IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 7 /. / Qa <^ m i CP.< ^v. ^-^ Q- w. y < w:/. \ 1.0 I.I IIIU |||||M IIIIU iiiiij^ m "^ -« 12.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" — ► V] ^ /a ^h 'el ^. hs m. '^. .»■■ ^# / 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grdce d la g6n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. 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Entered according to Act of Parliimicnt of Canada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fseventy-nine, by AvAM- & Ciiabi.es Black, Publisher?, Edinburgh, Scotland, in the Office of the Minister of Agriculture, at Ottawa. PREFATORY NOTE. Some account is here given of the Sea Fisheries which are carried on in the colder waters on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the methods of working and the productive character of those around the British Islands being more particularly described. The various conditions under which the Fisheries are worked in the British seas are to be met with also in the waters of British North America, and there is no apparent reason why the same methods should not be used in both. In the belief, therefore, that the people of the Dominion have a special i' terest in the subject, the following details of the working of the beam-trawl, and other methods in use on the British coasts, are now offered to their notice. London, JaiMory 21, 1879. FISHERIES UNDER the heading Sea Fisheries, which form the piirticuliir subject of tlie present article,' nmy be incluilu'l tlio various o|pi;ratioiis ongagial in for the capture of the .litroroiit forms (jf i,iarine hfe wiiich, in some ni iiitiur or othur, iiiiiiisttir to the wants or ooiivenienue of man. The iM'wt inipori.ant of tliesu fislieries — those only, in fact, to wliicli the title strictly belongs, and which have more or hiss widely occupied attention from probably the earliest timus —are carried on chictly by hook aiul line or net, with til ) oHjcct of obt lining fisli for ihe purposes of fi/od ; and this iniiii division of tlio general subject will be here con- sidirod. AliliDUgh little or nothing^is known of the methods of fisliin;,' oil our coasts in very early times, there can be no dout)t that in England, as in all maritime countries, fish h;is always been e;i,i;orly sought after as an easily procurable article of food. Tliu abundance of herrings and mackerel, for instance, on the coasts at regular seasons of the year, could not have fiilod to attract attention ; and Swinden, in his History ami Anti'/uities of Gre'it Yarwmth, expresses his belitif th it the herring fishery began there soim after tliy year 495. In Scotland also there is evidence that the herring fishery wis systematically carried on from a very early d ;'te. Pro-rise records of other lisheries do not go biick SI) I'l.'- as that ol the herring ; but there is no reason for believing that cc)d ami kindred fishes were not taken by the ho .k and line very many centuries ago, and, like tiie herring, were s!il)jected to some ready mode of curing either with salt or by drying in the open air. In comparatively recent times all the fisheries have been largely develi>|ied, and none more so than that known as beam- trawling, a metiiod of tishing which had probably attracted little notice a h'lndred years ago, but is now the most reg ilarly piod'ictive and important on the English coast. Many circumstances have combined to encourage the work- ing of sea fislieries as a national industry. The great extent of coast-line surrounding the British Islands provides ready access to the aea to a numerous population who bei'onie familiar from their youth with seafaring pursuits ; and to siiidi occipations large numbers betake themselves with instinctive aptitude, eitlier as fishermen or sailors. In many cases early associations lead them to devote them- selves to such fisheries as are within reach of their native villages ; in others, they m;iy become alternately sailors and fishermen, shipping for a few months every year on a trad- ing voyage, and returning home in time to take part in the lierriiig or some other temporary but iirofitable fishery; whilst in the case of the deeit-sea trawling or cod fishery, they learn to become as good sailors as they are fishermen, for they have often to renuin at sea in decked vessels for weeks at a time in all kinds of weather,— they must keep on their fishing grciiid, and must trust to th'jir knowledge of seam mship to battle with the furious gales to which they may be at any time exposed when thus far away from shelter. Inducements to become fishermen are not wanting to this coast population. Nowhere are the best kinds ol soi fish more abundant than in temperate and moderately high latitudes ; and in this respect the British Islands are most advintageou.sly situated, the seas surrounding them being frequented throughout the year by a variety of fishes always in request for the market, besides producing count- less shoals of other kinds which only come within reach of the fishermen at particular seasons of the year. And great 1 This does iH,i ii.ciiuiu CoiuL, Pkarl, Salmon, Sponoe, aid as may sometimes be the Bupply offish duringthe continuance of favourable weather, it is rarely that the demand for it is exceeded at the present day ; for all the markets of the country are brought within reach by the facilities provided for ra[(id transport from tlie fishing ports by the extensive system of coast and inland railways now in operation. Fishermen, therefore, always find a market for their produce; and although it is to be feared that many of them obtain but a small proportion of the price for which their fish ia ultimately sold to the consumer, the majority of them are enabled to live more comfortably than formerly, and to save enough to keep their fi.shing gear in good working order, and in many cases to pay for improved and larger boats. There is no doubt that the fisheries fluctuate a good deal from year to year ; and it is often the case tliat they may be good on one part of a coast when they are bad on another. The important herring fishery on the coasts of Scotland is a marked example of this, as must be familiar to all persons who have given any attention to the subject. Thus it not unfrequently hapi)ens that when the fishery im the east side is particularly successful, a scarcity occurs on the west coast, or vice vema. Again, in some years the fish are equally abundant or scarce on both coasts. These fluctua- tions are observed in even small districts of a line of coast, and one part of a season may be good and another bad in the same locality. Precisely the same variations occur on all the coasts of the British Islands, and with all kinds of fishes. Undoubtedly, weather is one of the most important elements in the question of success ; and a generally stormy season has a marked effect in the diminislied quantity of fish landed. It tells both in reducing the number of fisher- men at work, and in driving the fish from their usnal haunts. It Is only quite recently that attention has been directed to the subject of temperature as affecting the movements of certain fishes towards or from the surface of the sea, and this will be further noticed when we speak of the herring fisheries. Apparently trifling circumstances may in some cases materially afl"ect the catch of fish. Thus th,! scan fishery for pilchards on the coast of Cornwall has fluctuated exceedingly during the last 50 or 60 years for which returns are in existence ; but however abundant these fish may be on the coast, the scans cannot catch them unless the shoals come quite close to the land in localities where these nets can be worked. Enormous hauls of pil- chards have been made in particular years, whilst in otlvers the fishermen have waited week after week without a chance of wetting their nets, although the drift-net fishermen at some little distance from the land have been meeting with fair success. The large apparent element of chance in the success of our fisheries cannot be better expressed than by the general hope of the fishermen for " good luck." Great changes have taken place in the fi.->liing trade tvithin the last 20 or 30 years, more especially in that for fish sent fresh to the market. Excluding herrings and cod, which to a great extent were consigned to the curer as scon as possible after they were caught, a large proportion of the fish formerly taken on our coasts was dis[iosed of within a short distance of the place where it was landed. A good many turbot and soles were forwarded by light carts or coacties to the nearest railways as these gradually extended in different directions from London ; but the peojile near the coast were, o generation or two ago, the principal cons'imers of fidi, and the supply was compira tively scanty, for the fiOiing boats were smill, and iIm'to was litbU iuduQBment to fish on a large scale when the FISHERIES markets within reach wore ho fli li:is become of great imimrtance, so uni'li 140 m iiicl tliiit witliiHit ha eni[)loymtjnt it would bo ii i|' issililo to cany on the North Sea trawl fishery during Kurnuiur ut the distance from land at whiuh it is generally worked, and where some of the most i)roductive grounds are situated. Its special importance in this fishery will bo further noticed when we speak of the general system of beam-trawling ; but we may here mention that without tho use of ice a large proportion of tho fish now sent long dis- tances by railway would never reach their destiniition in a condition fit for the table. The idea of using ice in con- nexion with the fish trade was first put into a practicable shape by Mr Samuel Hewett. At tho present time about 30,000 tons of ice are iniportnd animally from Norway into H'lll, which is only one of tlio large North Sea trawling stitioiis, fill- the sole ))urpose of preserving fish, either on boifd the fi-liing smacks or during its transit to market, With the exception of herrings, piichartls, and .sprats, a l.irge pr()|)ortion of the fi.sli now caught on the English coast is put into ice almost as soon as taken out of the water. Much of it is at once so packed on board the trawler-; ; it is brought on sliore Bometinies after several diiys, and sold in tho wholesale markets ; it is then re- p icked in ice and forwarded to other markets, where it is puicliiised by the fishmongers, who have a stock of ice at home vei.'dy to receive it ; and there it remains, if properly taken ctre of, till wanted, suffiuienl only to make an attractive display being laid out at (me time for sale. The question of how long our present large supply of sea fish is likely to continue is 0110 of much interest, and the answer to it depends on whether or not our fisheries are carried on in such a manner as to cause more destruction of fish life thun can be compensated far by the vast repro- ductive p')wers of those fishes which escape the nets and hooks of the fishennen. For more than fifty years past the cry has been periodically r lised that our fisheries are being ruined. The general complaint has been of the wasteful destruction of spawn and very young fish by beam-trawling .n'?d sean nets; and 1,1 1863 the outciy was so loud that a Hoya! Oommission was appointed, not only to examine this qu'istion, but also to inquire into the general condition of all our sea fisheries, — the special objects of inquiry being the Btate of the supply of fish, and the questions whether the methods of fishing ia use involved a wasteful destruction of fish or spawn, and whether existing fishery restrictions operited injuriously on tho fisheries. On these points the Commissioners, after taking evidence all round tiie British Islands, were enabled to give a very decided opinion. They reported that the supply of fish generally had largely incre ised, that the methods of fishing involved no waste of young fish that could be prevented without interfering with the general fifdieries, that spawn was not destroyed by the nets, and that all fishery restrictions should be removed except such as were desirable for protecting and keeping order among the fishermen. The recommenda- tions of the commissioners were embodied in an Act of Parliament known as The Sea Fisheries Act 1868, by which, with one or two small exce[)tion8 relating to herring fishing on the west noaat of Scotland, previous Fishery Acts were repealed, and fresh regulationsmade having reference to the registriiion of fishing boats, keeping order among drift- fishermen and beam-trawlers, and providing a close time lor oysters in the English Channel. The main object of iliB Act was to carry out a convention between the British lakuda tiud Frauce, for the better ordering of the fiaherios in tho sens adjoining the two countrios. Tlic Art onme into force in England on tho Ist of Fcbruaiy liSOl), but tir- cumstances have hitherto prevented any date biiiiig fixed for carrying o\it the convention on the part of the French. Great advantage has undoubtedly been gained by Briti.sli fishermen from tho substitution of the ]ii'csuiit siinplo lishtTy regulations for the numerous Acts previously exisiing, many of which had long been obsolete ; but tho iioyal Com- mission, which was issued virtually to inquire into the alleged destruction of fish spawn on tho ground by beam- trawlers, would probably have never come into existence had tho facts then been known which have since come to light about the spawning habits of most of our edible fishes. These facta are so important that a short notice of them may be given here. Fishermen are in tho habit of asserting with perfect confidence that fishes of aliffost every kind they are accus- tomed to catch have certain grounds which they frequent at particular seasons for tho purpose of depositing their ova. The herring is known to 8|)a\vn on the gioiind, — at all events the spawn is found theiu in irregularly shaped lumps adhering to the bottom. It has therefore been con- cluded that all kinds of fishes have the same habits in this respect. Yet no one has been able to speak positively of having ever seen any fish spawn taken from the ground except that of the herring. Various soft and gelatinous substances are brouglit on shore by the sean nets, and com- monly go by tho name of spawn among the inshoie fi.^hcr- nien ; but that they are not fish spawn is perfectly well known to any one who has given attention to tho variety of curious animal organisms inhabiting the sea. It was stated by Profeasore Huxley and Allmnn in 1867, before the select committee of the House of (Ji m- nions on the Sea Co.ist Fisheries (Ireland) Bill, as wiihiu their personal knowledge, that fish ova hud been tounl floating at the surface of tho sea, and that the ov,i ihcy had met with were in all ea>t8 alive, ond some of tluni lU an advanced state of develo|)ment. Reference was at Hi; same time made to the observations then recently reeonn d by Norwegian naturalists on tlie spawning h bits of tlu common cod, leading to the belief that spawiimg at tin: S'lrface was by no moans uncommon with our seii fishes. These investigations have bc'en Ry^tematic ally carneii on during the last ten ysars, under the direcl'on ol the S» efli: '1 Government, V)y Professor G. O. Sars ot the ulliver^il\^l.i Chrisliania, and have resulted in some uiiex[!ected dis- coveries. The seas in the iieiL;libouihood ot tlu' Lilloili. i Islands on the coast of Norway had long been known to la a great jilace of resort for cod during the spivviiiiig seaM'ii ; and in 1H64 Professor Sars commenced his work thi ri,-, and by means of a small surface towing net ho ol>taiii d plenty of the ova of tho common cod (O'adus vtorr/fiu.) floating at the surface ; examples in various stage's i f d.;velopinfcnt were procured, the young H^h were sue. css- fully hatched out, and the species identified beyouii a doubt. Subsequent observations fully confirmed ti.e accuracy of the conclusions previously arrived at that the cod spawn was not deposited on tho ground biit floated freely at or near the surface. In 1865 the same observa- tions were made on the ova of the haddock (Gadtis ceglefinns), and it was satisfactorily proved that they went through all their stages of developnient while floating at the surface, in precisely tho same manner as in the case of the cod. Sars was at first inclined to believe this di'Vel' p- nient of the ova while floating was peculiar to the members of the Gadidm or cod family, in its restricted sense ; b.t in the summer of 1865 he visileil the southern cuast of Norway during tho season for mackerel, and found abundant evidence of the same rule obtaining in that widely distim b fish. In the case of the mackerel, the spawning actually FISHERIES 8 tHken piftce at tlio flnrfrice ; Vint witli tho cod family we boliuvo the opuriitiuii hurt iiut buoii ho diMliiictly otmcrvud. Tho ova, however, aio undoubtedly mot with at tliebiirluco n'lil at a Hhoit distmico boh)vv it. Entirely siibvursivo uti these discoveriea of I'rofeHHor Sarnore of the popular notions ubiiut tiHh-Hpuwniiig, it is even more unexpected to find that both lie and Al. A. SV. Malm of Ootlienburj; have iudependeutly atteertaiueil that the ova of that esstMitialiy ground-linh the pluii:o (I'learouectes jilatemsa) follow the eame rule of floating at the Burface. Other kinda uf float- ing ova were also obtained by Siirs, some of which lie succeeded in batching; and he has completely identified the gurnard (Tiiyla) and the garfish (/ielloiie), in addition to those before mentioned. It is evident, then, that the flouting of fish ova during the development of the embryo must be taken as tho general rule in several large and distinct families of sea fish. >^ars has pointed out that the development takes place at the bottom in the case of those fishes especially whose ova are cemented together by a glutinous secretion, or fastened in lumps to foreign bodies, such as Algw, Ilydroils, itc. He mentions as examples of this, among others, the herring (Clupca), the capelan(0.iMeJ'M), the species of Cottu.i, Li/iaris, Ac. It is particularly worthy of notice that, according to these observations of the Nor>< egian naturalists, all the important kinds of fish taken by our line fishermen and beam-trawlers, and the mackerel among such as are caught by the drift-nets, may be reas inably included among tho species whose spawn hoats at or near the surface of the sea, and their ova cannot therefore be liable to the slightest injury by any method of fishing which is carried on upon or near the ground. For if that be the rule with the spawn of the cod and haddock there can hardly be a doubt about its being so likewise with the ova of ling, coal-fish, whiting, pollack, hake, and that northern species, the tusk, all belonging to the same family. Again, turbot, holibut, brill, soles, plaice, dabs, and flounders are all closely allied, and there can scarcely be a doubt that the same rule applies to all which 8ars and Malm have established in the case of the plaice, one of the most typical of this group of fishes. The gurnard family must also be included in this category ; the spawn of the red mullet, we believe, has been observed floating in aquariums; and the dory, from its close affinity to the mackerel, may be expected to follow the same rule. On the other hand, we know that the spawn of the herring is commonly found at the bottom, although it by no means follows that the parent fish is there when the ova are excluded ; for the full herring is frequently taken in drift nets which are very near the surface, and these nets are often covered with small lumps of spawn. At the same time the specific gravity of herring spawn is greater than water, and it sinks to the bottom sooner or later if nothing intercepts it. Theij is no evidence of its ever floating at or near the surface as is the case with that of the cod. In fact, the aggregation of the ova into masses of various sizes, and the glutinous substance in which the ova are embedded, by which they are enabled to adhere firmly to anything with which they may come in contact, point to their remaining in a fixed position during the process of development. It might have been anticiiiated that the other members of the herring family — the pilchard and sprat, for instance — would also have spawned on the ground, but, so far as we are aware, their ova have never boen found there. Indeed, nothing is known of the spawning habits of the sprat, although this little fish has the roe well developed in December or January, when it is found in the greatest abundance on our coast, and comes nearest to the shore. The spawning of the pilchard is a matter nf some little iotereat. The late Mr Jonatliaa Couch, who probablydevoted morn time to the study of the habits of tin's f].sh than any other iciitiiyologist, btates> his belief that tlu; pilchard spawned iit the surface, and the ova became mixod with a large quantity of tenacious mucus which spread out like a sheet on the water and kept them ritilcliards approach the land the roe shows no signs of development. These circumstances favour the idea that pilchards are surface spawner.s, as believed by Mr Couch. There are several other kinds of edible fish of whose spawning habits we have no definite knowledge, but enough has been discovered of the habits of most of the fish which are valuable for the purposes of food, to show that there need be no anxiety about their 8|)a\vn being destroyed by any of the methods of fishing in ordinary use. The only apparent exception to this statement is in the cise of the herring, whose spiwn it has lieen alleged has been destroyed by the beam-trawlers. But if the beam-trawlers wish to avoid ti'iring their nets in pieces, they must work where the ground is smooth; and in the few precise localities where it has been positively ascertained that the herring dues sp iwn, the general character of the bottom is rough. That is the ground specially worked over by the line fisher- men for haddock, cod, turbot, and other fishes, which come there in numbers for the sake of feeding on the herring spawn. There is a popular idea that all fish sjiawn is of a moat delicate nature, and quickly loses its vitality if taken out of the water for a short time, or at all knocked about. This is probably true in those cases in which the ova aie separated from each other after exclusion, and float freely in the water ; but it is not so with the spawn of the her- ring, or probably of other fish whose ova are embedded in a tenacious nmcus. The experiments of Professor Allman and of Dr M'Bain have shown that herring spawn does not readily lose its vitality under rough treatment, and may even be hatched out after having been exposed to most unnatural conditions. Professor Allman states in his Report to the Board of Fisheries at Edinburgh that some stones covered with spawn were taken from the sea by divers on the 1st of March 1862, not far frimi the Island of May. Some of this spawn was forwarded to him and came into his j)ossession after being kept in only a small quantity of water for two entire days. He says :-r- " With the view of detprmining whether development would proceed in coniinement, I ; laced some of this spiiwn in a gluss jar with sca-wiiter, exposinj? it in a window looking to the east. The sevci'sl .stiiges of devf lopment were regularly passed tlirough, and on the 16th of J'..rch the embryo was fully formed, energetiu movements werf performed by it in the ovum, and it seemed ready to escape into the surrounding water. On the 16th some of the embryos had actually e8ca[)ed, and were now about four-tenths of an inch in length. They were of crystalline transparency, and swam about with great activity, and with the remains of the yolk, reduced now to a very small volume, still adhering to them. The specitio eliaracti rs hail, of course, not yet become established, aud the little fiah ali'orded no further evidence, beyond what we alreaily possessed, to enalj* us to identify it with the young of the herring.' The young fish lived nearly a month in confinement, but the specific characters were not even then sufiiciently per- fected to identify the fish with certainty. There could be no reasonable doubt, however, that the spawn was that of the herring. After some account of other discoveries of spawn, he thus concludes his report: — " It was shown by these experiments thnt the vitality of the spawn was in no way injured by detacliing it from the spawning » Hutorv ofBritUh Fisha, vol. iv. p. 81 (1866). FISHERIES hfA, no tlint if it bfl rotnniril to the np.n Virfnrn it suffers iiny prn- liinnc'l cx|M)-H»iMM, li 111 nut mily liri'ii ivinovi'il frmii tlie gnmiiil, but liiiil liirii kr\i\ I'lir many liom-D in it Hoaiity Hiiinily of wiitcr lie- full' I it'icivcd thiMii ; mid ovcii iiftiT llu'y iniiii' nmlfr my inw, till",' were iiwisiiiiily liliu'i'il in iiiiulitioiiH vi'iy (liH't'imt from tliosi' til wliicli lliey wiiulil Imvi' Umhi cxihwiI if they hml liecn allownl lo nnmin in tlicir natural hiliit.il, - uii4 yet, with all tlieMe ilisailviiii- tage.s, iluvelolimeiit iiroeeeileil uiiinterriilitiMlly." lUqistralion ./ J'tshiiuj Kassc/s. — Under the Sen Fisheripa Act 18ii8i all vessels and boatH (!nK»K'''l i" lishiiig for tlie piirpoHe of wile nuiHt he registered at the custom-liimse, hihI must be marked on the bow with letters duuutiiig the port to which they lielong, and tlirir registered mimlfer. 