foreclosing the fishes taking their kind within harbour, so decreased the number of the taken, as the price daily extendeth to an higher rate, equalling the proportion of other fish: a matter which yet I reckon not preiudiciall to the Commonwealth, seeing there is store sufficient of other victuals, and that of these a twentieth part will serue the Countries need, and the other nineteene passe into forraine Realmes with a gainefull vtterance.

'The Sayners profit in this trade is vncertayne, as depending upon the seas fortune, which he long attendeth, and often with a bootlesse trauaile: but the Pilcherd Marchant, may reape a speedy, large, and assured benefit, by dispatching the buying, sauing and selling to the transporters, within little more then three moneths space. Howbeit, diuers of them, snatching at wealth ouerhastily, take mony beforehand, and bind themselues for the same, to deliuer Pilcherd ready saued to the transporter, at an vnderrate, and so cut their fingers. This venting of Pilcherd enhanced greatly the price of cask, whereon all other sorts of wood were conuerted to that vse and yet this scantly supplying a remedie, there was a statute made 35. Eliz. that from the last of June 1594 no stranger should transport beyond the seas any Pilcherd or other fish in cask, unlesse he did bring into the Realme, for euery sixe tunnes, two hundred of clapboord fit to make cask, and so rateably, vpon payne of forfeyting the sayd Pilcherd or fish. This Act to continue before the next Parliament, which hath reuiued the same, vntill his (yet not knowne) succeeder.

'The Pilcherd are pursued and deuoured by a bigger kinde of fish, called a Plusher, being somewhat like the Dog-fish, who leapeth now and then aboue water, and therethrough bewrayeth them to the Balker: so are they likewise persecuted by the Tonny, and he (though not verie often) taken with them damage faisant. And that they may no lesse in fortune, than in fashion, resemble the Flying fish, certaine birds called Gannets, soare ouer, and stoup to prey vpon them. Lastly they are persecuted by the Hakes, who (not long sithence) haunted the coast in great abundance; but now being depriued of their wonted baite, are much diminished, verifying the proverb, What we lose in Hake we shall haue in Herring.'

With regard to the seines, Davies Gilbert says: 'It seems that these nets must have been originally introduced from Dungarvon in Ireland, since they are still said to be braided according to the Dungarvon mesh; but no similar fishery is remembered at that place.'

For the following lucid and reliable account of the fisheries of Saint Ives, as conducted at the present day, I am indebted to Mr. Anthony, of Saint Ives, whose words are here copied as they stand:

In the main there are two methods of taking fish, by the Sean and by the Drift net. By the Sean the fish are enclosed and then "tucked," or dipped into the boats by baskets. In the drift nets,

locally called "driving" nets, they are caught in the meshes and either shaken out into the boats or taken out by hand. Writers by confounding these two essentially different modes of fishing make a dreadful muddle of it.

'In the sean fishing the space along shore, and for a good way out at sea, is marked out into portions locally called "stems," each boat with its appendages taking its place for a given time or state of the tide, according to arrangement, which arrangement is, of course, arbitrary. There, within the limits of the stem, the boats at anchor with their crews await the signal from the hill above, that there are fish in sight. A spot on the hill is occupied by the "Huers," whose business it is to look out for the shoals, locally "schools," of fish which may be crossing the bay. The indications of a shoal are a certain reddish colour on the surface, which colour may be detected with more or less accuracy according to practice or faculty of vision, and the flight of seabirds; and sometimes, when the shoals are very dense, the fish can be seen surging up above the waters in great masses, as though they were boiling out at sea. In such cases you may hear spectators saying, "There are lanes of fish," or "baulks of them," and a very large shoal when enclosed is a "Baulker." I think I have seen more than a hundred thousand hogsheads in Saint Ives bay at one time (not enclosed), judging from the colour on the water, and have seen twenty thousand hogsheads enclosed in a few hours. Such a scene once witnessed can never be forgotten. It is a scene of great excitement; white "bushes" waving everywhere, and trumpets roaring; a literal network of seans across the bay, and boats spinning about like a general regatta. It is a time of rapidly changing fortunes. I have known a comparatively poor man to net a couple of thousands in a few minutes. "Look! look! Wearne has got at least three or four thousand hogsheads!" "Oh, look there! Batten's foot-rope is got foul of the Cornwall Company's net, and the fish are streaming out; they'll lose them all!" and out they go; you may fret and fume if you like, you may have another chance to-morrow, or you may not. 'Everybody knows that the word that signifies the approach of fish is "hevah," from whence derived I cannot tell; but when people say that during the catching of pilchards "men, women, and children run about in every direction crying 'hevah'" they tell us more than we know. Of course it is quite natural that people should tell each other, and generally they do not study the manner of doing so; but such a general hooting about the town exists in the imagination of strangers, and there alone. They may have done so in times gone by, as they are said to have

whipped the hake; of the truth of either your scribe knoweth not at all.

