I recognised some unmistakable Irishmen, Frenchmen, some Sclaves, and a Greek, or a Candiote.

They were civil, and only used that odd language among themselves, the origin of which I could not guess, neither could I question them.
The nets were hauled in.

They were a large kind of "chaluts," like those on the Normandy coasts, great pockets that the waves and a chain fixed in the smaller meshes kept open.

These pockets, drawn by iron poles, swept through the water, and gathered in everything in their way.

That day they brought up curious specimens from those productive coasts.
I reckoned that the haul had brought in more than nine hundredweight of fish.