'I'hus, Orinishy is represented hy the letters O V, I'eterlieiid by P D, and (lalwiiy by O. The lishiiig boats are divided into three classes, — the lirst class iiielnding everything of 15 tons and upwards, the second class nil boats under 15 tons navigated otherwise than by oars only, that is, sometiinis by sailn and .siini times by oars, and the lli nl class those with which oars only are used. The last class is supposed to include only small boats used for liarbour lishiiig ;' but as there are very lew boats in which a sjiil of some kind is not sometimes hoisted, the customs liave a discretionary power to put very small boats into the third class, notwithstanding tiieir occasional use of a sail. The registers for each (sirt are sent to tlio rc^'istrar-general of shijiping, and apix'ar iu the annual returns piiblishid by the Hoard of I'rade. There is great dilHculty, however, in obtaining precise accuracy in the returns for many parts of the coast; new boats sonu'tinies escape registration, and boats which have been lost or broken up sonie- tinicH remain for a year or so on the list. lUlt, imperfect as these returns undoubtedly are, they are of some value iu giving an apprnxininte idea of the number of the Hsliing craft, and of the average size of those in the liist class. It must be remembered, however, that this cliwi includes l^ats rnnging from 15 tons to 70 iir 30 tons. The tendency now is to fish farther from the land than formerly, atid to use decked instead of open boats; the result is that there is a steady increase in the first class boats, and a diminiithin in the number of tliu smaller ones. The following table gives the total number of fishing boats in England, .Scot- land, Ireland, and the Isle of Man on the register for 1876 end 1877, arranged according to their classes : — Tean. FIrat Class. Second Class. Tliird Class. lioals. ToimaKe. Boats. Boats. England Scotland Ireland Isle of Man . Totals ... 1 1876 1877 1876 1877 1876 1877 1876 1877 3,142 3,425 2,782 2,940 393 405 235 254 121,445 137,768 47,743 51,039 9,364 9,861 5,017 5.446 8,777 7,825 9,888 9,326 2,802 2,817 107 123 2,890 2,0»4 1.470 1,303 2,949 3,002 41 11 1876 1977 6.552 6,770 183,569 198,668 21,574 19,968 7,3.'i0 6,349 We .will now proceed to give an account of the several valuable fisheries carried on around the coasts uf the British Islands, with some details of the appliances in use, and the manner in which they are worked. English Fisueries. — On the coast of England the methods of fishing in general use are more numerous than in the case of either Scotland or Ireland, the fishing grounds are more extensive, and the total supply of fish obtained is larger and more varied in kind. The principal modes of fishing are by the boam-trawl, the drift-net, the sean, the •tow-net, and lines. Their relative importance varies to some extent, but trawling and drift-net fishing occupy by far the most conspicuous positions, and lines come next in order. Trawlintf. — The most characteristic mode of fishing is that known in England as " trawling," or in Scotland as " beam-trawling," and consists in towing, trailing, or trawl- ing a flattened bag-net, of">n 100 feet long, over tlie bottom ' By a recent order in council all open fishing boats which do not fish beyond three miles from land are exempted from registration. This practically abolishes the tliird class which has hitherto appeared in the returus. in such a manner as to catch those fish cspprially which iiiituriilly keep chisu to or upon the gnunul. Jt is very dusirable that the name " trawl " nIiouIiI bo rcstiicteil to this nut, pruHuiitly tu bu described, ns niiich ciinfiHion ha.s been caused by the practice, guiienil in Kcothiini (whiili has ini.sled even such writers as Mr Couch, see Fishi-» of the Itritish hlitnds, iv. 10.')), of applying the name to that very ditferent kind of net which hiis for centtirius past beoii almost universally known as the " sean," " seine," or " seyne," and may be traced back through the Saxon seijne to the Latin mujeiui, a sweep-net. In the United States and Canada, the word " trawl " is still more niisa])plied, buing given to what is iu England commonly called the long line or bulter. The lieumtrawl may be simply described a.i a triangulor. Hilt, purse-shaped net with the mouth u.xtBiiilcd by u horizoii- tiil wooden beam, which is raised a short distance from the ground by means of two iron frames or heads, one at each end, the upper part of the mouth being fastened to the beam, and the under portion dragging on the ground ns the net is towed over the bottom. The beam of course varies in length according to the size of the net, and depends to soma extent also on the length and power of the vessel which has to work it In the large "smacks," as the trawl-buuts have long been called, the beam rungus from 36 to 50 feet in length ; and there is rarely anything less than this now used by the deep-sea trawlers. Elm is generally preferred for it, selected if possible from timber grown just of the proper thickness, that the natural strength of the wmii may not be lessened by more trinmiing or chipping than ia absolutely necessary. If the required length and thickness cannot be obtained in one piece, two or even three pieces are scarfed together, and the jnints secured by iron bands. When the trawl is being hoisted in, the first part of the apparatus taken on board is the large heavy beam, and this is very commonly done when the vessel is rolling and pitching about in a seaway. It is therefore necessary for the sake of safety that the beam should be secured as soon as possible, and in such a position as to be out of the way and at the same time conveniently placed for lowering again when required. All this may be easily efTected by having the beam of such a length in proportion to the size of the vessel that when hoisted up, one end of it may come over the taffrail, with the iron head just clear outside-, and the fore end in front of one of the shrouds. It then lies on the gunwale of the vessel, and the ends are secuicd by ropes, the foreriggiiig preventing that end of the beam coming on board, but the iron head passing in between the shrouds. The object or use of the beam is to extend the mouth of the net ; but, in order to allow room for the fish to enter, the beam, and with it the back of the net which is laced to it, must be raised a certain distance from the ground. For this purpose the beam is fastened at each end to the top of an iron frame, shaped somewhat like an irregularly formed stirrup, which is fitted to it at right angbs by a square socket at the top. By these "heads or irons" the beam is supported at a height of nearly 3 feet from the ground, and, contrary to the popular idea on the subject, never touches the bottom. It could only do so if the trawl were to reach the ground with its back undermost, and then the mouth of the net would close and no fish could enter. The lower part of the trawl-head or iron is straight and flat, just like the corresponding [mrt o£ a stirrup. It is called the " shoe," and is the part which slides over the ground as the trawl-beam and following net are towed along. There is a slight variation in the form of the trawl irons, and one, known as the Barking pattern, from having been adopted at that old trawling station on the Thames, is shaped exactly like a stirrup ; but generally the irons are preferred with the aft side straight. We FISHERIES .5 now have the long boam supported nt each end by a more or luHH Htirriip Hliiipcd iron lilted ut right niigleH. The next thing to be coimidered in the net. Tliia was previously spoken uf lis flattened and purse-shaped. When the net is 8|)rund uut in the manner it would bo when working, the U|)pcr part or buck has its straight front edge fastened to the beam, but the corresponding hiwer part or belly is cut away in such a manner that tin front niiirgin forms a deep curve extending from the sliio uf one trawl-head to the other, the centre of the curve or " bosom," as it is called, being at a considerable distance behind the beam. The usual rule in English trawls is for the distance between the beam and the bosom to be about the same as the length of the beam. In French trawls this distance is generally much less ; but in all cases the beam and back of the net must [)Hss over a considerable space of ground when the trawl is at work before the fish are disturbed by much of the lower margin of the net. This lower edge of the mouth of the trawl is fastened to and protected by the " ground- rope," which is made of an old hawser " rounded " or covered with small rope to keep it from chafing, and to make it heavier. The ends of the ground-rope are fastened at each side by a few turns round the bock of the trawl- beads, just above the shoe, and the rope itself rests on the ground throughout its entire curve. The fish which may be disturbed by it have therefore no chance of escape at either the sides or back of the net, and as the outlet under the beam is a long way past them, and is steadily moving on, their fate is sooner or later decided by their passing over the groand-rope and finding their way into the funnel- shaped end of the net, from which a small valve of netting prevents their return. The ground-rope is the part which directly bears on the ground, and to prevent the possibility of the fish passing umler it, the rope should have some weight in it so as to " bite " well, or press the ground closely. It is, however, always made of old material, so that it may break in case of getting foul of rocks or such other chance obstruction as may be met with on the geuerally smooth ground where the trawl can only be worked with advantage. If in such a contingency the rope were so strong and good as not to break, there would be eerious danger of the tow-r(>pe snapping, and then the whole apparatus might be lost; but the ground-rope giving way enables the net to be cleared and hauled up with pro- l>ably no more damage to it than the broken rope and perhaps some torn netting. The remaining part of the trawl, extending from the bosom to the extreme end, forms a complete bag gradually diminishing in breadth to within about the last 10 feet, which part is called the " cod or purse," and is closed by a draw-rope or " cod-line " at the extremity when the net is being used. This is the general receptacle for the various fishes which enter the net; and when the trawl is hauled up and got on board the vessel, the draw-rope is cast off and the fish all fall out on the deck. We must now say a few words about the ingenious con- trivances for preveating the escape of the fish which have entered the purse and reached the farthest extremity of the net It has been mentioned that the body of the net tapers away to the entrance to the purse. It is at this point the opening of the pockets are placed; and they are so arranged t}iat the fish having passed into the purse, and then seeking to escape by returning along its sides, are pretty sure to go into the pockets, which extend for a length of about 15 or 16 feet aloug the inner side of the body of the net, and there, the more they try to press forward, the more tightly they become packed, as the pockets gradually narrow away to nothing at their upper extremity. These pockets are not separate parts of the trawl, but are made 0/ merely lacing together the back and belly of the net, beginning close to the miirgin or flule nearly on a level with the bosom, and then carried on with slowly increaning breadth downwards as far as the entrance to the purse. At this point the breadth of the net is divided into three nearly equal spaces, the central one being the opening fnmi the main body of the net into the purse, or general receptacle for the fish, which must all pass through it, and those on (!ui:h side being the mouths of the pockets facing the op[)i)site direction. The central passage has a valve or veil of netting called the " flnpper," which only opens when the fish press against it on their way into the purse. To under- stand clearly the facilities offered to the fish to enter the pockets, it is necessary to remember that the trawl, when at work, is towed along, with just sufticient force to ex[)and the net by the resistance of the water. But this resistance directly acts only on the interior of the body of the net between the pockets and then on the purse; it does not at first expand the pockets, but tends rather to flatten them, because they are virtually outside the general cavity of the trawl, and their openings face the further end of it. The water, however, which has expanded the body of the net, then passes through the flapper or valve, and enters the purse, which, being made with a much smaller mesh than the rest of the net, offers so much resistance that it cannot readily escape in that direction ; return currents are consequently formed along the sides, and those currents open the mouths of the pockets, which, as before mentioned, are facing them ; and the fish, in their endeavours to escape, and finding these openings, follow the course of the pockets until they can go nc farther. The whole of the net is therefore well expancied, but it is so by the pressure of the water in one direction through the middle, and in the opposite direction at *he sides or pockets. The meshes of an ordinary deep-sea trawl vary in size in different parts of the net, diminishing from 4 inches square near the mouth to IJ inches in the cod or purse. The under part of the net, being exposed to more wear and chafing than the upper, is usually made with rather stouter twine ; and the purse, being especially liable to injury from being dragged over the ground with a weight of fish and perlm})s stones in it, has some (irotection provided by layers of old netting called "rubbing pieces" laoed to its under surface. The French fishermen fre- quently fasten a stout hide to this part of their trawls with the same object. A deep-sea trawl, such as has now been described, ia therefore an immense bag-net, the largest size being about 50 feet wide at the mouth and about 100 feet long. Many of these nets are much smaller, some of them not having the beam more than 36 feet or even less, and the net reduced in proportion ; but there has been a great increase in the size of the trawl-vessels in recent years, and at the same time there has been an enlargement of the nets, although not quite in the same ratio. The trawl is towed over the ground by the trawl-warp, generally a 6-inch rope 150 fathoms long, and made up of two lengths of 75 fathoms each spliced together ; one end of this warp is shackled to two other pieces each 15 fathoms long, and called the " spans or bridles," which lead one to each end of the beam, and are shackled to swivel-bolts in front of the iron beads so as to give a fair pull on the whole apparatus. The great development of the trawl fishery in recent years has led to a vast improvement in the kind of fishing vessels employed in it. Fifty years ago the only deep-sea trawlers were in the west of F igland, and from Barking on the Thames. They were not nearly the tonnage of many of the vessels now used in the North Sea, but were stout, heavy, seagoing craft of their size, and ca|)able of standing almost any description of weather ; and, although comfortable, they were certainly not very fast At ths^ I FISHERIES date, however, the fish went into consumptio- . at once, instead of being sen' '.-, weather, and two or thrc^ hours if it he rough. The beam is got alongsi'le, and hoisted up and .secured; then the net is gathered m, the cod or end of the bag being hoisted iu by a tackle, and the cod-rope closiMg the end being cast off, the whole catch of fish falls o'lfc on deck. The fish are immediately sorted and packed away, and the fishermen prepare for another haul, according to the state of the wind and tide.' Trawl-fish are separated for market purposes into two great classes, known respectively as " prime " and " offal." Prime includes turbot, brill, soles, dories, and red mullet, the last being ci'i'^'^t in large numbers in summer, especially by the Brixl; m trawlens. Offal is the name given to plaice, haddocks, whiting, and oMier kinds of inferior fishes which are caught in great ahundance, und usually sell at a low price. The term "offal" w^s applied to these fish at a time when railways had not come into existence, and purchasers frequently could not be found for the quantity of fish the trawlers would bring to market in one day. This was especially the ca.se with plaice and haddocks when the newly dis' overed fishing grounds in ' Fiillar details of the mode of workint; tlie lienintriiwl will Im found in Veep Sea Fishing and Fishing Boati, London, 1S74. FISHERIES the Nortli Soa were first worked. A good deal of fiali was then wasted, and thousuiul.s of haddocks were thrown over- board again as soon aa caught, for the fishermen were under orders nut to bring ashore more than were likely to be sold whilot fresh. Even in comparatively recent years trawled ha Idiicks wore of little valuf, until the practice of smoking theiii, as had long been done in Scotland, was adopted at Hull, Grinnby, and other places; and now not a haddock is thrown away if it is in good condition when landed. It may lie mentioned that round-fish, such as haddock and wliiting, always suflfer more or less in appearance when cangiit by the trawl, as they are liable to be knocked about by the crowd of fish in the small end of the net, especially when the ttawl is being hauled up. They do not therefore fetch a good price in the wholesale market, whilst haddock and whiting caught by the hook are always in demand, and it need hardly be mentioned that the Scotch haddock, so long famous for their excellence, both fresh and cured, are all caugiit with hook and line. The trawling stations in the west of England are Ply.nonth, and liiixhiiiri ill Torbuy, and tliis method of fishing has been carried on fioin lioth [ilaoe.s for |)robal)ly u|iwards of 100 years, altliough the date of its conimencement has been by no means accurately ascer- tained. ' It is certain, however, that at the beginning of the present century the trawlers were cpmparatively few, and not half the size of those now at work. PI /mouth does not apjiear to have progrt^ssed so steadily in later years is liri.xham, and this may be partly caused by the more freiiuent in'errn|ptions from bad weatlier at the western port. The soulli-west' .ly gales so common in winter are felt in all their violence on f'.ie lishing ground of I'lynmuth, and the heavy 8eii accomi'anyinjj them sometimes puts a Rto|i to li.shing for two or three days at a time. The custom also at I'lymouth of only lishing during the day and returning to harliour every evening must niatcriitlly dinnniah the chances of the fishing being very profitable, 1 11(1 lor some few years past the numlier of trawl vessels has not luer.iged more than almiit 60. At Hrixham, where trawling is be- lieved to have originated, and fishing has always been the chief industry, much more enterprise is shown. The trawh;rs there go to sea on Monday morning and remain -t work till the next moni- ing, when they return and land their fi.sh. After an liour or so they again go olf, and fish day and night till the next morning, and 80 on everyday till Saturday conies, when, having landed their fish, they come to anchor, get their sails down, and spend the rest of the day in mending tlieir nets and putting everything in order for the next week's work. Sunday is a day of rest for all hands. The history of the Brixham fishery has a very important hearing on the ciiaiges that liave been brought against the trawlers of destroying spawn and very young fish, and of gmdiially exhausting the lishing grounds m wh'ch they worked. The Hrixham men, as a rule, Keep to a particular stretch of fishing ground, extending from the Start I'uiiit, piust Torbay, towards the neighbourhood of I'ortliiiid, — practii'ally about twenty miles long and of variable breadth, but mo.slly from three to eight miles ottthc laud. There is no recoid of how many trawlers there were at liiixham at the begin liing of this century, but it is known that they were few and less than half their present size. In 1832, however, there were 70 of tliem, 85 iu 1863, and in 1872 their number was about 100, bcsiiles 20 others wliieh worked on this home gronnd during the winter ; and new vessels are being built every year, not only to make up for losses, but to add to the fleet. This small strip of fishing grouinl has cert.iinly been worked for more than a hundred yeara, the fishing smacks have been steadily increas- ing in number and have more tlian doubled in size, and yet there is MO sign of the ground lieeoming exhausted. The greater demand for lish has no doubt encouraged the fishermen in their work, for they have obtained better prices for their fish ; but if the elfects of trawling were the exhaustion of the fishing ground, the Brixh.