'From the first sight of fish by the huers on the hill, the men in the boats are of course guided entirely by these. The first intimation is given by a blast from the hill, which makes everyone about prick up his ears. It may be nothing; but it may be the herald of fortune to scores, and bread and fish to hundreds, nay, to thousands. The men in the boats are not slow to hear and obey, and soon the place is fully alive, and if it is really a "round" of fish, you shall soon see a sight. As far as my memory serves me, the signs given by the huers are as follows: What are called the "bushes" are really white bags drawn over hoops and placed on wooden handles about a foot long, or a little more, and one for each hand. The first sign is "Weigh the anchor." The bushes are deftly crossed under the armpits and held aloft three or four times, and then if it is intended that the boat shall go "right off" at sea where the fish are coming up, the bushes are held aloft in either hand, just like the horns of a cow, etc., etc. The usual number of boats holding the nets about to be thrown round the shoal are three, one holding the sean, the largest net, and the other two the smaller, or "stop nets"; and after the several nets are "shot," or thrown overboard, their ends are joined by two young men in another and smaller boat called "the follower," or in local phrase, the "follier."

'The fish, even when enclosed, are often very restive, and rush about, so that they have to take great care they do not break away. To prevent the fish from getting away, the men in the boats beat the sea above them with their oars, and that frightens the fish back into the net. When secure, the sean is drawn in towards shore, into water sufficiently shallow to allow for "tucking," which is managed thus: The tuckers drop down a net within the sean, called a tuck-net, and draw it together till the fish are thick enough to be dipped up by men seated on the sides of the boats, which are called "dippers." This tucking is a very fine sight. A gentleman once out looking on the tucking process got on the side of the boat, fell in among the boiling mass of pilchards and came up "a scaly fellow." One "dipper will hold about 35 hogsheads more or less. The fish are then taken home and put into the cellars and laid in "bulk" with coarse salt, left there for several weeks, broken out, washed, and shipped off to the Italian market. They bring from £2 to £5 per hogshead. The sean fishing is pursued only in daylight.

“The “Drift” fishery is entirely different. In this the boats go away for several leagues in deep water and drop down their

nets end to end across the path of the fish, so that when they come in contact with the nets their heads get into the meshes. Mackerel are caught usually about 20 leagues to N.W. of Saint Ives, as well as other places around the coast. Most drift fishing is done at night. I have known 100,000 mackerel to be brought into Saint Ives in one day, but that is a very large catch for one night. They sell at from 2s. 6d. to 3s. per six score, and are sent to London, Paris, and other large towns. When the weather is warm the fish are iced, the ice being manufactured at Newlyn.

'Herrings are caught chiefly off the coast of Scotland and the North of England and Ireland, and are caught in meshes like the mackerel. Pilchards are caught in Saint Ives Bay by drift-boats in the night, and the sight of 100 or more lights scattered over the bay is very beautiful indeed. Trawling is little pursued in Saint Ives. Trawling along shore is called locally "Blind

hauling."

'In the seine-lofts of Saint Ives may be seen nets which are fifty, eighty, and even a hundred years old, but still strong and serviceable. Some of the seine boats have oars twenty-three feet long.

'The blowzers are men who mind the shore-end of the warps during the fishing. They get 2s. 10d. per hogshead of fish.'

CHAPTER XXV.

LEGENDARY LORE.

We have now to treat of the legends and traditions of the Saint Ives district. In all the departments of folk-lore our four parishes are very rich; nor have railways, telegraphs and boardschools yet succeeded in wholly eradicating from the popular mind the innate Cornish love for the old Celtic world of mystery. Cornwall has been singularly fortunate in the comparative completeness with which her folk-lore has been preserved by various writers of merit, such as Hunt and Bottrell; but much yet remains to be done in this direction. In this place we propose to notice briefly those remnants of folk-lore which have been dealt with by previous writers, and then to set down at greater length those hearthside traditions which we have ourselves gathered from natives of this locality.

To begin with that fascinating work, Mr. Hunt's Popular Romances of the West of England,' the following is an abridgment of the stories which relate to the neighbourhood of Saint Ives:

Almost every rock on the hill of Trencrom bears a name connecting it with the giants, whose buried treasures are said to be guarded here by the Spriggans, or rock-elves. Trencrom was a castle of the giants, one of the most celebrated of whom made use of granite boulders for playing at 'bob-buttons' with the giant of St. Michael's Mount. A celebrated giant, called Holiburn of the Carn, dwelled on Carn Galva. He was on friendly terms with the peasantry, and protected them from the forays of the giant of Trencrom. Many rock-piles in the high countries around Saint Ives bear such names as the Giant's Chair (Trinkhill), the Giant's Well, the Giant's Bowl, and the Giant's Snuffbox, the two last on Trencrom.

There is a colossal oblong and almost rectangular granite boulder on the western slope of Carn Stabba, called the Giant's