ed that they were migratory; but
it is now believed that they keep within the deeper parts of the ocean
until they rise nearer the surface in the autumn to deposit their eggs.
For some years they have appeared near the surface as early as the last
week in August. A herring seldom measures more than fourteen inches in
length; but we were told that one was caught some years ago seventeen
and a half inches in length, seven and a half in girth, and that it
weighed thirteen ounces! Each lugger carries from sixty to a hundred
nets; each net is about fifteen yards long, and is floated by corks
placed a few feet apart. The united nets form what is called a train
fleet, or drift of nets. The depth to which they are sunk is regulated
by ropes seven or eight yards long, called seizings, of which there are
two to each net. They are made fast to a stout warp, running along the
whole of the train, which is upwards of a mile in length, and supported
near the surface by kegs, called "bowls." The warp is useful in taking
the strain off the nets, and in preventing their loss, in case the nets
should be fouled, or cut by a vessel passing over them. The meshes are
about an inch square.

Drift fishing is carried on at night. The nets are "shot" a little
before sunset, the vessel keeping before the wind, with only enough sail
set to take her clear of the nets as they are thrown overboard. When
all the nets are out, about fifteen more fathoms of warp are paid out;
and by this the vessel is swung round, and then rides head to the wind,
a small mizen being set to keep her in that position.

One of the masters of a lugger showed us the way the nets hang in the
water; the whole train being extended in nearly a straight line, the big
rope to which the corks are fastened being uppermost, and the body of
the net hanging perpendicularly in the water, forming a wall of netting
more than two thousand yards long and about eight yards deep. The
strain from the vessel serves to keep the net extended, and the whole--
vessel and nets together--drifts along with the tide.

During the day the fish keep near the bottom; but as night closes in,
should the weather be fine, they swim nearer the surface, and attempting
to swim through the barriers of net on each side of them, a large number
become entangled or meshed, their gills preventing their return when
once their heads have passed through the meshes.

After waiting two or three hours, the first