-.m ' Fro'ide, in his History of KngJand, vol. xii. p. 397 (cabinet edition, 1870), speaks incidentally of trawlers at Brixham so long as[o as tlie tinio of the Spanish Armada. In his deserii)tion of the English attiik on the Spanish Heet, he says: — "Drake, returning from the chase, came up with her [the 'Capitana,' tlie admiral's disalileil ship] in lliu inorniii"?. She .struck her flag, and he took her with him to Torliiiy, where he hit her to 'he care of i!ie Brixham fishermen. . . . Tile prize proved of iinex))ecteil value. Many casks of reals were found ill her, and, inliiiitely more important, iionie tons of gunpowder, with wliich the ' Itoebnck,' the swiftest triiw er in the harbour, flew 111 pursuit of the fleet." The "lloebiuk'' is spoken of, in another acciiunt of the attack, a Sir Walter Raleigh's ship, and therefore, no duuljt, an armed vessc' , and we lirve been unable to find any evidence of there having been t awlers at lirixWun at that date (1688), fi.shery .should have cnme to an end many years ago. It has, how. ever, never been so prosperous as during the last few years. Kvery 0]ie at nrixham is more or less interested in the success of the fish« ing ; the actual condition of the fishery is generally understood, and the savings of the fishermen and many of the trades-people of the place are invested in it year after year. The trawlers dc not work for weekly wages, but on the share principle, and the master is generally owner or part-owner of the vessel. It is eonseqiiently the interest of every one on board to do his best to make a suc> cissful fishing, and the fact of the owner Ijcing in command insures due attention to economy in working, so that, whilst no necessary expense is spared in keeping the sails and gear in proper order, everything is made to last as long ns possible. lirixham has been long considered the "mother-port" of the triiwlers, the idace where the system of beam-trawling originated ; but although Barking, once famous as a fishing station, disputes the honour with her, there is no doubt that Hrixham men have led the way in developing this particular method of fishing to its jiresent large j-ropoitions. More than forty years ago some of the Brixham vessels went to Rara.sgate and fished the grounds at that end of the Channel. Others joined them and permanently settled there, and now there are upwards of IbO sea going trawlers belonging to the port. Ten years later Hull was colonized from Brixham and Ramsgate, and Grimsby from Hull at a subsequent period ; whilst as early as 1818, Brixham smacks and fishermen passed over to Dublin to commence deep-sea trawling in Irish waters. The important rise of Hull as a trawling station dates from 1845, soon after the discovery of the famous Silver Pit, at the south end of the Dogger Bank. Before that time the number of North Sea trawlers was very small ; they were only of about half the size of most of the smacks at present ; and not enough was known of the fishing grounds to tempt the fishermen so far from land in vessels of such little power. For a long time, however, the line fishery for rod and haddock had been carried on in the neighbour- hood of the Dogger, but in vessels specially constructed for tha jiurpose. The Great Silver Pit, so called to distinguish it from a smaller Silver Pit much nearer the land, w as first worked over during a very severe winter,— we believe, in 1843. Two fishing grounds calleil the Well bank and Botany Gut had been ex|dored and dis covered to be very productive ; and between ihem and the Dogger, and bearing true east from Flaniborough Head, the Admiralty chart showed a bed of deeper soiimlings, ranging in some parts from 30 to 40 fathoms, ond the whole extending for about sixty miles east and west, and from six to ten miles in breadth. The patch was marked " Outer Silver Pit," and on trying it with the trawl, in the deeper jiarts at the western end and near the middle, soles wcr» found during that very cold season in almost incredible numbers ; the nets were hauled up bristling with fish trying to escape through the meshes, and such enormous catches were made as the most experienced fishermen kad never before thought possible. Of course it was not long before this remarkable discovery became known, and a migration of trawlers from lirixham aiv) Rnmsgate soon took place to Hull as a convenient station from which to work on this promising ground. With the breaking up of the cold weather, how- ever, this extraordinary congregation of soles became dispersed; but more attention was from that time directed to the North Ses fishing generally, and in after years the Silver Pit has again been found very productive whenever the winter has been verj Bever< , or, as the trawlers call it, in " pit .seasons." The fact -f. temperature affecting the distribution of inniiy kinds of fish, shown in such a marked manner in this particular lase, is now receiving systematic attention from the Meteoriplogical Society of Scotland in connexion with the herring fi.sheries, and very important results have appar- ently been obtained from an inquiry into the same subiect on the coasts of Nova Scotia. The value of the North Sea fishery soon became established, and nothing in the history of our sea fislieries is more remarkable than the rapid but steady development of the system of trawling which has taken place from the. Iluniber porta. The Hull trawlers were 40 in 1845, and most of these were arrivals from the Channel ports, as previously mentioned ; but in 1863 they had iiKrea.sed to 270, and in 1877 there were 440 first-class fishing craft, with an aggregate of 26,310 tons, on the Hull register, — these, excepting a few shrimping boats j'lst over 15 tons each, being all trawl-smacks. Another port on the Humber, Great Grimsby, situated nearer the entrance of the river, has made still gieater prop-ess. It had for some years been known in connexion wHh the North ■''ea cod fishery ; and the practice of bringing home the cod Bli\c in welled vessels, and keojiing them so till they were wanted for the market, led to the selection of Grimsby, rather than the more important town of Hull, as better suited, on accountof the grciiter purity of the salt water, for preserving the cod in good condition in the floatinjf store chests ; and the extension of the Manchester, Slieflield, and Lincolnshire railway to the iiort provided the facilities for sending away the fish to the various iiiiand markets. In 18fi8, when the railway was nearly completed, five of the Hull trawlers mode Grimsby their headquarters, and in the following year the line WM 8 FISHERIES ! II ■; :! ! opened to the town. The advantages of the port at once became evident, and the trawlers rapidly iiicri'iised I'runi 6 in 1858 to 70 in 1863 ; in 1872, only nine years later, the nunilier Wiu 248, and there were 82 cod smauks besides. In the return by the Board of Traile of the first-class fishing craft registered at Griinshy for 1877, the number of vessels, including trawlers, cod-smacks, and a few ■mailer craft engM;ed in procuring whelks for cod-bait, is officially stated as 605, with an aggregate of 29,924 tons, new measurement, which is more than one-third less than that known as builder's measurement This gives an average of over 69 tons j but many of these vessels are 70 tons, and even more. By the courtesy of Mr Keed, the dock-master at Grimsby, wo are enabled to give the following return of the quantity of fish sent away by rail from that town iu each of the years from 1856 to 1877 :— Years. Tons. Years. Tons. years. Tons. 18.5S 1,-114 mi 11,198 1871 sn.RTii 1817 8,4;i5 18B5 13,368 1872 81,193 1H68 4..144 18Sa i.-i.sm 1873 34,876 18.^9 4,7W 1867 19,416 1874 35,134 1R60 4,842 1888 21,621 1S75 34,881 1861 fi,871 1869 24,140 1876 40,18.5 18M 8,.W1 1870 26,324 1877 44,376 1863 9,408 The only break in this increasing series is in 1875, and is readily explained by the fact the herring fishery in that year was a very bad one, and that in.stead of about 4000 tons of herrings being then landed from Lowestoft and other boats at Grimsby us had been tin: case for some few years previously, the quantity wa."! very muc^h smaller. Great, however, as has been the increase of fish sent away by rail from Grimsby, especially during the last two years, the re- turns above given do not represent all the fish landed at the fish- wharf ; for a new trade to the Continent has lately sprung up, and fresh fish is exported direct to the following places, the returns being given for the two years in which this trade has been carried on;— Tear. Tons. Year. Tons. 1876 21 1639 735 1877 If Ill 2683 911 Kotterdam '* It must be remembered that this great increase of the Grimsby trawl fishery has not been at the expense of Hull and othnr trawling stations, for, except at Plymouth, where, owing to loc.il ciiu.ses, the number of trawlers has remained about the same for several years, the others have also more or less largely adiled to their fleets. Grimsby is indeed comparatively new as a fishing station, but it is fast outgrowing in tliis paiticular trade the con- veniences which, at the time they were provided, were thought ample for anything that would be required. A special dock of 12 acres in extent was constructed for the u.se of the fishing vessels; another of 11 acres has lately been finished, as well as a graving dock capable of holding ten smack-s at a time. The fish are all landed on a covered pontoon 8'28 feet long and 48 feet wide ; but so crowded has this landing wharf become, thai an addition to it is likely to be made. Ice companies have also been established, with steamers of their own constantly bringing ice from Norway for the use of the fisheries. This is largely employed in packing the fish for transit by rail inland ; but ice now also forms part of the regular fit-out of the trawlers, more particularly from September to May, when, there generally being plenty of wind, each vessel brings back its own catch of fish. An air-tisht com- partment is fitted in the hold of the vessel, called the "ice-box," in which from two to four tons of Norwegian ice are placed when she starts on her trip, or "voyage," as it is usually called. As the fish are caught they are stowed away below in bulk, with broken ice be- tween the layers, and this is continued till a good quanlity of fish has been collected. Then the vessel returns to port, after an absence of |)erhaps ten or fourteen days. The fish are taken out loose and put up to auction, the buyci's finding the packages ; in thes#^he llsh are packed with a sprinkling of crushed ice again between the layers, and an extra quantity at the top, which is covered with straw and tied down. From May to September, however, when light ■winds prevail, a different systeir< is adiipted, and the vessels fish in fleets of from twenty to fifty together. Their fish are collected every day by carriers, either stetnicrs or fast-sailing cutters, which receive what eai:h vessel has to simd in, and with it a consignment note, or " pot-list," to the wholesale dealer who has to sell it as soon as it reaches the market. All the fish are packed in ice as before, and are repacked in ice when sent away to the fishmonger, who keeps them under the same cooling influence till almost the moment of sale to the consumer ; so that from first to last the value of ice in the trawl fishery is alnio.st incaleiilable. Without this material the supply of trawl fish in a wholesirigof the trawd system, and they commenced their in(\niiy at C'uUercoats, only three ndles north of the jiresent head- ([Uarters of steam-trawling. In 1877 it apjicars that trawling was tried with one or two steam-tugs, which, owing to the badness of the shipping trade, had very little to do ; and it was found to be so successful that others fitted out for the same work, until ubont forty were engaged steadily in this fishery whenever there was nothing to keep t em at home. The latest information is that other more suitablt vessels are about to iH'gin, and that by way of fu'i.,ei t- periment fast steamers are to be employed to collect the fish from the trawlers, which will take it to London, it is calculated, in about twenty hours. The best ground fished by these steam-trawlers is said to be north of Newbiggen, and at some little dis! nice from the land. Very fine soles are reportetl to lie taken there, and no doubt the character that jiart of the coast formerly had for turbot has not been entirely lost. The chief grievance of the Newbiggen fishermen in connexion with this trawling is that their long lines are interfered with ; but as they are in the habit of setting their linos, and then leaving them all night to take care of themsi Ives, they can have no just or legal cause of complaint against fisherni.'n who are working another method of fishing in the same neighbour- hood, and who have no means of finding out where the lines are after it has become dark. It is well-establi.shed law that no one can bo held responsible for the loss of fishing gear in the open sea if the owners leave it unguarded. With regard to trawling grounds, those hitherto worked in the North Sea are principally on the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts for the home fishing, whilst the off CTounds are about the southern part of the Dogger, and towards the Dutch coast.' Some localities are famous forliaddocks, others for- plaice, while soles are ab'iulant on particular grounds But there are sea.sona for each locality when the fish frequenting them become more numerous there. There is good trawling also to be had otf Ha.stings, on the Diamond grounds, as well as on the Varne and the Ridge in mid-channel, and from the North Foreland far into the North Sea. On the western side of England, the Liverpool and Fleetwood trawlers work according to the season between the Isle of Man and the Rnglish coast, sometimes going into Carnarvon and Cardigan bays; and the Tenby ground is fished by smacks belonging to Tenby, and by several luiu Brixbum during the summer months. The number of sea-going trawlers now working on the Rnglish coasts cannot be less than lietween 1700 and 1800, and of these upwards of 1300 regularly fish in the North Sea. Taking a low average of five hands to each vessel, we have nearly 9000 men and boys engaged in this fishery, and trained to a regular sailor's life. Drift Fisheries. — The next in importance to trawling among the English fisheries is tliat cniTJed on with drift- nets for mackerel, herrings, and piiciiards. It is un- doubtedly the most common method of netdishing on tlis coasts of the British Islands, but nowhere is it so general as in Scotland. There are, iiowever, some consider- ' The great inorease of largo trawlers within the last few years has naturally led to a more extended held of work, and many of thorn now go much further to sea than formerly. FISHERIES 9 aWe drift fisheries on the eastprn and sonthem coasts of Eughiiiil, uiid thu iiiipoi'tiiiit iimckei'ul tisheiy is mainly at tho westeni end of the Cliaimel. Tlio value uf that uiode of fishing, technically known as " drifting or driving," will be understood whim it is remembered that it is the only method by which such fishea as herrings, mackerel, and pilchards, which generally Hwira at or near the surface, can be readily ci.nght in tlie open sea, at any distance from the land, and in any dejith of water, so long as there is suffi- cient for tho floating of the nets in the proper position. The term " drift-net " is derived from the manner in which the nets are worked. They are neither fixed nor towed within any precise limits of water, but are cast out or " shot " at any distance from the land where there are signs of fish, and are allowed to drift in whichever direction the tide may happen to take them, until it is thought desirable to haul them in. The essential principle of the working of the drift-net is that it forms a long wail or barrier of netting hiinging for a f»w fathoms perpendicularly in the water, but extending for a great length horizontally, and that the fish, meeting these nets and trying to pass them, become moshed ; they force their heads and gill-covers through the meshes, but can go no farther ; and as the gill-covers catch in the sides of the mesh, the fish are unable to withdraw and escape. Whether it be mackernl, herring, or pilchard, the manner in which the net works is the same ; the variations which exist relate only to the difference in habits and size of the fish sought after. We will first speak of tho Yarmouth herring fishery, one of the most important English drift fishurJKs, and the one of which we have the oldest records. The thriving town of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk is said to have been the resort of fishermen during the herring season as early as the 6th century, and there is no reason for believing that the fishery with which its name has bee.^ .^o long associated was ever carried on by any other methor" than diift-nets, as at the present day. An immense deal of information about the early records of the herring fishing at Yarmouth and other places has been compiled and published by Mitchell in his book on Tke Hen-ing,^ and to him we must refer our readers for numerous historical details on the subject ; but we may mention that, according to authorities quoted by him, Yarmouth was erected into a burgh by Henry I. in 1108, the annual payment for this privilege being "ten fflilliers of herrings." The fishery was then evidently re- cognized as being wll-establislied, and herrings as the special trade of the town, A quaintly written account also of the origin of Yarmouth, as given by Manship (who wrote in 1619), is quoted in the following note by Swinden^ in his history of the town : — " And now by pregnant prohnbilities, it is my opinion very clear, that from the lamling of Ceiiliiik (ono of the Saxon adventurers) in anno 495, now 1124 years past, this sand, by the defluxion of tides, did by little and little lift its head above the waters ; and so in short time after, sundry fishermen, as well of this kingdom, viz., of the Five Ports (being then the princiiml fishermen of Kngland), as also of France, Flanders, and the Low Countries, yearly about the feast of St Michael ";e Archangel, resorted thither, where tliey continued in tents, made for the pnqiose, by the space of forty days, alx)ut the killing, trimming, salting, and selling of herrings, to all that thither came for that purpose ; whereunto did resort tl\e roerchants of London, Norwich, and olher places to buy herrings during the season, and then lieparted ;''a8 those fishennen wlio kill fish at Wardhouse use to do at this present. So in short time after, as that sand became firm land, and that thereby traffic began more and more to be increascil, men finding the same to be a com- modious place to dwell and inliabit in, did for (' urpose gather themsolres together, to have a continual reside .j therein, and began tOk build houses, of which came streets, and of those streets this flourishing township." * Tht Herring; itt IVatural History and National Importance (1864). * Hitior^ and Antiguitia raetiee of landiirg the Ksh on thi^ beach in fiout of the town is ri'surted to. The holding is effected by means of laifie " ferry-boats," which go otf loaded with baskets of a jiciiiliar shaiic, called "swills," each one cajiable of hoMing 500 hei lings, and j^nt them on board the lugger which is anchored at a short distance from the shore. The fish are then counud ranidly into the baskets, Hhich are placed, when full, in the ferry-lioat, and as soon tia she is loaded she returns and is laid broadside on to the beach. A set of strong, active fellows, known as "beachmen," at once go to work, and two men taking each baske* between them in their arms, soon carry up the fish to the uarts waiting to take them either to the market or direct to the curing houses. The situation of the market by the side of the haven is very convenient; aud, if requirt 1, »^ire room can be easily provided by adding some of the vacant land initae- diately adjoining it, and with the same river frontage. The market w.'is completed only in 1867, and although the Yarmonth fishery has been carried on continuously for many centuries, it is only since the opening of the new market that an accurate account has been kept of the quantity of herrings landed there. The following statement shows the number of lasts of fish received at the market during each of the ten years 1868-77, and as a "last" of herrings contains 13,200 fish, some idea will be gained of the produce of the Yarmouth iisliery, without taking into consideration what is landed elsewhere by Ysrmouth boats : Tears. Laiti. Yuin. Lut«. 1868 15,098 1873 18.796 1869 13,608 1874 17,724 1870 19,420 1875 11.820 1871 19,c08 1 1876 12.824 1872 14,460 1877 18,900 The following is the mode of counting herrings on al.uost all parts of the east coast of Knjjland : — 4 herrings — 1 warp. ^■ S3 warps - 1 hundred - 132 fish 10 hundreds — 1 thousaud — 1,320 „ 10 thousand* - 1 hut - 13,200 „ Only SO warps or 120 fish, however, go to a "hundred" of mackerel. It will be observed that considerable fluctuations have taken place in the produce of the Vanihii, " licty duiiiig the last ten years ; and there is no doulit that th , nave been almost entiMlj caused by variationa of weather doiingUw bwring i FISHERIES 11 A few words must be sixicl hero ab-Ait the mimifticture of blitatHrs and red hurriiigs, wliicli iia8 iiiiide Yariiiuuth famous all over tlie world. 