wall, where she hangs on
till the time for hauling the net arrives.

The fishermen prefer a thick foggy night and a loppy sea, as under those
circumstances the pilchards do not perceive the net in their way. At
times, however, when the water is phosphorescent, the creatures which
form the luminous appearance cover the meshes so that the whole net
becomes lighted up.

This is called "briming," and the pilchards, thus perceiving the trap in
their way, turn aside and escape its meshes.

As briming rarely occurs during twilight, and the ocean is at that time
dark enough to hide the wall of twine, the fishermen generally shoot
their nets soon after sunset and just before dawn, when the fine weather
makes it probable that they will be lighted up by the dreaded briming at
the other hours of the night.

The operation of hauling in nearly a mile of net, with its meshes full
of fish, is an arduous task, especially during a dark night, when the
boat is tossed about by a heavy sea, and at no time indeed can it be an
easy one. The hardy fishermen pursue this species of fishing during the
greater part of the year, for smal