As the calm continued, papa took us on shore in the boat to visit the curing-house; and we heard a great deal more about the pilchard fishery from the men on the beach.  We were surprised to find that the value of the fish caught in that single seine was estimated at fully six hundred pounds.  Sometimes a thousand pounds' worth of fish is caught in one seine.  If the fishermen were always thus successful they would soon grow rich; but they often meet with misadventures.  On one occasion a large net full of fish was caught by the tide before it could be dragged on shore, and carried away against the rocks, when not only did the fish get free, but the net itself was almost destroyed.  At another time, when a large school had been encircled, the fish making a dash together at one point, capsized the net and got clear over the top, not a quarter of the number remaining.  Just before this, a seine had been securely moored, when a ground swell setting in from the westward before the fish could be taken out, the net was rolled over and over, and every fish escaped, while the net was utterly destroyed.