'I'he Siime incidB m' cutiiig berriiigs is now adopted in many other parts uf Eiigl >iid and in tScut- land, but the tin" . spent ou the oporutiou is not in all cases the same. As soon as the heiTinm are brought to the cnrins? houses at Yaintoiitb, the fish iiru all wiislieil to get rid of the siilt they were sprinkled with ou board tlie fishing iioats, and then, without bi'iiig L'utted, or any other iirei>aration, tliuy are again put into aalt, which 18 giMiiTally brought from Liveriwol. Their Bubsocjuent treatment depends on whether they are to be made into ivd herrings or blc>at«rs. The latter — Yavniouth bloaters, ,mr excellence — are gene- rally selected fish, full-itted and of the best h have been taken along almost every part of the south coast of Devon. Pilchards may be regarded in England as essentially Cornish fish ; there is very little sale for them out of their proper county, but there they are looked upon almost as one of the necessaries of life, and every house- hold likes to have a store of salted pilchards for winter use. These are all the produce of the drift nets, the fish taken by the sens being cured for export to the Mediterranean. A new industry in connexion with the pilchard fishery has been recently established at Newlyn in Mounts Bay, and at Iilovagissey, further to the eastward. This is the manu- facture of "sardines" in precisely the same manner as has long been carried out on the French coast. The so-called " sardines," canght so h'.rgely in the Bay of Biscay, being nothing but young pilchards, there seemed no reason wiiy the Cornish fish if treated in the same way as the French should not turn out as good. Curing establishments were therefore set up at the two places named, and measures having been taken to ensure a thorough knowledge of the French mode of curing, "Cornish sardines," or "pilchards in oil," were prepared, and with so much success that orders for them are now r reived for more than the present limited means of manufacture can supply. Sean Fuheries. — Sean or eeiite nets are used on the Engliah coasts chiefly for tbs capture of macket«l and 12 FISHERIES ,1 ■ it pilchards, but sprats and varions other fish are occasionally taken by them. The particulur fishery with which this net ia most commonly associated is that for pilchards at St Ives, on the north coust of Cornwall, where seuns are kept in readiness for working nn a very large scale. For a long course of years St Ives Bay has been more or less visited by shoals of pilchards, generally during the months of October and November. These fish are found in abundance off the south-west of Ireland rather earlier in the year, and it appears as if the rhoals were returning towards the Bay of Biscay, when they arrive on the nortli coast of Cornwall in October, In their course southwards some of then\ enter St Ives Bay and sweep around it, and if, in doin^- so, they come within a certain range of part of the shore, the seans are brought into play, and large captures of fish may be made. The seaning ground is on the western side of the bay, and extends southwards for nearly three miles from the bar. It is divided into six stations or "stems," by marks or bound- aries on the land, in positions fixed by a local Act.' These stems have each a name, and no fishing boats besides those employed in the scan fishery are allowed to fish or anchor within a certain distance of the stems between an hour before sunrise and the same period after sunset from the 25th of July to the 25th of December; and any passing boats must keep near the shore. Under favourable circura- Btaaces tiie fishery is likely to be su valuable and of such general advantage to the town that the Act of Parliament regulating tlie proceedings is strictly carried out with the approval of all concerned. For this reason also no seans below a certain size are allowed to be used, so that the danger of disturbing a large body of fish, and perhaps frightening them into deep water without having secured a good haul, may be as much as possible avoided. The smallest scan of legal size at St Ives is 160 fathoms along the cork-rope, with a depth of 8 fathoms at the middle or bunt and 6 fathoms at the ends or wings. Some of the seans are as much as 200 fathoms long, and the mesh in all ia three-quarters of an inch square throughout the net. The object is not to mesh the fish as in a drift-net, but to inclode them. What we have described is the sean proper, but there is another of smaller size and different proportions which also takes pirt in the fishery. This is called a tuck- sean, and is only 70 to 80 fathoms long, but it is 8 fathoms at the wings and 10 fathoms in the middle or bunt. Besides these there are other nets called stop-nets, which are practically only additions which can be made to the principal sean, and which are so used when the sean ia being worked. As there are about 250 seans at St Ives, and only six stations in which they can be used, some arrangement is necessary to prevent confusion and inter- ference, and this and other details are the subject of special regulations. The seans are all registered, and many of them belong to companies. Several boats are employed when a sean is to be shot. The largest, called the seanboat, is about 32 feet »n keel, with plenty of room for carry- ing the net; she has six men for rowing and two for shoot- ing the sean. Two tow-boats about 24 feet long, and each carrying a stop-net, witli a crew of six men, make up the working party; but besides these there is a small boat called the " volyer " or " lurker," from which the master seaner directs all the proceedings. The position of the shoals of fish is pointed o\it by men culled " huers," who are selected from the sharpest and cleverest of the fisher- men. There are generally two of them on the Iiill above each station, and when they see the shoals of fish, looking like the shadow of a cloud on the water, they signal with a large white canvas ball to the boats waiting below in the ■tations. These men remain on duty for three hours at > 4 and e Vict. •. (7. a time, and receive £S a month, and one hogshead out of every hundred hogsheads of fish landed. When the tilioal has come within a convenient distance of one of the sta- tions, the bduts containing the sean and stop-sean, which have been previously joined together, commence shooting the nets at the same time, the krger net being thiown out in a direction parallel with the shore, «hile the stop-scan ia shot in front of the shoal as the boat is ruwoil towards the laud. The two boats ultimately turn towards each other, and gradually bring the ends of the nets together, thus cut- ting off and surrounding as many fish as taey can. The second stop-net is joined to the first if thern is a probability of its being wanted. The nets are then fastened together at the point of meeting, and the circle gradually contracted until ail the fish are inclosed by the single large sean. The ends being securely joined and the stop-nets taken away, the circle of netting with the inclosed pilchardu is slowly hauled towards the shore, into some quiet place as much as possible out of the run of the tide, till the woi^.hted foot of the net touches the bottom, and there it is safely moored. The fish cannot now escape, and if the haul be a largo one several days may elapse before they are all taken out. " Tucking" the fish is the next operation, and thii is per- formed with the tuck-sean, which we described as being very deep in the middla It is shot in the ordinary way with one boat, but inside the other sean, and as it is hauled in, the foot of the bunt is raised so as to bring the fish to the surface, whence they are dipped out in large baskets and put into attendant boats to be carried on sliore. This is of course the exciting moment of the day, and all the town is astir, and taking part in the general rejoicing. Landing and carrying the fish to the curing liouses is done by men termed " blowsers," who are paid in proportion to the catch of fish. The seanmen receive certain wages in money and a share of the fish, and every household does a little curing on its own account. The great bulk of the fish, however, goes into the houses of the large curers, who are generally the proprietors of the seans. ■Women are employed in the curing, wliich consists in packing the pilchanls in alternate layers of conrsc salt and lish on t)ie stone floor of the curing house, until the "bulk," as it ia calleil, has reached a height of five ov six feet. The fish remain here a month, and th( oil and brine draining from the mass are carried, olf by gutters in the floor to a cistern. When tlii' iish have hcen sufficiently salted they are wuslieil and packed witli the heads out- wards in hogsheads, and a " rose " of fisli in the middle to keep th« level. GruJuMl pressure is now applied on top of the Iish, until the contents of the cusk have been reduced one-third in bulk, and a large quantity of oil squeezed out ; this escapes throngh the sides of the hogshead, the hoops not being at first very tightly diiven. The cask is filled up three times before the pressing is finished, and then, after eight or nine days, the hogslieiid of fish sliould wiigfi four liundredweiKht groRS. The average number of fish in each hogs- head is 2500, and sometimes as many as lOoO hogsheads have been taken at one haul of the scan The largest single catch rccoidcd at St Ives was 5500 hogsheads actually hiuiied, nnd on that occasion great numbers of fish w ere lost besides. The fluctuation in the seiin- pilchaid fishery at St Ives is very great from year to year ; nr'd it wouM apiiear ri'markable, if the success of the fishery did not almost entirely depend on whether or not the shoals came into that pait; of the bay whore alone the seans can be used. The St Ives scnn- fishery has been unsuccessful for the last four years, less tlian 10,000 hogsheads having been cured in each of those periods ; but in the " Pilchard Circular " issued by Messrs G. C. Fox & Co. of Falmouth, giving an account of the fishery season of 1877, it is said that " considerable bodies of fish visited the coast, but did not con- into the stems where seines might have inclosed them." ' The ' It is difficult to suggest any satisfactory explanation of the that, though large shoals of pilchards are every year observed p» the north coast of Cornwall, it is only in particular years that t great numbers of these fish enter St Ives Bay and come within reach of the seaners. It might seem that the streams, containing draiiinga from mining works, which fall into the bay, would )>ollute the water, and tend to turn back the fish, but there is much less mining in tha neixhbourhood now than formerly. The fisliemien's idea that the stata and direction of the tide, when a shoal of fish is near the entrance to tha bay, affect the couna of the shoali appaars more plausibla, for it moit rw\ ws~'^y"^ FISHERIES 13 chards cured by the wan owners at St Ives arc all sent to the Italian markets ; ' and we have to thank Messrs Fox for the fol- lowing stutistios of sliipmeuts since 1816, The fluctuations are aluio.it entii'vly due to the variations in the great sean fisheries : — Export of Pilchard!, to Italian I'ortafrom 1815 to 1877. Yetr. HoKaheiids. Year. Hogstieads. Ye»r, HoKsheada. IBIS I5.0IK) 18J7 16,349 1869 8,289 18IS 20,000 1838 7,680 1860 4,981 1817 24,000 1839 12,856 1861 11,078 1818 1.700 1840 23,373 1862 17,8.S4 1819 2,900 1841 9.605 1863 25,677 1820 800 1842 20,735 1864 32.439 1821 2,V)0 1843 8,859 1865 9,929 1832 9.123 1844 13,976 1866 14,294 1823 24,109 1819 80,807 1867 16,833 1834 7,811 1846 84,137 1868 19.91)3 1825 12,0.n 1847 41,623 1869 16,148 1826 10,670 1848 7,691 1870 6,048 1827 S,238 1849 25,.188 1871 45,688 1828 26,018 18.50 26,530 1872 1 1,138« 1830 700 1861 2C.736 18,406 1890 22,010 1852 16.238 1878 81.019 18S1 26,648 1853 21,276 1874 [ 819< 1831 81,9,30 1854 6,845 7,648 1833 10,037 1855 6,103 1875 7,837 1834 26,29S 1858 18,833 1876 9,908 1835 2,1,833 1867 16,921 1877 9,477 1888 18,762 1858 18,479 Tlie special sean fisheries for mackerel are along the Chesil Beach near Portland, and on the Sussex coast, at and near Brighton; but they do not call for particular notice. Stow-net Fishery. — This fishery appears to be entirely confined to the Solent, inside the Isle of Wight, the estuary of the Thames, and the Wash, between the Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts. It is specially for the capture of sprats, although many young herrings are sometimes caught, and it is worked most extensively at the entrance of the Thames. Tiie stow-net is a gigantic funnel-shaped bag Laving a nearly square mouth, 30 feet from the upper to the lower side, and 21 feet wide. It tapers for a length of about 90 feet to a diameter of 5 or 6 feet, and further diminishes to about half that size for another 90 feet to the en I of the net The whole net is therefore about 180 feet or 60 yards long. The upper and lower sides of the square mouth are kept extended by two wooden spars called " balks," and the lower one is weighted so as to open the mouth of the net in a perpe.idicular direction when it is at work. The size of the meshes varies from an inch and three-eighths near the mouth to half an inch towards the end, where, however, it is again slightly enlarged to allow for the greater pressure of the water at that part. The mode of working the net is very simple. Oyster smacks are commonly used in this fishery, although shrimping boats are also employed in it in the Thames. The smack takes up a position at the first of the tide where there are signs of fish, or in such parts of the estuar)' as are frequented by tlie sprats during that part of the season ; bIic then anchors, and at the same moment the net is put overboard and so handled that it at once takes its proper position, which is under the vessel. It is kept there by a very simple arrangement. Four ropes leading, one from each end of the two balks, and therefore from the four corners of the mouth of the net, are united at some little distance in front, forming a double bridle, and a single mooring rope leads from this point of union to the vessel's anchor ; so that the same anchor holds both the vessel and the net. The net is kept at any desired distance from the bottom by means of two ropes, one from each end of the upper balk to the corresponding side of the smack, where be remembered that, though the fishery season lasts several months, it is only at intervals that the nets are put into the water, and the tide may be unfavourable when the fish are heading towards the bay. It is qnite clear that, as the sean fisheries of 1871 and 1873 were the most su(!ces.sful on record, there has' been no gradual diminution of pilchards from over-fi.shing, ' A lishery for pilchards has recently been established along the coast of Oalicia, and Spanish pilchards, cured in the same manner as the Cornish fish, are making their way in the Italian markets. * Previous setson's fish. it is made fast. The open mouth of the net is thus kept suspended below the vessel, and the long mass of netting streams away astern with the tide. The strain of thia immense bag-net by the force of the tide is often very great, but if the vessel drags her anchor, the net being made fast to the same mooring, both keep their relative positions. Here they remain for several hours till the tide slackens, the vessel's sails being all taken in, and only one hand being left on deck to keep watch. The way in which the fish are caught hardly requires explanation. The sprats, swimming in immense shoals, are carried by the tide into the open mouth of the net and then on to the small end, where they are collected in enormous numbers ; from this there is no escape, as the crowd is constantly increasing, and they cannot stem the strong tide setting into the net. The first thing to be done in taking in the net is to close the mouth, and this is effected by means of a chain leading from the bow of the vessel through an iron loop in the middle of the upper balk down to the centre of the lower one, and by heaving in this chain the two balks are brought together and ultimately hoisted out of the water under the vessel's bowsprit. The net is then brought alongside and overhauled till the end is reached, and this is hoisted on board. The rope by which it is closed having been cast off, the sprats are then measured into the hold of the vessel by about three bushels at a time, until the net has been emptied. The quantity of sprats taken in this manner by many scores of fishing craft during the season, which lasts from November to February, is in some years simply enormous ; the markets at Billingsgate and else- where are inundated with them, and at last they can only be disposed of at a nominal prfbe for manure ; and in this way many hundreds of tons are annus'ly got rid of. The stow-boats do not generally take t°. . fish on shore, but market boats come off to them and buy the fish out of the vessel's hold, and carry it away The mode of working ia the same in the Solent and the Wash as that we have described in the Thames, and large quantities of sprats are landed by the Southampton boats. " Whitebait," or young herrings, as they should properly be called, are caught in the Thames by a net which is practically nothing else but a very small stow-net, and it is worked in essentially the same manner. Li7ie Fisheries. — Hand-lining and long-lining are worked more or less all round the British Islands, and various kinds of fish, such as cod, haddock, wiiitiug, coalfish, pollack, bream, and conger are taken regularly on the English coast, some being more abundant in one part and some in another. The cod fishery in the North Sea, however, is the one specially deserving notice ; it has been carried on in a systematic manner, and on rather a large scale for a great number of years. Welled smacks were in use at Harwich as early as 1712, and in them the cod were brought alive into port just as they are at the present day. The idea of keeping the fish alive appears to have been taken from the Dutch fishermen, and in the interval between 1712 and 1715 three vessels fitted for that purpose were buMt, but very inferior to those afterwards con- structed.* In the year 1720 the number had increased to 12, and in 1735 to 30. Of that number Mr Nathaniel Saunders, the progenitor of several generations of fish- factors and salesmen at Billingsgate, had six, and with four of these, which were very superior to the other two, he visited the coast of Scotland in the course of his fishing eixpeditions, and was at that time the chief medium for conveying goods to and from the north of Scotland. In 1766 • Our notice of the early history of the cod fishery as carried on fhnu Harwich is taken from a statement prepared by Mr Groom of Har- wich, and giren to the Royal Sea Fisheries Commissionen in 1864. 14 FISHERIES ^S'Si a Mr Orlibar, a fishing smack owner at Harwich, made tlio first attempt to fish fur cod with lung lines on tho Duggur Bank ; and although he was at first very unsuccessful, ho persevered, and was so fortunate that in 1774 the number of smacks bad increased to 62, of which 40 wont regularly to the Dogger to fish with long lines. In 1788 there were 78 smacks, and in 1798 the number had increased to 96. About this time a few attempts were made at Qraveauiid, Greenwich, and \. .rkmg to construct smacks of a similar description, and the Harwich fishery gradually declined. Afterwards the three places on the Tliumes increased their cor.nexiou .vith this fishory, and Barking especially became an im[)Oftant station, nut only for cod-boat?, but also fur trawlers. Many cud vessels were likewise owned at Qravesend and Greenwich, and these twj towns for many years had stores of live cod in chests floating in the river. Great changes have, however, taken place in recent times ; the Thames water became su impure that the cod could not be kept alive in it for many days, and ultimately the storing of the fish there was altogether given up. The Harwich river was still used for that purpose, and is so now, although there are but few cod-boats belonging to the place ; but the opening of the railways on the east coast gradually brought Grimsby into notice, and its position in relation to the fidhing grounds was found so cuiivenient that it gradu- ally became, and there is every reason to believe it will re- main, tlie headquarters of the Nurth Sea cod fishery. The special feature in this fishery which distinguishes it from all other line fishing on the coast of the United King- dom is the sy.stBmatic use of welled vessels, in which the cod are kept alive until they are brought into p,)rt. These welled smacks are built for the purpose, the well not being a tank fitted into any. suitable vessel, but a part of tho original construction of the hull. Two strong water-tight bulkheads are built entirely across the vessel from keelson to deck, enclosing a large space just in the centre of the Bmack. This is the "well"; and a constant supply and circulation of the water from the sea is kept up within it through large auger holes bored in the bottom of the vessel, in that part of it between the bulkheads. The vessel is in fact built in three compartments, and the water has access to the central one through the holes made at the bottom of it. The entrance to the w.dl is on deck through a hatchway, the four sides of which are carried down for about three feet to what is called the well-deck, above the level of the water-line, extending all round the hatchway to the bulkheads and sides of the vessel. The object of this lower deck is to keep the level of the water within certain limits when the vessel is rolling about or pressed down under sail. The cost of these welled smacks is about £300 more thau that of the ordinary " dry-bottomed " vessels of the same size. The working expenses of a cod smack are also much heavier than in a trawler. Each of these line boats carries from nine to eleven hands, of whom as many as six or seven are apprentices of various ages ; and the system of payment by shares, so general with the trawlers, is here only adopted in the case of the captain, who gets 9 per cent, of the proceeds of the voyage, the mate receiv- ing 24s. per week, the men 22s., and the apprentices from £5 to £12 a year, according to their length of service. Provisions are found by the owner, entirely or nearly so, Both hand lines and long lines are used in this fishery, depending on season and locality. A complete set of long lines consists of about fifteen auzen, or 180 lines, 40 fathoms in length, each supporting 26 hooks on smaller short lines called "snooda," which are fastened to the main line a fathom and a half apart. A "string" of lines of this description is 7200 fathoms long, or nearly eigitt milea, and has 4680 hooks. Whelks or " buckies " are always oaed for bait where they can be procured in sufficient quantities, and in the regular long-line season each smack takes about 40 wash' of whelks with her lor tho vo}iii,'c, and about half that quantity as the suasun draws to a clo-e in March. The whelks aro preserved alive in net bags, and are kept in the vessel's well till wanted, when tho shells are broken and the tough tleshy animals extracted. Baiting the large number of hooks used gives plenty of em[iloyment to the large crew ol the smack. The lines are shot at sunrise or earlier if the weather is fine and there is light enough to see what is being ilone. Tho smack is put umler easy rhII, and kept as much as possible