The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-10-23
A PECULIAR INDUSTRY.

a%Ienhnden Fishing of Ions Island-Myri-
ads of Fish Caught in n Single Haul
The Uses to Which They are Put.
OF Culloden Point the lookout e1-
citedly announced, "Fish off the port
bowl" The captain seized his glass and
scanned the water. So did [.
"There's a big bunch," he shouts.
"Watch 'em firt their tails Good
color! See how red the water is !"
sob yes, to be sure, cry. "By
Jove, that's a good color"
My vacant face must have belied my.
words, but he didn't notice it. He was
shouting, CLOVER away the boats !!
Stand by to ship the nets p furiously
ringing signals to the engineer, giving
hasty orders to the wheelsman, ensconc-
ing himself in a pair of oil-skin trous-
ers so capacious | half expected lie
would disappear altogether ; and so,
amid the roar of escaping steam. the
creaking of davit tackle, the laughing
excitement of the crews, and the rattle
of rowlocks, I tumbled head-foremost
into a boat, and the steamer was left be.
hind. Now the flirting of tiny tails was
plainly visible, but I must confess that
I did not learn to distinguish the reddish
hue which indicates q school OF these
fish until much later in the day. The
two large boats side by side were sculled
rapidly toward the shore where the fish
were seen, the forward part of each boat
piled full of the brown seine, which e1.
tended in a great festoon from one to
he other. There were four men IN each
boat, all standing up, and in our red
shirts and shiny yellow oil.skin overalls,
we must have made q pretty picture on
that sunny morning. Close by was a
pound net, where a porpoise was rolling
gaily, Notwithstanding his captivity but
BY maneuvering we got the "bunch'
turned away from it and we'll inshore
where the water was not too deep. At
last we we're close to them, and now
came q scene of excitement.
"Heave It'll" yelled the captain, and In
each boat a sailor whose place it was
worked like a steam-engine, throwing
the net overheard, while the crews
pulled with all their muscles in oppo-
site directions around a circle perhaps
a hundred yards in diameter, and de-
fined by the line of cork buoys lett be-
hind; which should inclose the fish.
In three minutes the boats were to-
gether again, the net was all paid out,
an enormous weight CT lead had been
thrown overheard, drawing after it a
line rove through the rings along the
bottom of the seine. The effect, of
course, was instantly to quicker the
bottom of the net into a purse, and
thus, before the poor unkers had fairly
apprenended their danger, they were
caught in a bag whose invisible folds
held a cubic acre or two of water.
This was sport! I had not bargalned
for the hard work to come to the IN
sportiye character of which my blister
ed palms soon testified.
None. of the fish were to be seen.
Every fin of them had sunk to the bot
tom. Whether we had caught ten or
ten thousand remained to be proved.
Now lifting the net is no easy job. The
weight of nearly ten thousand square
yards of seine is alone immense, but
when it is wet with cold ~sea.water, and
held back by the pushing of thousands
of energetic little noses, to pull it into
a rocking boat implies hard work. How
ever, little by little it came over the
gunwales, the first thing being to bring
up the great sinker and ascertain that
the closing of the purse at the bottom
had been properly executed. Yard by
yard the cork line was contracted, and
one after another the frightened cap
tives began to appear, some folded into
a wrinkle or caught by the gills in a
torn mesh land such were thrown
back) until at last the bag was reduced
to only a few feet in diameter, and the
menhaden were seen, a sheeny, gray,
struggling mass, which bellled out the
net under the cork line and under the
boats, in vain anxiety to pass the
curious barrier which on every side
hemmed them in, and in leaping efforts
to escape the crowding of their throng-
ing fellows. How they cleaned, like
fish of Jewels and gold! The sunshine
finding its way down through the clear
green water seemed not to reflect from
their iridescent scales, but to penetrate
them ali, and illumine their bodies from
within with a wonderful changing flame:
Cleaning, shifting, lambert waves of
color flashed and paled before my en-
tranced eyes-gray as the fishes turned
their backs, sweeping brightly back
With a thousand brilliant tints as they
their sides-soft, underlined and
mutable, down there under the green
glass of the sea ; while, to show them
the better, myriads of minute medus@
hither and thither glittering
little phosphorescent lanterns in gossa-
mer frames and transparent globes.
All possible slack having now been
taken in, the steamer approaches, and
us away to deeper water-for we
are drifting toward a lee shore-comes to
o stand-still, and the work of loading be-
gins. The cork line is lifted up and
made fast to the steamers b%ulwarks, to
which the boats have already attached
at one end, holding together
at the other. This crowds all the bunkers
together in q mass between the two
boats and the steamers side, where the
water boils with the churning of thou
sands of active fins. A twenty-foot oar
is plunged into tie mass, but will not
to sound it's living depths. Then
q great dipper of strong netting on an
iron hoop is let down by tackle from the
yard-arm, dipped into the mass under
the guidance OF a man on deck who holds
the handle, the pony-engine puffs and
and away aloft for an instant
swings a mass of bunkers, only to be up
and fall like go much sparkling water
into the resounding hold.
Glow many does that dipper hold?"
"About q thousand"
every well, I will count how many
times it goes after a load"
But I didn't. forgot in looking down