Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/250

244 THE CORNWALL COAST Mr. Stanhope Forbes says : " I remember finding in a house at St. Ives where I Avas calling, four painters of four different nationalities. In that town Zorn, the well-known Swedish artist, painted his first oil picture, which now hangs in the Luxembourg, and for it his palette was set by an equally celebrated American painter who at that time resided there." The studios are specially thronged during the winter months, as the climate allows much open- air work ; in the summer many of the painters fly to other hunting-fields, leaving Cornwall to the tourist. The Cornish have grown accustomed to the painters by this time, and cease to regard them with wondering curiosity ; they are recog- nised as having distinct local uses. Many of the pictures now displayed in exhibitions bespeak a close intimacy between the painters and the fisher- men. But the pilchards are of still more im- portance to the little huddled town where the fishers live ; and these usually begin to arrive about August, when the huers have already taken up their position on the high places around, in order to signal the first sighting of the shoals. The huers are on watch from August till late October, and it is the method of taking by seine that renders their signalling of great importance. The exact position of the fish must be ascertained before the seine-nets are dropped to enclose them. The takes are sometimes enormous, but seasons greatly vary, as the fish are governed by laws of feeding whose operation we cannot easily trace. The average annual taking of pilchards in Corn- wall is estimated at 20,000 hogsheads. Gulls in countless numbers hover above the fishing-boats, and swoop down for their share in the spoil ; I