with tho wind free, so long as a course can bo sailed across the tide, which is im- portant, as then, as the line is paid out, the snoud;* drift clear of it. The linns aro neatly coiled, and with tho baited hooks are laid in trays all ready for running, each tray containing from 12 to IG pieces of line, and as the vessel sails slowly along, the whole length of line is gradually put overboard A small anchor at every 40 fathoms keeps the line steady on the ground, and its posi- tion at the two ends and at every intermediate mile is marked by a conical buoy or " dan," with a statf passed through it and carrying a small flag. When after a few hours the tide has nearly come to an end, the smack, which meanwhile has been hove to in the neighbourhood of the last buoy, gets the end of the line on board and works in short tacks along its course, the line being hauled in, and the fish taken off the hooks as she proceeds. When the wind is very light a boat is used for hauling in the line, and tho fish are kept alive in the stem of the boat, which is partitioned ofT so as to form a watertight division. lu any case the strong and lively fish are transferred as soon us possible to the ship's well, and dead fish, or those which do not apiiear likely to live in the well, are stowed away in ice. Tiie season for long-lining is during winter, and the fishery is carried on both on the Dogger Bank and on well- known ground off the coast of Norfolk. In April this fishery comes to an .»d, and a few of the smacks go away hand-lining to Iceland and the Faroe Islands, salting the fish they catch there, and usually landing it at Shetland. In July hand-line fishing for cod begins in the home waters, and is continued till October, the commencement of the long-line fishery of which we have just spoken. The July fishery is at a distance of from 10 to 30 miles from the coiist, as the ai)proach of the herrings to the land at that time causes a great gathering of cod in their neighbourhood. The smack is hove to when hand-lining, and each man works with a single line furnished with from two to six hooks. On the return of the vessel to Grimsby after a few days, the fish are taken out of the well by means of long handled landing nets, and are put into wooden chests which are kept float- ing in the fish-dock. These chests are 7 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet deep, and are constructed so that there is a free circulation of the water through them. The water in the dock at Grimsby being quiet, the chests are made with the ends square ; but at Harwich, another storing place for live cod, the chests are moored in the tideway, and have the ends boat-shaped, so as to offer less resistance to the stream. There are about 400 of these chests in use at Grimsby during the height of the cod season, and as many as from 15,000 to 20,0U0 live cod in them at a time. There is a great advantage in thus storing these fish, as they can always be sent quite fresh to market, and only as many forwarded as there is a demand for. Killing the cod for market is a strange scene, and it goes on daily during the season. Each chest will hold from 40 to 100 cod according to their size, and when the fish are wanted, a chest is hauled alongside a hulk kept '.n the dock for the > A wash is a stainped measure capable of boldiag tweuly-une qaurta and a pint of watw. FISHERIES 15 purpose, and hoisted up just clear of the water ; the top is then opened, and a niiu .steps into the cliest iind lifts the fish out, seizing them by the Lead and tail, nnd throwing then, on the deck of the hulk. It is often ilitHcult work to get hold of the struggling and slippery cod, but one after another they are taken out and handed over to the execu- tioner on the deck of the hulk ; he gr^^ps the fish tightly behind the head with hia left hand, holding it down on the deck, and giving a few heavy blows with a short bludgeon on the nose, kills it at unce. The dead fish rapidly accumulate in a heap, whence they are taken on shore to be packed in bulk in the railway trucks waiting by the Bide of the market to receive them. The fish thus killed and packed reach Billingsgate early the next morning, and are known in the trade as "live cod"; they fetch the highest prices; and there is somethln. nets worked by each boat, This hau been due to severa. causes. The lightness of cotton nets com- paitid with those of hemp formerly in use enables a larger ({uantity of netting to be easily handled by the same number of men, and thus more catching power is provided. Then it is desirable to make up a certain weight of nets in proportion to the size of the boats, that they may not drift too fust and drag the nets through the water ; fur all the strain that is needed on a fleet of nets is as much as will keep them extended in as near a straight line as may be. The fi:)heries have in late years been carried on far out at see, and a remarkable change from open to decked fishing bouts has taken place, a change that had for a long time been earnestly recommended to the fishermen for thuir own sakcs, and to prevent the great loss of life which had so frequently occurred when the open boats were overtaken by bad weather. This change led to larger boats being built, capable of using an increased quantiiy of fishing gear. There are thus many reasons for the additional netting now generally employed, without resorting to the idea that it has become necessary owing to herrings having gradually dimin- ished in the seas. We may here mention that the official returns of Scotch fishing boats have of late yours shown a steady diminution in their number, but it will be found on examination that the fulling off bus been only in the second and third class boats, and that those of the first class have been increasing. In the last report issuftd by the Board of Fisheries, that for 1S76, a decrease of 109 bouts is recorded; but at the sinie time it is staled that there were 181 fisher- men and boys more than in the previous year, and the estimated value of the boats, net.s, and lines, had increased by as much as £3.'), 7 19. The size of the fishing boats is limited unfortunately by the general absence of natural deep-water harbours where they would be most useful, so that no very great increase in their Jonnage can be con- veniently made ; and although first-class boats are taking the place of those which were in the secimd, the change does not involve an addition of more than four or five tons in one of the larger craft. Fourteen tons was a common size for a hirge second-class boat, and as anything over 15 tons ranks ii> the first class, the new ones of 17 or 18 tons are all included under that head. There is little difi'crence at first sight in the appearance above water of most Scotch fishing boats, but there are many distinctions below the water-line in accordance with local idep". As a rule, excepting on parts of the west coast, the boats are s'larp at both ends and have a great deal of beam, but they dnT>r much in depth and in the extent of rise to the floor. The Buckie boats have long been remarkable for their peculiar build and rig, having a low and broad midship section with a flat or rather hollow floor ; they are very fine at both ends, and have considerable rake of both stem and stero post. They are commonly known as "scafify" boats. Another peculiarity in these boatfi was that they carried a mizen lugsail in addition to the large fore and mail lugs which were the usual working sails of the general run of Scotch fishing craft. Fishermen as a class are most unwill- ing to make any change in their style of boats or methods of fishing ; but when decked boats were fairly tried on the Scotch coast, their advantages could not fail to be acknow- ledged ; and as it was found that profitable fishing^ could be carried on with them in weather such as was dangerous ' As evidence of the advantage of using largo-ilei ked boats, the following extract from the fishery officer's report fnim Eyenionth is quoted by the Hon. B. F. Primrose, the energetic and obliging Mcretary to th« £.>ard of Fisheries, in hia AnitutU Report for 1876:— 16 FISHERIES I I ^Ssi! for open boats, the change from undecked to decked fishing boftts gradually gained favour, and in now very general. This alteration, however, involv.'d an in)[)ortiint change in the rig of the buata in the doing away with the main lug, a B'iil which for n\uny yeare had given a distinctive character to the ijcotuh fishing boatn. In our notice of the Yarnioiitii luggeru we mentioned that when the vessel was fishing, tlio foremast waa' lowered on to a crutch on duck, so that the vessel might ride easier and not roll about, as the weight of the standing mast would bo likely to make her do. This is the practice with all dritt-fishing bouts; but in decked boats there is a dithculty in doing this with a second mast, and if it were d(me there would bo so much more ham|jcr upon or near the deck and in the woy of the fi-sliormur. as to cause much inconvenience. The mainmast bus thercie re been done away with, and the necessary after-sail is pro- vided by means of a mizeii, which, being outside the stem, bos plenty of power when vanted, and is out of the Wdy of the fishermen. The fore-lug is made larger than it used to be, so that there is still plenty of canvas, and the general rig of the boats is n<)w just what has been for a very long time adopted by the English fishermen as the most convenient for drift-fishing. 8tcam-tugs have been advantageously used in towing the fishing boats towards and from their fishing ground ; but such a system could hardly be generally applied to the vast fleet of boats which collect in certain years at some of the stations. The fluctuations in the herring fishing are very remark- able, but they are not more so on the coast of Scotland t lan on that of Norway and elsewhere. Indeed, Norway and Sweden afford instances unparalleled in Britain of the disappearance of herrings from particular districts, and their return in the most unexpected manner after a long course of years (see p. 26). On the coast of Scotland, tlio changes which take place in the fishery consiiit in an in- crease or decrease at particular districts rather than a total disappearance from any one of them. TJie most marked failure in recent years is in the Firth of Forth, where the summer fishing has now been given up, only a small winter fishing being carried on. At Wick, also, for a great number of years the most important stotion on the east coast, the herring fishing has been more or less diminishirw, whilst at the same time Fraserburgh, only about 70 miles distant from it, has gradually assumed an unexampled importance. It is true that in 187G there was an immense falling off in the quantity of fish landed at the latter port, but it was a bad year at almost every station on the east and west coasts. and the almost general decrease arose not from any apparent scarcity of fish, but from the boats being frequently kept in harbour by a continuance of very bad weather during the fishing season, or being unable from the same cause to work their nets when they reached their regular grounds. There is some reason for believing the alleged scarcity of herrings near the land is not so great as has been supposed. Successful fishing many miles out at sea haa attracted large numbers of boats from the home waters, and the catches inshore have been consequently much diminished ; still the general opinion appears to be well founded that the fish have not entered the firths and lochs in the last few years to the sama extent as they used to do. That the fisheries, taken as a whole, have been gradually increasing is shown by the carefully prepared statistics of the Board of "The crews who hnd lorRe-deckeil boats, and perstverinftly followed out the tishing were successful ; while those crews about Berwick and SpittU who were not so well prepared did little good. Many of the Eyemouth and Coldiiigham boats made from £200 to £300 for the season, several from £400 to £500, and a few from £500 to £700 each. The Berwick and Scittal crews, on the other hand, who fished with open boat* and inferior netting, made only from £60 to £120." Evidence to the same effect is given from Aiistruther, and aimilar neoKls hare appeared in former reports. I^mheries ; and it is desirable to point out that the great in- cruiise in the (juantity of netting now used is to nome coii- sidurablc extent counterbalanced by the shorter time the nuts are in the water ; for the boats go h>ng distaiicos to sea, and they have to leave off fishing curlier in order to bring in their fish in good time to the curcrs. It may appi'ur strange that after the lujise of centuries during whirli tlio herring fishery has been regularly carried on, so little knowledge should have been gained of the habits of tlii^ valuable fish ; but it must be confessed that at the present moment we can say nothing positively about what bringi the herring towards the land, why at one tinly in the case of the mackerel, or even in that of the " matie." "With respect to the causes which induce the herrings to keep near the surface, or to remain at some little depth, a step seems to have been taken in the right direction in the observations now being made of the possible relation of the temperature of the sea to the higher or lower movements of the fish, Good service was done by the late Marquis' of Tweeddale when ho provided a number of deep-sea ther- mometers for the use of the fishery officers and fishermen, whose observations are reported weekly to the Meteorologi- cal Society of Scotland, and come under the careful scrutiny of the secretary, Mr Alexander Buclmn. It is early yet to expect any definite results from this inquiry, as it has only been carried on for four or five years; but the observations liitherto made point to a high degree of temperature in the sea being unfavourable to fishing, and show thit, when the sea is found to be colder in any one district than in that on either side of it, the herrings are more abundant and the fishery is more successful in the colder than in the warmer water. It is also stated that the influence of thunderstorms had been perceptible in each year; and that if a thunder- storm of some magnitude had extended over a large portion of the east of Scotland, good takes of fish might be made on that day, but on the following day few if any fish would be caught over that part of the coast, unless at the extreme verge of a deep part of the sea, as if the fish wera retreating thither. Observations on the influence of winds and the temperature of the sea have also been made by the Dutch fishermen ; and Herr von Freedon of Hamburg believes, from an analysis of these observations, that a temperature of from 53° to 57° F. is most favourable for the herring fishery, and that tlie chances of success diminish with higuer or lower temperatures. Should these conclu- sions be confirmed, it is quite possible that the fishermen may be enabled, by a trial of the temperature of the sea at difierent depths, to determine how far their nets should be sunk to give them a fair hope of a successful fishing, instead of working, as they do now, very much on the chance system, often finding that thej have been too high or too low for the principal part of the shoal. FISHERIES 17 TliP inipurtant HyRtcm of euriiitf liorrinRH in the wet stnto, or, U8 it irt iii()|H'rly chIIiiI, us "wliite lii'iriiigN," is iiiocc I'oiiiiiloti'ly wiiili'rviitlciii of tUt: Hnunl of lliititih Wliilr III rrliiK KishiTV, wliicli wuh cHliilili.slu'il by the Act, 48 (loo. III. ('. 110 (ItJilH), unu, witli iHtnii^ Mli){lit cliiuip'ii in itn organization nml lulilitionH to itx dnticH, liax continia'il iIh lul'ours to ttiu iiieiient tinii-. ItH |iHrti('.ulur iliitics unt to inN{H!(!t tliu curing, anil to lu^a tliitt tlic |iro|inr rt'i;iilitii(inii uni duly larricU out ; to place tlio Qovoriiinint liranil on tlio liaircls when duHirccI, uocnnlinf^ to thn quiility of the euro ; to s«c^ that the reguliitioiiH for registering the li.-thing hoiilH lire duly attended to ; to niaiiitiiin order on the li-.liiiig groiindH ; to lay out to the lieHt advantage ahpeeial grant of money for iiniiniviiig orhuilding iishery liurKourH ; and to preiiare aceurule ■talis' les of thi^ ti.sheiiu.s. .Many yeais ago curing according to this By.sleiii wa8 done at some of the lOnglisli porLs, — honee the woi-d liritish in the title of the board ; Iml for Kinne little time post "white herrings" have piaelieally only been prepared in ScoUiind, mill the now ordinary mime ot " Fishery noiird, iScolhind," fairly ex- pre.sscs tlie geographical limits within whidi ita duties are performed ttt the present day. The generKl out-door work of the board is jierlbrnied by a body of men who are well known by the title of (isliery ollii ers ; and it is essential that they T'luld have been brouglit Mil OS coopers, au important part of tlieir duties being to see tliat liari'cls ' of a proiier si:n their sides. Kacli row gets a fresh sprinkling of salt until the liarrel is filled. The ''euil of the ciisk is then laid loosely on, the contents Isdiig allowed to settle down, m jtinc, as it is called, lor a time, — which Uiey soondoso coiihiih ruMy h« toailmit ol each cask receiving another row or tW!i, with adilitiomil salt, before being closed by the cooper. The larrels slinnld then be headed up, tightened in the hoops, laid uiion their sides, and placed under cover, so as to lie shaded from the sun's rays, which aro injurious to the fish. They shniild also be rolled half over every second or third day, until they are bung-packed ; which process, if the after iiiteirtion is to receive the olliciiil brand of llio Hoard of Fisheries, must not be sooner performed than after the lapse of ten free days from the date of ca|vtiire." Sir Tliomaa Dick Lauder" thus describes the final operations: — " When the pickle baa been snfiicieiitiy poured otf, a liaiiilfnl of salt, if required, should be thrown around the inside of the biirrels, and the her- rings sliouhl be pressed close to the inside of the casks, iiiiil addi- tional fish, of the same descri|itioii and date of cure, should bfl iiiicked in until the barrel ia pid|K'rly filled ; ul'ler which it should Le flagged, headed, blown, and tightened, and the curing iiiarka scratched upon tho sides. The barrel may then have its pickle poured in, and be finally bunged iiji." The cured herrings are aeparat<;(l into four clasaea: — "Full," or fish having large milt or roe— in fact, those which are nearly or quite ready to spawn ; " Maties,"' or fat fish, in which the milt or roe is quite undeveloped ; "Spent," orshotteii, those which have recently spaHiied, and consequently are in very poor condition, having neither the fat of the matics nor the roe of the full fi.sh ; and "ilited," consisting of fish of all kinds, or unassorted. For these four classes the liiiani of Fisheries gives distinct brands, denoting the quality and descrlMlion of fish im each barrel ; but the crown full luand, fiven only to "full " fish priqierly cured, is the one in sjiecial request, t denotes the finest production of the system of the Uritish wdiite herring cure. Branding is quite optional on the [lait of the curer ; but in any case this inethod of cm iiig can only be carried on under ispection, and barrels of a particular size must be .sed (or packing the fish in. It is one of the anomalies of the system, however, that although it is nbsolutely forbidden to use barrels of other than a certain sitecilied size, there is not the slightest restriction as to tho quality or condition of the fish to be packed in them, so long as the Goveniment brand is not desired for them. Any refuse fish may lie cured and packed, but the barrel must be of a certain size. The advanta^^es or disadvantages of the branding system have been often discussed, and it has been frequently condemned ns oppnsei' to tha general policy of making the sale of an article I'ependent ^n ita merits alon:i ; 't has been contended that the Government is not justified ill giving a certificate of tho quality of cured lieirings muro than of any other manufactured article, nnu in no other case would such a guarantee bo given. To this it is replied thit there is a de- mand for "white herrings" in numerous and distant Kiiinpean mar- kets ; that without the Uovcniment brand a barrel of herrings would in some places rarely bo sold unless the contents were liist examined ; and that the disturbance and exposure of the fish would lessen tbeir value when they were ultimately unpacked at the end [lo.ssibly of a distant journey. They may pass through many hands before they finally reach the consumer, and each person would be anxious to satisfy himself of their quality. There is no doubt that the brand facilitates the sale under such circumstances, but at the same time it cannot be disputed that thousands of barrels are sold on the Continent every year with no other guarantee than that of the eurer's name. Up to the year 1859 no charge was made for branding ; but since then a fee of fouiiH'iice iier barrel has been paid, and the inoceeds |iractically count against the expense of the board. It was believed in some quarters that the alleged value of the brand was really not so great as to make the cureis willing to pay for it, ' Dirertlont for taking and eurinfi naringn, and .for Ihe curing of Cod, Ling, Tunk. and Hake, bv ,Sli Thomas Dick Liindcr. Hart., Eillnhu «li. IRIH. » " Matics" is acovniptlon of the I'u'ch niaatjn. the term npiilicil to herrings In which the roc Is sinull or undeveloped. Its slKiiltlintiii', linvvcvcr, Is doubtful, and the nearest appro ich we can flnil (o llio wind Is maalje (tVinc iiiaal), a small measure, which It seemed mlRht possllily refer tn tlie -mull «l7.e of tlie nnde- yelo)ied milt or roe, as compared Willi ilic bulky propoitluiis of iliosc oiRons In the full flsh. nut I ur Inqnirles on tho nulijei t from lue lioi I Ics, both In EiiKland ami ihe Nethcrland.i, l.iive failed to elicit any dellnliu cxpianatlim. The Dutch aepiiiatc their licnlnRs Into three classes, as we do, accoiiKni? to the condition of the reprndiicihe orrans vis :— ' VoM," full of roe: '• Mii.it JcV' with the roe un- developed; ani '• Y'.en." empty or slmtten. Mantjet arc iieiieially fat flsh, but hcrrlHRS are In thut cnndltliin only wlicii the iiie Is vciy siiiull. As the breeding soiison advances, the lat Is (neliiHlly nli.iinlicil 'ind the H-h bccoiiie eo'/; and when the spawn, then full; matured, is duiKisliud, .lie herrings are vailed |ffrenent time herring fiMliiiig is entirily free everyuhire iiniiiiid the itritish NlamU except wiiliin three miles of that |'art of tlie coast of Scotland which lies Utween Aiilnamiirelian Toiiit and the Mull of (iulloway ; and the ililHi iillien of enforcing the law there are so great that the rliiw* time has now only a nominal exiatenc*. Another ciimiiiis.ii<>ii which ha.i lieeii recently engaged in inqnirins into the stale (if tlie herring fiHheiies of tkotland has also reported against the utility of iluite time. The fisheries of the west coant of Heotland have iinfnrtunntely given rise to miii'h bit U'r feeling among those whoiiie iiiteiiKted in tlieiii, either as tiNliernieii or cuieis, hihI nothing hat ciiiiHed soniiiili Horiul distiirliiince us the quarrels bi tweeii the ilrilt-liHlienneii and ilio^e who have been using the scan- iint, or, as it is called in Siiitlainl, the " tiiiwl," for cati hiiig lierriligH. The ImalltleH in «hjili lliene dis- pi.tes have Hpecially taken pliiie are h- n I'yiie and ilie KyliHol llute, but more partii iilaily in the l' mier long faiiioiiH HateVM. W. have already deaerlbed the geiie'ji mode ol wurking the scan, win n Hiieaking of the Knglish fisiie'ies, and we will iiiily now repeat tnai tills method of ftidiing ciiiiHLtH in shooting a long slieet of nelling in a semicircle, both ends of whiih are nnmt roniiii' niy hauled on shore until the whole net with the ineloscd fish is landed ; l>iit sometimes a boat is nseil us tlie fixed iHiint at which the ends nl ihe net ai-e made to meet, and into which the net is hauled as l» lore. In the fonner case the net is used as a gronnd-seaii, in the latter as a circle-net. Ilotli are equally objected to by the drift fisln mien, \slio, until aliout the year 18U^. hsd fislied Loih Kyiie according to the old established method. The trawl was then iiitrodnei d, and on several oeeasions a gunboat has been required to keep iinhT be- tween the liHhermeii when bolli niislei) of fisliing were being 1 urried on. I.och Kyne, as we have naiil, wius the special .si ene of lliesedii- piites, and one common complaint by the drift fislninien was that the trawis intercepted the fish at the entrance to the loeh, and broke up the shoals, so that the herrings did not find tlieir way to the n|<|ivr water, where it was alleged tliiie always used to Ih' plenty of liuli at the proper season. There were ooniplaints also thai lisb of all sizes were can){ht by the trawl, those which were too small to be stopped by the drift nets and those too liirgi to lie meslied in them^tho " mother fish," as some of the fishermen called tlicni. Then it was said that the trawlers hometiines made such enornious hauls that only a jiortion of the catch could Iw saved, and, besides other sins laid to their charge, it was finally stated as the crowning offence — one that really explained the princi|ial opposition to the tiuwlers — that they lowered the price of lierrings to a considerable extent by the large supplies they could with little expenditure of time and trouble sometimes throw into the market, and so prevented the drift- men from obtaining the better prices they hail commonly got from their smaller catches. The result of these sevMal complaints was that in 1851 an Act (14 and 15 Vict. c. 26) was passed to put an end to trawling for herrings on the coast of Scotland; but that not jiroving effect- ive, more stringent measures wore brought to bear on the fishermen in 1860 (23 and 24 Vict. c. 92) and Ksril (24 and 25 Vict. c. 72), and fi.shing with tlie trawl was completely 8u]ipre8sed. So litrong a feeling existed, however, among a large Ixnly of the fishermen and others that the complaints against trawling were unjust, and tho prohibition injurious to the interests of tho public as well as to the fishermen immediately afl'ectel by it, that in 1862 a royal coinniis- .sion was appointed especially to inquire into the subject; and in 1864 the question was indeiiendently considered by two of the members of the general Sea Fisheries Conimisiiion, the third commissioner being purjiosely absent from the second inquiry, as he had taken part in the proceedings of the previous one. The conclusions arrived at by the two commissions, after hearing a^atdeal of evidence from both sets of fishermen, were decidedly ailve.'se to the opponents of trawl- ing, and were to the effect that the herring fishery in Loch Fyne had sulfercd no diminution by that method of working ; on the contraiy, it had really been progreiisive, when the periods of comparison were made sufficiently long to correct the annual lluctua- tions, which were always considerable in tlds as in all other herring fisheries. They say ' : — "The selected year.i of bad fishing, brought as proofs that trawling was destroying the llshery, have, when ex- amined, no apiilication to the question, as an equal number of years of quite 08 bad fishing are found in every decennial period before ths system of trawling had been discovered Trawling for her- ring has been un important means of cheapening fish to the consumer, by the la.^e and sudden takes, and tins thrown into the market an abundant 8U,>ply of wholesome fresh fish at prices which enable the poor to enjo^ them without having to come into com- petition with the cuier. It is this circumstance which, in our opinion, has produced the demand for repressive legislation, for the gains of the urift-nct fishermen are much affected by the sudden and ■ atftrt^^tlu Mtful ant jniuHu Cm ml- h mrt , p. «» (IM^ FISHERIES 19 grciit cnpturt'i of the trowlnr, who, workinir with 1pm cnpitnl anl witli u iiinrr inoiliirtivu kiihl of lulxmr, iHuliii^ In 'iinli'mall the (Irift finhiTiiii'ii, uikI til diMiiiiK'^ tht- miu'ki't lor th« cui'iiis." It liii|i|iuiiHil tliiit ill 1M)(I, tli« luHt yi^ur (it trawling liefoiv It.t com- Iili'tti Hii|>|ii'«iMi the llMJiinK ill Loch Kyiu^ wua tliu lurgi'ct ovvr :uMH'ri tlii-n< ; in IHtll it Ml ulf, liul in 1862 it w>uia|2| iiaxaiHl ill 1M67, hy which any kind of herring net with what WU1 thttii the h'Kul luvHh wiu |N;rniittcd, and truwU lo coimtructcd uuiiiu came into \\m. By the H«a Kmhcrica Aut, 186H, all rcHtrie- tiou.i lut to the Hizc of iiicnh wcr« doiii) iiwiiy, hut a* that Act only apjiliHii to liHliinv Iwyoiid the three mile limit, the Act of 1H67 Hlill l'e|{ii!ulHH lli« llJiinu .u Loidi Fyne. It ihuneed that from 1H0.S to 1874 lliM pruduci ut tliiH loi'b tfru'l'iiilly tell olf from 46,H|3 hiirrelH to 6934 liari'cU; the herriiiKH did not ^'o to tlw^ U|>|ii'r wiiturH of tlie loidi ill the Hiime iiitmhcrH an hefore, and we iieud liiinlly hiiv that the drift lialiMniieii accimuted for it mainly Iiy the fact that trawlin;{ hail again lieeii |HM'iiiiltiMl. The drift liHherni«n had littlu lM>licf in the two cuulllli^NiollH wliicli had rvporled that trawling had done no liarin; but in 1874, when matters were at their womt, thret; 8cotrli SeiitleiiieD of )Kiiiition, who were likely to oonimaiid the coiili- ence of the fmhernieu, formed theniHelveii into a iirivate committee ■ aire into the caiiHes of tlie failure in l.ocli Fyne. The ri'- ect has proved to be a miutakeu one; and the fact that three iiKpiiiies had resulted in tlic same coucIusioiiH seemed only to make the.ie lisliermen the more determined to clamour against trawling. Ill 1877 a fourth comminsiou waa appointed ; its object wiu to ex- iiiniiie into the condition of the Scotch herring fisheries generally, niid the state of the Loch Fyne fisheries was therefore once more iiiveNtiguted. Yet, notwithstanding that the prmlure of this loch had incieased from 6034 barrels iu 1874 to 15,097 in 1876, and to 34,471 in 1876, with a further increase in 1877, so far aatha returns liiiil been mode up at the time, all the old statements were again brought forward by the drift men. But the facts against them nppear to have been too strong, and this last commission, like the three previous ones, hog declined to recommend that trawling should bi' Hiip|iieBsed. 'J'liere is abundant evidence in the records for a great number of years that the annual produce of Loch Fyne has been subject to large llucluations. Hut if we compare successive periods of ten years each we Nhatl liud that not only are the average total catches in recent years far in <'Xce.s8 of those in earlier times, but the average for each boat has very lai^^ely iniTeased. The following official record for periodi- of ten years is very instructive : — Avernffe No. AveraRO No. iif Uoaiu. ol UaiTi'li. 1827-1836 800 8,469 1837-1846 350 7,388 1847-1856 896 19,94.'» ]8.'i7-1806 558 33,096 1867-1876 479 25,561 Tlie average for the ten yenr.s 1S57-1.S66 was much raised by the enoninniH eath of 79,893 barrels in 1802, whilst the sin.iU number of tl!t:i4 biiiTels only being taken iu 1874 has materially lowered the uvei;ij{o for the lust ten years. ll' we now look at the ])roduce of the fishery on the whole west coast of Scotland for the la.st thirty years, taking the average in periods of ten years as before, we find the follnwiiif; : — Yuaii*. Avemifo Cutoli, IllgheatCatc)!. Lowctt Catch. 1847-1858 18.57-1866 1867-1878 85,837 122,154 158,988 109,806 173,827 226,037 66,206 83,218 83,892 The quantities here given .ire in liarrels, as usual ; and the figures m tnis and the preceding return are taken from the statistics care- fully prepared by Mr George Ue'nch, assistant in«iwctor under the lloiiid of Fisheries, and furnished i.y liim to the commission in 1877. He hud been 27 years in the service of the board, and for the last 14 yenrs the whole of the west coast fisheries luul been under his ins|ie(tion. There is nothing that enables ua better to understand the actual condition of a fluctuating industry lilvo our soa fisheries than accurate records of its annual produce. In this respect Scotland, owing to ' I hn nepnrt of tho«e gentlemen Is given In full and ally discoaaed In the Ammal Ji^ptri Ua Ittli at ihe Hoard •( ^''islieilaa. the careful laboun of hot Hoard of Fislieriea, ii in • far more for- tunate position vhaii i i.licr Kii^flaiel or Ireland ; and the folhiwing tallies taken from the lust report of the Fishery Iloanl will readily show, by the i:onipariHoii of niiy two selei ted scries of yeuiii, the gradually increasing iiii|Kjrtaiiee of the Hcotch herring fishery, notwithstanding the fiiiutuationi arising from uiifnvonrable weather and other natural causes. Wo may add that considerable (|iiantitiea of herrings whii'h are sold in the local marketa and eoimuuied whilst i|iiito fi'esli, do not appear in the board's returns, but those which are slightly salted for transit by ship to the great market* are lo included. The (|uaiititie« are in barrels, as before. AlisTiiArT showing the total quantity of White Herrings cured, branded, and exported, year by year, in $o fur as hrouijhl under riHjiUmnet of Fiulury (IJUrr.t, from the Istof June 1809 to the 31st of Deoeinber 1M77 ; ilistiiignishiiig the export to Ireland, to the Continent, and to ]ilai'(s out of Kuro|Ht. The periods for which each Keturii is made end on the 6th of April down to 1844 ; from that year to 1S52, on the 6th of January ; and after- wards on the 31ht of Deeeinber j lieiiee two returns were pub- lished in 1852. There were no returns for England after Jan- uary 1850, or for the Isle of tlan alter January 1869. Total Tntol Expuitcd Total Pcrlnda. Cured. Iti'iindud. To Tolho Out of ExpoiUd. Iri'liuid, Continent. KUI'DJIU, ISIO 90,186 84,701 3H,UI4 *.* 7,8,34 35,848 1811 1)1,837 66,663 28,313 ... 0,931 8a.l:i3 IHIl lll,.'>l» 68,41)0 30,417 4,730 37,673 63,830 1NI9 l.Vl,4S8 70,1137 67,1)8(1 1I,II4« 40,699 109.728 1HI4 Itll.t43 »S,I84 43,061 33,943 61,309 118.403 IHIt l(ill,|.'IU 8:i,376 40.U:|A 36,SIII 65,778 141,305 IH16 1113,661 116,436 39,456 15,663 03.668 107,688 ISIT IVJM'J 1411.018 :i6,:i4l 4I,4:I3 57,856 188.638 1. » 337,601 lM;l,OHil 63,386 43,N»6 65,057 1II3.339 1818 »40,81M 370,(133 811,704 63,333 85,136 327,163 ISIIO 883,4'Jl 3II>.),700 101,109 64,303 8S.I(I4 25:1,516 1S31 443,106 663,873 13.-.,446 811,634 79.836 294,806 18M 816,634 363,305 103.719 84,753 77.486 214,l«6 18»C 348.860 30:1,110 66,628 38,003 76,914 1 ?0,446 1834 893,100 3U»,6:ll 116,747 40,331 83,653 331I.6.'U) 183t 847,664 37(I,S44 96.4(19 .15,039 70577 203.016 181< (79,333 394,43*i 131.:I86 3S,I67 67,519 317.073 1837 388,406 333,600 78,738 16 7(1 1 70.970 166,406 1838 899,778 379,317 loo.ius 24,4SO 78.061 31l,6.itf 183« 866,979 334,837 107,651 3S,380 69,044 305,K75 1830 839,667 318,418 89,680 24,303 67.673 181.664 1881 480,870 337,088 130,300 ei,6,'i6 73,947 2(14,003 1833 803,660 167,839 138,468 81,100 67,941 317,490 18S3 416,964 168,?69 114,137 47,556 68,991 230,684 1834 461,631 178,U;0 149,2.'il 66,853 66,987 272,003 183S 377,317 86,079 73,960 84,050 80.796 168,806 1836 497,614 193,317 108,060 48 451 66,083 373,303 1837 897,839 114,193 1U3,1)6« 46,777 39,630 189.2116 1838 607,774 141,663 1;I9.()95 67,:»8 38,674 335,163 1899 666,669 163,669 14,).936 64,s;o 34.934 239,730 1840 M.1,94« 163,331 7,,V)9 82,616 13.647 2.13,623 1841 667,363 164,189 150,617 90,961 8.668 210,137 1843 667,346 190,933 187,953 91,069 6.718 284,736 1843 633,419 163,718 166,327 130,136 6.83« 291,800 1844 666,369 183,088 137,770 181,963 3.793 813,516 184S 636,033 140,633 120,293 143,784 3.336 366.378 1840 633,646 142,473 127,027 113.678 3.488 243.194 1847 607.461 166,378 103,688 148,363 4.768 2.16,714 1848 663,748 146,600 102,090 143,633 4,969 2.10,181 1849 644.368 163,944 78,363 168,049 8,683 249,904 1860 770,698 313,386 78,889 267,108 4,368 340.356 1861 644,UU8 173,0i4 66,138 108,403 3,867 366,008 1863 694,031 201,636 81.340 183,669 306 264,304 1863 4118,787 160,160 00,414 221,079 1,133 283,526 1863 778,039 34«,136 96,339 342,853 4,438 342,630 1864 636.663 311,844 131,H83 237,893 1.919 361,606 1869 760.703 880,.'.8l 97,877 844 029 868 413,2(14 1866 e0fl.»8B 333,381 89,670 366,741 1.199 817,611 1857 680,813 318,993 68,634 807,376 1.361 867,160 1868 636,134 233,374 79,054 369,819 1,831 860,204 18.19 4nl,4S7 168,676 6M,H83 203,349 748 373,079 18B0 681,193 231,013 86,413 291,401 166 877,970 1861 66S,S28 266,347 81,.VJ5 808,334 884 890,313 1863 840,01)4 364,713 70,879 423,183 847 494.910 1863 654,816 276,880 73,074 883,074 2,613 407.761 1864 643,6,50 317,302 65,420 807,283 1,H0.5 8(4.507 1866 6-.>l,7«3 2I(!,78« 42,063 309,626 1,013 853,701 1866 66N,I46 249,510 47,310 828.273 4.474 880.066 1867 836,580 817,431 42,364 432.994 8.;I46 478.704 in68 661,4.13 209,402 43,414 323.479 1.860 368.744 1869 676,143 244,533 82,342 346.793 2.197 381,338 1870 838,160 399,381 41,624 486,064 2.970 630,668 1871 836,476 846,633 46,847 602,684 2,734 881.698 1873 773,889 433,731 34,147 623 640 1,048 649.631 1873 0.')9.333 485,374 32,466 633.681 1.861 668,008 1874 1,000,561 617,668 28,1:J7 706,967 2,209 787.814' I87S 943,980 633,789 83,434 634,137 8,399 660.970 1876 698,107 363,979 20,333 878,740 1,360 400.433 1877 847,718 397 786 16,088 M3,908 1,893 i61,>8S ff.B. — In tbe tlx fears ending tth April 1818 the bounty on herrfaiRi cured (tutted was two dhllllncs per barrel, while there wai a bounty at the nnie time of two shlllinKH and eljihtpence per barrel, payable by the exclae. on tho expor- tation of lieningii, wliutlter cured gutted or unicutfed. but which ceoaed on the lit June 1815; in the eleven yem . ending 6tl\ April 1826 the bounty on heiringi ruled gutted whs four ■hlllhign pci- biincl; In tho four aiu'ceedlng >euri the bounty was reduced one uhllling per ban^l each year tUl the tth 0( April UMt When It ceased altogetlier, aod has not iloce been renewed. 20 FISHERIES p l*'ii Garxne or Sprat Fishing. — This is carried on to some fxteut at tlie upper end of tlie Firth of Forth, and in the lieauly Firth. In t!ie former locality the garvies are caught by means of trawls (seans), and the principal fishing is on the western side of Inchgarvie. In the Beauly Firth drift-nets are used, and only fish of fair size are taken. Complaints have long been made in both places of the capture of young herrings with the garvios, and the herring fishers have done their best to get the garvie fishery put a Bto|) to ; but fortunately they have not succeeded, for this fishery gives profitable employment to a good many fisher- men, and there is nut a particle of proof that the herring fishing faither out has suffered from the occasional capture of young herrings with the garvics. Sprats are not in much demand in the )Scotch markets, and almost all that are taken in the localities mentioned are sent by rail to London. We are sorry to say that the old I'allary of the sprat being nothing but a young herring still prevails among some of tlio fishermen and curers. Line Fisheries. — The capture of cod, haddock, ling, and saitlic or coalfish is general around the coast of Scotland ; and the tusk or tor.ik, a northern s[iecies of the cod family, and in sliape like a short-bodied ling, is taken in some numbers at the .Shetland'*, and a fev? at the outer Hebrides. Long lines are in use fnr haddock, ling, and tusk, and also for cod on many parts of the coast ; but at the Shetlands Land lines are eniiiloyed for cod and saitho, and also at Faroe and Iceland. At Newhaven, Eyemouth, and other jjlaces in the ueiglibourhood in the Firth of Forth, two sizes of long line are regularly worked in the proper season. The smaller or haddock lines have from 800 to 1000 hooks each, or even more, on snoods 14 inches long and 2i feet apart, and mussels and lug norms are used as bait. Some little interest is attacl'ed to the state of this fishery, as it is an important one in Scotland, and a few years ago it was eaid to have fallen off very much. ]>ut it appears there are still plenty of haddocks on the coast, and now that larger an I decked boats are used, and the fishermen are consetpieutly more independent of weather, very large takes are not uncommon. In one week in January 1876 the Eyemouth boats were at sea six times, and landed 20,000 Btones of haddocks, which sold at 23. per stone, producing in that short period no less than £2000. The season lasts here from October to April, and the average gain for the season by each boat usually ranges from £400 to £C00. There is a considerable trade in smoked haddock.s, particu- larly from Eyemouth, and the curing consists in soaking the fish in pickle for half an hour, and then hanging them for about four hours in some hardwood smoke. The village of Findon, between Stonehaven and Aberdeen, has long been famous for first preparing the fish known as " Finnan hPiddips." Their ])ec'!]iar flavour, whi^-h ]r.\'> s!<;ule' tbain -:l. popular, arises from their being hung in j)eat smoke. They are cured in the cottages, und some little variation in the time in pickle and in smoke is made according to the time they are intended to keep. This manufacture is now c^irried on at many places besides Findon. The cod or "great lines " are of the same description as those used for haddock fishing, but have longer snoods, and the hooks farther apart. It is unnecessary to speak of the manner in which these long-lines are worked, as we have fully described it in our notice of the North Sea cod fi.shery. A vast quantity of lino fish is sent to the fresh market, but the great iniportanje of this Scotch fishery is due to the large extent to which curing operations are carried on, and more especially in the distant districts such as the Shet- land! and the outer Hebrides. Curing is rcrformiMl in two ways — r April ^-.vii to 1844; from that year to 1352 on the 5th of .liiiiiiary, and afterwards on the i^lst of December. Two Hetiun.s, therefore, appear for 1852 in the tables. The collection of lii'lurus fur England ci'ascd from the 5th of January 1850, when also the riiniliiiig and Uranding of Cod and Ling came to an end ; and there were no Ui.larns for the Isle of Man after .lauimry ISO!*. Years. Cured Cui-e.i ill Exported Years. Cured Cureil in Exported clrlid. pl>kle. dried. dried. piikk'. diic'l. Cwls. Hitvrelo. Cwls. Cwts. ilaivfl!!. Ci>t». 1822 19..')78 1861 9ii.ti58 6.032 22,r,04 IKL'II 19,398 18.W 92,083 7,019 17,141 ISM ... ... 23,998 1862 192,970 6,880 18,994 lS2o 14,nS7 1883 ll'6,69l 6,122 22,050 1826 6!U36 r^s.n 7,281 1S64 109,1.84 0,168 19,667 1S27 M.lUl 9.(12.1 14,061 1859 113,.661 6,310 29,1.54 lSi8 H2,.'.15 6,142 13,208 1866 1111.-504 6,642 29,029 182D 81,321 C,SI9 20,687 1867 104,668 4,393 84,310 1830 1I11,!I14 8.836 111,369 1868 96,596 4,584 32,162 1831 37,674 2.9--,0 11,920 1859 118,383 6,302 3.5,923 1S32 sn,2i»3 3,779 20,168 1860 116,688 4,339 32,221 18.33 6S,461 6.467 14,764 1861 82.344 4,115 20,961 18-34 62,710 6,522 16,298 1862 100,6,57 7,736 32,969 183-5 44,l.-.2 3.767 10,6.32 1863 129,725 7, .337 63,736 1836 as,n40 «,278 10,992 1864 107.7.58 7.963 40,461 1837 6li,8!12 7,273 10,19.-, 1866 H2,S07 7.078 44,928 1838 84.1I96 l(l,:i03 22,166 1 1860 115,819 9,957 47,763 '839 8.'i,279 lO.OJl 26,7111 1 1867 1 19,633 10,819 40,225 ■ilO a-^.ico fi,(W.3 29,666 1868 113,831 9,6,59 62,403 1.S41 ill. 404 9.480 80,.5,'.0 1869 136,.58.5 10,319 61,864 1S42 1C,.^V.\ 7,ii-»S 2.-..293 1870 146,288 9,945 66,400 IS 13 T,:2»i 6,431 2.!, 737 18; 1 119,030 9,283 64,171 1.X44 M.sia 6,1 2.1 a-',,476 1872 145,976 11,940 63,631 1S4--1 83.91!) 1.726 28.815 1873 li;0,716 12,.381 70,101 IS 16 fl2.",23 6.li37 29.362 •874 143,466 6,7.54 60,913 ISU SIO,7S3 6,341 31,4.36 J875 187,7.88 8,503 81,8,80 1S48 86,62 1 6,247 26,662 1876 111.457 6,109 69,866 1K49 8"..463 6,810 22,6(18 1877 187,200 6.61» 73,968 ISJO 8S,9U3 «,;)h8 24,164 X.II.—'Ww tiiH.li.Mif 111- I■■i^l (T.v liiiirdilii iii'i slM w tlie tiitnl qu«i tliy of end, line, tto., rfd-ei/ till ilif yt-ar ((iiiiiiiriHiiii: 5ili .Vi-iii 1S25, 'I'lie bounty fri-m the e,iiiiest (late in this iilistriKl tn llic 5ih of .-Xpi ii l.-^.Sll, \va.H four sl.ii-irps per cwt, f"r ti^ll ( iiii'd drifii, and t«o sliillili;;,s And !.i\pi'nri* pi-r harri'l foi fi.^il cured in }i I kit', taken liy tiie fii-ws of vessels or ImaTs vot on ilm toniia^t' houiity; Mlule I tile liouiity for vus^ils licensed lor tjie eoii and llii^ tlhliciy, on (lit toimaf;e lionnty, was ttfty sliilliiiirs j^t-r Ion, for toniiii^o uiM emtro, to ilic 6ih of July I li'-'ii. ilh,ii::i:duiiK il c shillio);9 annually to tlic 61I1 of April 1830, when th« huunttes ultOKcther ceased. In 1877' the number of fishing boats in Scotland was 14,623, and of fishermen and boys iJijSOO, and the estimated value of the boat.s, nets, and lines employed ia ttio herring and cod and ling fisheries was £1,178,412, being an increase over the numbers for 187C of 76 boats and 627 fishermon and boys, and also an inciciuse of £r)0,418 in the e.stimated value of boats, nets, and liiu's. Irish Fisheries. — After a continuous deiires^iun of 30 years, during which the number of boats and fi.shermen was reduced to less than a third, the Insh sea fisheries bIihwc I some indications of iin imjirovement in 187t), the lastyciu-^ for which the inspectors have published their annual report. • Report of Fishery Hoard, Scotland, fnr 1877. • Since the aliove w.is in 'ype the Inspeetors' Report for ]!'77 has been publishivl. They state vl:nt there has been an apparent iberet'o of no less than 58:! li-liiiig boats and 3.300 fisliennen and tuns sima 1870 ; but, as in pre\:ciiis years, tiny do not aj'pear t" li:i^'' c 'h li contide&c« in tba ftccuracy of the ntum*. Tba li«niug fiahviiw ww* FISHERIES 21 The difficulty in ascertaining the precise nuiflber of boats and li.shurinua on some of the wilder parts of the coast is so great, however, notwithstanding the important fact that the coastguard is employed in collecting the information, that, as the inspectors tell us, the returns even at the present time cannot be taken as quite trustworthy. There was, how- ever, an apparent increase of 46 craft and 585 fishermen, and this seunie ' certainly the most encouraging report that had reached us for many years. But an analysis of the rut\irn shows that this increase is more apparent than real. The iusi)ectors conveniently divide the boats with their crews into three classes ind( pendently of tonnage, and this jiian enables us in some measure to understand who are inchidod uiidiu' the head of fishermen. The divisions come under the following heads, and we give the returns for 1875 and 1876 fur the sake of comparison ; — Year. Solely h'lshliig. Mostly Flshln-:. Occasionally Flsliinjt. ] HdHts. 1 Men. liottts. Men. Boata. Men. 187,') 1876 1341 1283 6241 6105 602 644 1870 2248 3976 4038 14,997 15,340 The total number of boats and men in 1876 was — boats 5965, and fishermen 23,693, being a slight increase in both over the previous year. But there is a falling oflF in the number of regular fishermen, and the increase is only in those who devote part of their time to fishing. We have it on the authority of the inspectors that the men in tiie third division, or occasional fishermen, are not employed in that occupation on an average for more than one month in the year, and yet we find the boats in this division form more than two-thirds, and the men nearly the same pro- portion, of the total numbers in Ireland. The history of tlie Irish fisheries shows that great fluctua- tions have taken place at various times, but the last great decline undoubtedly dates from the period of the famine in 1846, and those who have been l')ng acquainted with the west coast fishermen in particular believe that their present depressed state is entirely the result of that disastrous time. Locii assistance has been given tinn; ;. Iter time with only a temporary improvement ; and now the experiment is being tried of advancing money from the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund to enable the fishermen to provide the necessary gear for fishing, The applications for loans have been, as was expecteJ, far in excess of the amount available for the purpose, and in very many cases no security cuuld be obtained that the money would be ex[)ended iu the manner proposed. No doubt some good will be done by the.se loans, but much lasting advantage is not to be expected from the system. Emigration has carried off thousands from the country, and mainly from the west coast, where, however, the majirity of the fishermen wore little more 80 than in name, aiiJ fishing was never allowed to interfere with sea-weed cutting, farming, and any chance occupation. There is this to be said, however, that on very many parts of the west coast of Ireland the weather is frequently so bad, and tiie seas so stormy that fishing cannot be carried on with any regularity; and when favourab)'" ^imes arrive, the neglected bo.t.ts and fishing gear are too often unfit for use. On tin east and south coasts things are in a better condition ; important fisheries for herrings and mackerel in their seasons there provide profitable employment not only for Irish fishermen, but for large numbers of Cornish, Scotch, and .Manx fishing boats, which until the last year or two h ive far outnumbered the native craft. There is plenty of fish to be caught on the Irish coasts ; and the better than in 1876, tliose for mackerel and pilchanls not so good; but the tutal iiiiiiiitity and value of the herrings, niadkeri-l, and cod consigned to the Kugliah niarkets exceeded those of tbe year before. influence of the strangers is telling on many of the Irish fishermen, and leading tliem to improvement in their boats and all that relates to carrying on their work. The priuci[)al methods of fishing in Irish waters are trawling, drift-fishing, and line fishing ; there is also a little done with scans and trammels. Trawling. — Dublin is the headquarters of the deep sea trawlers, and possesse" a fleet of about 50 smacks, ranging from 30 to 50 tons, and working chiefly from that station. Deei>sea trawlers were first used f.om Dublin in 1818, when, as previously mentioned, some Brixhain boats and fishermen were brought over. The fishing was found to be profitable, and the fleet of smacks was gradually increased until it reached its present size. The trawlers work throughout the year when they can get sufficient hands, but the light summer weather is not very suitable for them ; and the attractions of the herring fishery and pro- fitable employment on board yachts take away a great many men for several weeks from their ordinary occupation. The principal trawling grounds lie within a triangular space between Dublin and Dundrum Bays and the Isle of Man, and consist of a number of patches dilTering in shape and extent, which are worked over, either on the inner or outer grounds, according to the season. The Isle of Man ground, lying in deep water, and a favourite place for soles, is usually fished from March to July. In January there is a partial migration of the trawlers to the south of Ireland, and a very productivt fishing place known as the Saltee ground, and about south-west from the Saltee lightship, near Waterford, is worked by them with advantage. Farther out at sea, at a distance of 30 or 40 miles from the land, and without any very clearly defined limits, is what lias long been spoken of as the Nymph Bank.^ Extra- ordinary results have been anticipated from fishing this ground, and no doubt there is plenty of fish upon it ; but there are difticulties in working it properly, partly on account of many scattered rocks which interfere with trawling on it generally, and partly because of a want of organization for bringing in the fish and sending them to market. For a long time the greatest diffii-ulty encountered Wtt3 from the local fishermen, who would not work in a deep-sea trawler, or allow one to use her nets anywhere within the headlands, although the weather was too bad to go outside. Companies have been formed for trawling from Waterford harbour, but the determined hostility ot many of the native fishermen, and the fears of others in conse- quence, have done more to discourage trawling there on a large scale than anything else. English crews have been tried, but it is not surprising tliat they should be unwill- ing to remain in a locality where the feeling against them was so strong. Matters seem to have improved of late, but a good deal of enter[)rise is needed to carry on the fishing in the way in which it might be done. Trawling is worked in the shoaler parts of Waterford harbour by the local fishermen ; and tiie complaint made by tliem that the large trawlers did bo much mischief in destroying flie young fry, wlii'st the small boats habitually worked where the young fish were most abundant, was not too absurd to be listened to by the insj)ecting commissioner of fisheries a few years ago. A bye-l,iw was therefore established (pro- bably with the object of preserving the jieace) to keep the large trawlers beyond a certain depth of water, and the small ones then had it all their own way inside. Under ' Mr Froser mentions that in 1726 a jiroposnl was made by Mr William Poyle, hydrographcr, for supplying the large English markets with tlsh prt'Hervtd in well -boats, from the snutheru coast of Ireland, and luirticularly from a (i.shing ground lie states he bad discovered, unto which he gave the name of Nymph Bank, from a vessel called the " Nymph," which ho enij>loyed in the enaiuiMutiou of Ibis flsbing gCQ\iiiur duty to report that under existing circumstauces we were unable to recommend ex- tension of the system to Ireland — there being, firstly, no io«rt ./;'(/« desire for it existing amongst tlio Irish fishcrnie or curers : and, secondly, that the fish cau,^ ^ ^ in Irehuia and sold fresh realized a much higher price to the captors than the price received by the fishermen in Scotland and cured for the foreign markets, and that no material benefit would tlierefore really be derived from such extension." !• eland is in fact well off in having a market across the channel for any quantity of fresh fish she may send over ; and a large proportion oftlie herrings and trawl fish caught on the east coast, and almost all the mackerel taken in tlie Kinsale fishery are at once despatched there. The drift fisheries are, as before mentioned, by no means monopolized by the Irish fishermen, but are taken part in by a largo number of stranger.s. The inspectors in their report for 1876 tell us that " the highest number of boats of each country at Howth during the season was — Cornish 200, Irish 209, Scotch 224, Manx 133. At Ardglass the highest average number that fished during one day (2od July) was— Scotch HI), Manx 20, Irish 42, Cornish, 19." These figures show a slight increase in the Irish boats over those in previous years. The east coast fishermen have of late shown many signs of improvement ; and the better boats and steady industry of the Manx, Scotch, and Cornish fishermen have not been without their use as examples of how to work the fisheries with profit. Kinsale has in recent years come into notice as the great station for the mackerel fi.shery. This fishing begins early in March and goes on till about the end of June, thus immediately precedhig the herring season. In 1876 there were 217 English and Manx boats, 13 Scotch, and 133 Iri.sh engaged in this fishery, besides more than GO large French luggers, the last-mentioned boat* salting their fisli as soon as caught, and returning home when they have made their cargo. The mackerel fishery is a very important one for Kinsale, a.s it gives employment, not only to the fishermen, but to numerous other persons of various descriptions. The mackerel are almost all packed in ice and sent to England. During the season of 1876 there were 7 steamers and 11 cutters in this carrying trade, — the former at a monthly expense of £350 to X400 for each vessel, besides paying all dues, coals, and pilotage ; and 4400 tous of ice were imported solely for the package of the fish. The mackerel are packed in boxes containing a " hundred," or six score of fish in each, and the official returns show a total capture of 139,083 boxes full in the season of 1876. The prices ranged from 1 2s. to £,b per box in the course of the regular season; but some boats made a large catch afterwards in July, when there was little demand for the fish, and prices then went as low as Ss. per 100. Tlie following is a summary of the quantity of herrings, mackerel, and cod exported from Ireland to the under- mentioned places in England during 1876 : — llcnlngs. Mackerel. I Coil. London Nottiufflitini Boxes of 2 cwt. 31,600 3,552 6,977 17,555 7,819 5,521 6,998 21,763 12,204 Boxi's of 2 cwt. 29,500 2,770 3,805 9,721 5,583 4,078 5,282 14,017 4,894 Uoxet of 2 cwt 11,882 4,829 3,001 9,854 2,465 2,098 2,953 12,000 5,987 UriuUord 1 Slii'tlield 1 Wolverliampton.... i I,,.f(ls Liverpool liinaiiigham . Total 113,995 79,650 55,069 Honings Viilued at £2 per liox £227,990 Mackeivl,' 139,083 boxes at an averaged' 163. per box 111,266 Cod at £3 per box.. 165,207 Total value £504,463 It will be seen from the above figures that the Irish ' sheries are by no means wanting in importance, and it is much to be regretted that the fishermen of the Cdunhy do not take & larger share in working them. The produce of the deei)-sca trawl fishery is also very valuable, but we can give no return of the considerable quantity of trnwl-fish sent to England. It has been a matter of surprise to many that no system- atic attempt has been made to catch the large shimls of pilchards which annually visit the south coast of Ireland. The prejudice of the Irish fishermen against pilcLanis has been so great as to almost dishearten the inspeciorh in tlieir repeated endeavours to bring this fishery into uuiice. Whilst the great Cornish sean fisheries have been lui giiish- ing because the shoals of pilchards have not come into the bays within reach of the nets, they have been in plenty on parts of the Irish coast. One of the inspectors (Mr ISrady) has been untiring in his exertions to procure every kind of informatidn about the catching and ibs are taken in most abundance in the west and south of England, and more or less generally on the east coast, and in Scotland and Ireland, those from parts of Devon and Cornwall being the finest which are sent to market. There is a general disposition on the part of the fishermen to submit to some law limiting the size of both crabs and lobsters to be offered for sale, so as to put a stop to the falling oflf in these fisheries, which is apparent on some parts of the coast. A close time is objected to, as no monti in the year is generally suitable, and " berried " lobsters are so valuable for the market that if they had to be returned to the sea the fishermen would lose a great part of their present profits. A limit to the size allowed to be sold seems therefore to bo the best means of protecting these fisheries ; and such a law is now enforced on the coast of Norfolk. Shrimp aivl Prawn Fisheries. — The most important of these fisheries are carried on in the estuary of the ThameSj Pegwell Bay near llamsgiite, and ilorecambe Bay on the Lancashire coast, but they are more or less general wherever suitable ground is met with Leigh is the headquarters of the Thames shrimpers. They fish with a net mounted very much like a bcam-trawl, but having a long, straight piece of wood at the lower part of the mouth to work over the ground instead of the ordinary ground-rope. This is in fact like the common form of hand-shrimping net, but 80 fitted as to be towed instead of pushed. Ordinary trawls are used for prawns or " red shrimps," and in some other places for true shrimps. The supply of shrinips from Leigh sometimes amounts to 2000 gallons in a day. Shellfish: — Oysters, Mussels, Whelh, Perimnkles. — The oy.ster fisheries of the British Lslands have been in a failing condition for some few years past, owing to a deficiency of spat, the cause of wliich has been the subject of active controversy, not only between rival theorists, but also among practical tisliernien. Over-fishing has been regarded by many as the main cause of the decrease, and it may pos- sibly have helped to make matters worse than they would otherwise have been ; but it is difficult to explain in this manner the fact that, in J'!ngland, Scotland, and Ireland, there iiaj been a general failure of spat for some years past, on all kinds of ground and under every condition, in public and private bud-i, and whether they have been carefully protected, as in the case of old established private com- panies, or left to the working of the general public, except • Report o/ Commission on Crab and Lubaler Fisheries, p. U. (1877). during a definite close time, more or less enforced. In Ireland, where there are regulations for close timp, and restrictions as to the size of oysters allowed to be sold, and where in some cases all fishing has been stopped for two or three years, the decrease of oysters has been as decided as in England or Scotland ; and Mr Blake, until recently one of the insiiectors of Irish fisheries, and chair- man of the oyster commission in 18(38, stated in his evidence given before the select committee of the House of Com- mons in 187C that the decline in the oyster fisheries was due to the bad spatting seasons, and to the great increase of dredging ; " but if the siiatting went on as it formerly did, the amount of dredging would not be of much import- ance." The bulk of Englisli supplies is obtained from the oyster beds of private companies, of which the Whitstublc conifjany is ilie most ancient, having worked from time inimeinorial on their present ground on the south shore of the entrance to the Thames. In 1793 they purchased from the lord of tho manor the exclusive right of fishing there. The company is a corporation of fishermen governed by elected members of their own body. Tho men are .Id for the daily work done by them, and each member of the company also receives his share of the profits on tho sale of the oysters, A great part of their employment, besides dredging and keeping their own ground clean and free from vermin, con- sists in dredging for spat iu the public portion of the river for tho purpose of layiiig it down on their own beds. A general failure of spat, sucli as there has been in recent years, is therefore not only felt by them on their own liuiited ground, but they suffer from the scarcity in what may be called their reserves. The Whitstable company is, however, only one among many which occupy the .shores of the Thames estuary and the small rivers wliich flow into it. The oysters thus laid down or bred in these situations become remarkablo for tho thinness of their shells, and the good flavour ani comparatively large size of their contents, and are what are known as " natives." There are numerous com})auies or individual proprietors engaged in cultivating oysters on various parts of the coasts, but at the present time they are, we believe, all more or less suffering from deficiency of spat. Channel or deep-sea oysters are generally large and coarse, and do not fetch more than one tent'" of the price given for the more delicate " natives." Attehipts at the artificial cultivation of oysters have not met with much success. Mussels and whelks, while in some request for food among the lower classes, are in especial demand for the purposes of fish-bait, and tho value of mussels in this respect has recently led to a more careful protec- tion of the older banks, and some attempts at the cultiva- tion of new ones. Whelks are particularly valuabl ' tho North Sea cod fishery, and a number of vessels p- Grimsby are regularly engaged in fishing for them. .. mode of catching them is by means of shallow hoop-nets baited with refuse fish, and sunk to the bottom on suitable ground ; in these the whelks collect in large numbers, and are caught without any difficulty. A considerable supply is also obtained from the ouster dredgers; and at the mouth of the Thames they are caught largely by using " trots " or bulters — long-lines of small dimensions; but instead of having baited hooks, they have common small shore-crabs threaded on the snoods, about twenty on each ; these are seized by the whelks and so firmly held whilst being devoured thit the line may easUy be hauled in without disturbing the numbers found on every snood. Feri- winkles are all procured between tide marks, and are of course collected by hand. The London market is mainly supplied from the western islands of Scotland, the Orkneys, the Sbetlands, and parts of the Irish coast. 24 F I S H E R I L ;J British North American Fisheries.' — The principiil fisheries coming under this head are for cod, herring, and mackerel, including the long-famous cod fishery of New- foundland. The fisheries of the Dominion of Canada are chiefly carried on with o[)en boats, and cuusequenlly are to a great extent, though subject to some variation, what may bo called shore fisheries. The proportion, as given by Professor Hind, of the shore fisheries to the deep-sea fisheries, in which decked vessels are employed, is 4'4 to 1, S.I that " by far the largest proportion of the fishing industry of the Dominion is pursued in coastal waters, and much of it rarely extends beyond the limit of three marine miles from the coast line." Thefollowini,' table shows the number of boats and vessel^i, with the aggregate number of iiien employed in each, in 187G : — Boats Men. Vessels. Men. 9,585 3,850 5,815 991 18,093 653 7,322 463 10,777 256 3,831 j 7 6,049 1,794 1,219 35 Prince Edward Island . Total 20,241 40,023 1,397 9.097 i -, In the NewfouiuUand fisheries boats and vessels are also used, but the dee|)-sea fishery is scarctly distinct from that pursued in coastal waters, or within the three-mile limit from the shore. The total nuni > > of boats employed at Newfoundland in 1874 was 18,011, and the number of persons engaged in catching and curing fish 45,854, while the number of vessels was 1197, with an aggregate of CI, 551 tons, and manned by 8394 fishermen sailors. These vessels, however, include the large number used for sealing. The number of " fishing rooms" or portions of the shore set apart for the caring and storing of fish was 8902 in the same year. The numbers of fishing craft, men, and fishing roonw in 1874 showed a considerable in- crease over those for 18C9. Professor Hind, in speaking of the large proportion of inshore fishing, says :— " The changeable character of the weather on the British Ameri- can coast, the sudil'ii and unexpected occurrence of fog.i, the variations of currents produced by tides, the Uuig ex- perience of the dingers attending fishing in open boats some distance from the land, the pecuniary resources of the fishermen, conjointly with the abundant fish resources of the coastal waters, have combined to limit the industry of the British Anijrican fishermen in a great measure to the immediate vicinity of the shuru line, and within easy reach of harbours. This is particularly the case with Newfoundland." This insh;ire fishery, however, depends for its success on the su|)|ily of bait fishes, especially iho capulan and herring ; and, as in every kind of fishery, there are years when migratory lisli, those which more or less change their quarters at particular .sea.ions, vary in abundance in certain localities, and sometimes foreake one part of a coast and go to another, so the inj|)ortant fisheries dependent on these movements are subject to fluctuations. The CI I, in fact, there follow the bait-fishes precisely as, on the English coast, the cod and coalfish become most numerous near the land when the shoals of herrings come clLsest in. On the coasts of British North America the fishing interest is almo.st entirely concerned with species whose natural habitat is in cold waters ; and as an immense area of fishing water is there influenced by the Labrador current, it is not surprising that cod, holibut, herring, mackerel, and others should be found in abundance on these coaatf The mackerel has also an extensive range ' .\i\ ol.il) irnte and in many respei tn viilualile R^'jiort, by I'rofessor Henry Yoiile Hind, M A., of the Fishery Cninniission, Halil.ix, pnli- Ituheil 80 recently as 1877, ha« largely .vniiplled us with materials lor our notice of the fisheries of British Nortli America. south along the coast of the United States; but the Labrador current is little felt south of Ca|ie Cod, its influence being tliere almost destroyed by the CJulf Stream. The really cold-water species are therefore mainly found in the Dominion seas ; and the fast that American fishermen so systematically work there for them is the ground on which the Dominion claim for compensation from the United States Government was based. The sum recently awarded to the colony by the arbitrators is much less, how- ever, than the amount of the claim. The methods of fishing in use in the Dominion and Newfoundland waters are of the same kind as in the British Islands, witli thr; exception of beam-trawling, which seems to be practically unknown en the American cimsts. Herrings are taken by drift-nets, anchored nets, and seans; mackerel by scans and hook and line; capclan by seans; and cod and its allies by long lines or bulters — there, strange to say, known as " trawls." Professor Hind states (at p. 58 of pt. 1 of his report) that the aggregate number of barrels of herrings caught in Dominion and Newfoundland waters in 1874 may bo put down at — Dominion waters 534,307 barrels Kcwfoundlaud waters 271,382 „ Total 805,689 barrels This number does not include the quaivtities used for manuve or bait ; and he adds : — " A million barrels of her- ring each year, and gradually increasing, will fairly repre- sent the quantity of this fish taken from British American seas." In the same year 164,879 barrels of mackerel were taken in Dominion waters, of which 80 per cent, were caught on the coast of Nova Scotia. The mackerel fishery at Newfoundland appears to Lave been very small for some years ; and the fishermen do not now seem to be well pr> vided with the means of catching them ; but there is reason to believe that this fishery might be largely increased in the Dominion waters if more attention were given to it There is a very great demand for mackerel in the American market. The Newfoundland and Dominion cod fisheries are, as we have mentioned, almost entirely inshore fisheries, and the abundance or scarcity of capelan or other fishes there used as bait materially alects the success of the fishery, for if the bait fishes do not come inshore, there is no attraction for the cod. In the deep-sea fisiiery on the banks, the case is diff'erent ; but they are almost neglected by the Dominion and Newfoundland fishermen, for reasons pre- viously stated. The produce of the inshore cod fisheries, although fluctuating, shows no signs of being exhausted. The following table, it is believed, represents with tolerable accuracy the catch of cod and allied fishes on the Dominion coasts in the years stated : — Year. Quintals. Year. Qu'li: '!• 1869 1870 1871 1872 730,928 8i)l,5.''.3 964,131 1,372,2117 1873 1874 1875 1,406,804 1,278,499 1,193,579 The export of dried cod in quintals from Newfoundland in the years 1869-li'7() was : — Year. Quln'aln. '| Year. Quiutuia. 1809 1870 1871 1872 1,204,086 1,213,737 1 1,328,726 1,221,156 1873 1874 1875 1878 1,369,205 1,009,724 1,136,285 1,364,068 The British American fishery for lobsters is of some importance, and cod roes and livers are among the valuable articles of export. , - . > , , ;..• ; 'T' ' FISHERIES 25 The French fisheries at Newfoundland are carried on both on the banks and near the island, the craft employed being of various sizes, ranging from vessels averaging about 170 tons down to open boats. The following table' gives the number of craft of all kinds and the total number of men in each year from 1867 to 1874 : — 1 Year. Vessels, Ac. Men. Year Vessels, Me 1867 1868 1869 1870 804 774 806 833 7178 6552 6452 6397 1871 1872 1873 1874 665 866 899 847 5295 5620 6036 5621 Of the numbers of fishing craft here given about 70 per cent, are boats. The produce of the French Nrwfoundland fishery in 1872 was said to be 10 million francs. United States Fishbries. — These may be divided into warm-water and cold-water fisheries, the latter being for the most part carried on in British American waters. The cod fishery, formerly prosecuted ofif the coast of New England, in the cold water north of Oapt Cod, is said to have seriously decreased, and it is believed by Professor Baird, the commissioner of fish and fisheries, that the failure is largely due to the diminution of alewives and other bait- fishes, caused by the numerous dams and obstructions in the rivers in which these fishes were accustomed to spawn. The young fish formerly produced in such myriads are now said to be comparatively few, and the cod and allied fishes consequently have less food to attract them to the old haunts. As there is no reason to suppose that cod, as a species, are diminishing in numbers, the conclusion obviously is that they are seeking other feeding grounds. The warm- water fisheries include the pursuit of a variety of fishes, but the " scup," a kind of bream, and the " blue-fish," both migratory species, are those whose capture is thought of most value. Although almost all the shore fisheries are eaid to be decreasing,^ Professor Baird, in his elaborate reports to the United States Qovernment, does not seem to be quite clear as to an effectual remedy. The pounds and weirs are said t be very destructive to spawning fish, but they supply a large quantity of fish to the markets. The scourge of the American coast appears to be the blue-fish, " destroying ten times as many fish as they really need for food, and leaving in their track the surface of the water covered with the blood and fragments of the mangled fish."^ Professor Baird estimates that in 1871 there were 100 millions of these fish on part of the American coast, and that each one destroyed twenty fish per day ; and as the blue-fish season lasts from 120 to 150 days, some ide". may be formed of the extent of the mischief caused by them. Fortunately the blue-fidii is in great request as an article of food, and about a million and a quarter were captured in 1871, or, as estimated, one in a hundred of those on the coast. To the blue-fish Professor Baird assigns the very first position among the injurious influences that have affected the supply of fishes on the coast. The agency of man he places next, — the pounds and weirs along-shore catching spawning fishes, and the dams and other obstruc- tions in the rivers preventing certain species from ascending • Jieport on Jfetu/oundland and Labrador Fisheries, 1876, by Captain firskine, R. N. ■ Professor Baird says at page 19 of Part i. of his Report — " It is by no means to be luferred from our remarlcs as to the scarcity of fish that fewer are actually caught now than formerly at any time, the contrary, perhaps, being the case, since by means of tht improved methods of capture, in the way of pounds and nets, an immense supply ii taken out at certain seasons of the year, so as frequently to glut the markets. The scarcity is better shown by the great difficulty ex- perienced by line fishermen in securing a proper supply throughout the year, on grounds where they were formerly able to catch all they needed for their own use and for sale." • Baird. Jie,port for 1871 and 1872, part i. p. 28. to their proper spawning grounds. He proposed to limit the working of the pounds and weirs to a certain number of days in each week, and to do away as much as possible with the river obstructions. The blue-fish is beyond control. The estimated value of the United States sea fisheries in 1876 was— Wann-water fisheries $3,274,138 Cold-water , 9,756,683 $13,030,821 The comparative value of the cold-water fisheries of the United States and of British North America for the years 1870-6 is shown in the following table'' — tlie greater iiortion of the ralue in the United States return being from fish caught in British American waters : — Year. United SUtes. BHiish North Alneiica. 1870 $5,313,967 $14,260,298 1871 11,482,410 16,086,081 1872 9,526,647 16,524,644 1873 8,348,185 18,793,9.'-.3 1874 9,522,553 20,193,696 1875 10,747,579 18,193,214 1876 9,756.683 18,707,328 The oyster fisheries of the United States are on a very large scale, and the coast line generally appears to abound with suitable localities for the production of these favourite moUusks. The oysters are all of a more or less elongated form, and of large size, sometimes growing to a length of 12 or 15 inches. They are obviously more suitable for cooking than for consumption in a natural state ; and it ia therefore not surprising that they are unable to compete with the favourite " native " in the English market. The trade in oysters in the principal cities of the United States in 1859 was estimated as follows :* — BashclN. ^ Virginia (State) 1,050,000 Baltimore 8,500,000 Philadelphia 2,500,000 New York 6,9,';o,000 Fair Haven 2,000,000 Other cities 4,000,000 Total 20,000,000 Norwegian and Swedish Fisheries.- -The important fishery of Norway is that for !od, and the special seat of it is at the Lofoden Islands. In 1876 * the fishery was very successful, more than 22 millions of fish having been taken, a larger catch than in any previous year since 1860, excepting 1875. Of this number about 16 millions of fish were salted, and most of the remainder dried. The average price on the spot was £1, 6s. 8d. per 100. The Finmark cod fishery in the same year fell off very much, as will be seen by the following returns for the years 1872-6 :— 1872 11,600,000 cod. 1873 16,000,000 , 1874 17,500,000 „ 1875 19,760,000 ,, 1876 8,600,000 ,, The catch of Norway mackerel in 1876 was 1,800,000 fish, and the estimated produce of the herring fishery in that year was 400,000 barrels ; but the spring or winter herring disappeared about 1874, and the market has since been supplied with the large northern herring. A remark- able instance of the capricious movements of the herring * Report of Fishery Commission, Halifax, -^^xi li. p. 63. » Beport by Lieutenant P. de Broca to the French Oovemment, 1862, given in Report by Prof. Baird, pt. Ui. p. 282 (1878). • Contular RepvrU, part J., 1877. 26 FISHERIES ^' I il has just been reported ' by Mr F. W. Duff, the British consul at Ootbenburg, to the Foreign Office, He states that "great slioals of herrings of the large kind which disappeared from this coast in 1809 have now made their appearance again north of Qothenburg, on the coast in this country. The first appearance of the herring took place at Christmas (1877), when whales were seen following the shoals of herrings towards the coast." This is by no means the first time that herrings have returned to a particular locality after an interval of very many years. French and Dutch Fisiferies. — The French fisheries on the coast of tlie Channel are of much the same kind as tliose ou the English side — trawling, drifting, and lino- lisliing. Trawling is carried on to a considerable extent from Boulogne, Treport, Calais, and some other places where there is convenient access to railways ; and recently two companies have been established for trawling with steamers along the sandy coast between Arcachon and the mouth of the Qiroude. On the coast of Brittany the longnstanding fishery for sardines, or, as they really are, young pilchards, is regularly worked. It is remarkable that this fishery is almost entirely dependent for its success on a good supply of cod-roes, in which a large trade with Norway and other places is carried on solely for this purpose, the separated ova of the cod being freely scattered among the sardine nets in order to attract the fish. French and Dutch vessels work regularly in the North Sea for herrings and cod, and the French fish in large numbers along the east coast of England in company with English boats during the herring season. They also take part in the Kinsale mackerel fishery. The French fisheries at Newfoundland have been already noticed ; considerable attention is also given by the French to the cod fi.shery at Iceland About 200 French vessels visited Iceland in 1877, and during the five years 1872-6 the average annual produce of about 120 vessels from Dunkirk alone was 5 million kilos, of fish, and of oil about 500,000 kilos.2 The French oyster fisheries have for many years received considerable attention, and at Arcachon especially great success ai)[)ears to have attended the cultivation of the beds. Eighty-five per cent, of the oysters obtained from these fisheries are said to be the produce of four or five breeding grounds, Auray and Arcachon being the most prolific. The total produce of all the French oyster fisheries in 1875 reached the enormous number of 97,227,000 oysters.' Echinus Fishery. — On the French and Italian coasts of the Mediterranean the echini or sea^eggs, animals belonging to the echinoderra or star-fish tribe, are regularly collected for the market, and are in great request among the poorer classes of the population. They are eaten uncooked, the egg-shajied spiny shell being divided into twc parts by a Bingle cut with a knife, and the soft and slippery contents then readily extracted. The echini form part of the various marine productions well known at Naples aafrvUi di mare. Tripano Fishery. — The tripang or heclie de mer belongs to the order Ilolothuriadue or sea-cucumbers. Representatives of the group are found in British seas, but by no means so abundantly or of such general large size as in tropical waters. Several species go under the commercial name of " tripang"; they are collected among almost all the islands of the Indian Archipelago down to New Quinea and Australia, and also on the north coast of Ceylon. In shape the tripang resembles a cucumber, but with a '"cle of short branched tentacles at one end, and surroi uuing the mouth. The colour is generally black, more or less varie- gated with red or orange, and although sluggish in its > Comnurcial Reports, No, 2, 1878 (Herring Fishery). • CoriMUar Reports, part v., 1877. ' See a Report by M^jor Hayes to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1878, which containa an immense amount of valaatile informaUon. movements, the animal has great power of contracting and altering its form. Coral reefs are favourite haunts of the tripang, and it is found in both deep and shallow water. The only preparation it receivr s after being gutted consists in drying in the sun and smoking over a wood fire. Macassar is the centre of the tripang trade, but the whole produce of the fisheries goes to China, and the trade ia entirely in the hands of native merchants. Law relating to Fisheries. Fish in English law fall under the p"" leral principles of the law as to aniiiiuI.sy(?'(B imtura:. All nmiikinil, says lilaokstone, had by the grant of the Creator an original right 'o pursue them; and this natural right KtiU continues unless so far t. , it is restrained by the civil law. Acoorilingly everybody has a /-'ht to take fish in the seas, in public rivers, or iu private rivers L.'ingiiig to himself. In private (i.e., non-navigable) rivers the right of fishery belongs prima facie to the owners of the laud on cithe side, in public or navigable rivers to the public at large. In joth, however, an exclusive right of fishery may exist, by which th presumptive right is excluded ; and this, in the case of public ri .'ers, can only take place by grant of the crown. Since Jlagna C'harta the crown can no longer make such grants — at least such seems to be the better interpretation of the words in the statute. These various rights are more or h'ss roughly distinguished in English law as follows. A common fishery is the right of fishing in the sea and public rivers open to all the public. A several fishery is the exclusive riglit of au individual, derived through or on account of ownership of the soil. A free fishery is an exclusive right of fish- ing in public water, derived from royal grant. A common of fishery is the right of fishing " in another nan's water," like common of pasture, &c. These rights include fish of all descriptions, with this exception that the crown has an old prerogative right to the whale and sturgeon, which, " when thrown ashore or caught near the coast, are the proi)erty of the sovereign on account (as it is said in the books) of their superior excellence." A curious distinction is made between the whale and the sturgeon : — De sturrjiotu observetur quod rex ilium habebit iiUegrum; de balena vero svfficit si rex habeat caput el rcgina eaudam. As to the mode in which fish may be caught there does not seem to be any restriction nt common law. It is a question, however, whether a wear, " by which is meant a fixed structure on the bed of the river, the object of which is, either by means of au apparatus which then catches them or by impeding their progress, to prevent all or nearly all the fish from passing upwards, * is not illegal at common law. Iu the case of a public river a stiiicture of this sort would be objectionable on the ground of its impeding the navigation, and in a case relating to the River Severn the judges held that the crown could not derogate from the public right of navigation by any grant to erect wears in a public river. The legal writer from whom we have quoted above, while stating that no case had arisen directly on the point in England, Scotland, or Ireland, is of opinion that " both "wears and fixed nets, and all other apparatus which prevent fish passing to or fro are illegal at comrion law and form m good ground of action, " even although they may not obstruct navigation. ^ Though one riparian owner may, by fishing by net or rod at all hours and by means of servants anil assistants, almost use up the fish as ellectually as by keeping fixed nets, this kind of user could not properly be a cause of action, just as one owner who has a large number of cattle could not be liable to an action a*. the suit of another who has no cattle, and so makes no use of t';ie water. But it is otherwise wliere a total obstruction occurs. Hence, even independently of any statute, any fixed apparatus in a river or stream which prevents the fish going up to the other riparian owners is a good cause of action at common law, as it deprives him of one of the natural riparian rights." A considerable number of statutes have been ] ...ssed on the subject of fisheries, tiic most imiwrtant of which are those relating to salmon. A short Act was passed in ) 876 enabling boards of conservators to fix a close term for trout, commencing not earlier than 2d September, nor later than 2d November, and extending over 123 days. A biU for the protection of freshwater fish has passed through parliament during the present session (1878). Sections 8 and 9 of the Salmon Fisliery Act 1861 (which relate to fish- ing with light spears and other prohibited instruments, and to using roe as a bait) nlmll, as amended by the subsequent Salmon Fishery Acta, apply to trojit and char in all waters within the limits of the Act, which are the same as the limits of the Salmon Act. For all other freshwater fish, not migrating to or from the open sea, a close season is established from 1st March to 31st May, both * Fishery Laioa nf the United Kingdom, by James Paterson, Lon- don, 1883. ,, - . ' Tir^^mit ^'v•-Mi^ FISHERIES 27 fadtulve. Fishing for or dealing in freshwater fish during this close season la subjected to a penalty not exceeding 408. for the first or £5 for the second offence, recoverable on summary con- viction before two justices. The Fisheries (Dynamite) Act is •xtended to private waters. The Act 40 and 41 Vict. o. 62 is an Act to amend the law relating to the fisheries of oysters, crabs, and lobsters, and other sea fisheries. The sale of oysters is prohibited, in the case of " deep sea oysters," between 16th June and 4th August ; in other cases between 14th May_ and 14th August Oysters taken in foreign waters, or preserved in tins, or intended for the purpose of oyster cultivation are not within this section. The Boani of Trade has power to temporarily prohibit or restrict dredging for oysters on certain banks. Grabs measuring less than 4^ inches across the back, or carrying spawn attached to the tail, &c., or having recently cast the shell may not be sold, except for bait. LobaUrs measuring less than 8 inches " from the tip of the back to the end of the tail, when spread as far as possible flat," may not be sold. Oysters are also specially dealt with by the " Sea Fisheries Act, 1868," which isan Act to cany into elTect a convention between England and France concerning the fisheries in the seas adjoining the British Islands and France, and to amend the law.i relating to British sea fisheries. International Law.— As between different nations, fishing in the imon to all, wh'' - Ashing in the territorial waters of high seas is common „. ^ .„ ,„„ .^..nuimi waiors oi any particular state (i.«., withi- three miles of the coast) is limited to the subjects of that state. Between France and England the rights of fishing in the seas adjacent to both countries are regulated by the convention and Act of Parliament cited above. Between England and the United States qnestlons of great importance hare arisen as to their respective rights of fishing in North Amerii-an waters. Mutual conDessions were made by treaties in 1818, 1804, and 1871. The last was the Treaty of Washington, by which " the in- habitants of the United States are to have in addition to their rights under the treaty of 1818, in common with British subjects, for ten years from the date of the treaty and until the end of two years after notice has been given by either party, the right to take fish of every kind except shell-fish on the sea coasts and shores, and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of the provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the colony of Prince Edward's Island, and of the several islands thereto adjacent, without being restricted to any distance from the shore, with permission to land upon the said coasts and shores and islands, and also upon the Magdalen Islands for the puipose of drying their nets and curing their fish." Salmon and shad fisheries and all other fisheries in the rivers and mouths of rivers are reserved for British subjects. Exactly similar rights are granted to British subjects on the eastern sea coasts and shores of the United States north of the 39th parallel of north latitude. But inasmuch as the English Government insisted that the privileges granteil to the United States were of greater value than those conceded to England, it was agreed that commissioners should be appointed to determine the amount of any compensation which ought to be pn ! to the English Government in consideration of such excess. The commissioners have recently made an award finding the sum of £1,000,000 to be due from the United States to England. Certain places designated in the abrogated treaty of 1864 are to be excepted from the operation of the treaty as "iploces rewivedfrom the com< mon right of fishing."