Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/256

 246 FISHERIES [ENGLISH. bed, so that if it be returned to the sea before it suffers any pro- lon&amp;lt;*ed exposure to the air, development will proceed apparently unchecked. Those specimens, indeed, which underwent develop ment in my possession, had not only been removed from the ground, but had been kept for many hours in a scanty supply of water be fore I received them ; and even after they came under my care, they were necessarily placed in conditions very different from those to which they would have been exposed if they had been allowed to remain in their natural habitat, and yet, with all these disadvan tages, development proceeded uninterruptedly.&quot; Kegistra- Registration of Fishiiig Vessels. Under the Sea Fisheries Act tiou of 1868, all vessels and boats engaged in fishing for the purpose of sale vessels must be registered at the custom-house, and must be marked on the bow with letters denoting the port to which they belong, and their registered number. Thus, Grimsby is represented by the letters G Y, Peterhead by P D, and Galway by G. The fishing boats are divided into three classes, the first class including everything of 15 tons and upwards, the second class all boats under 15 tons navigated otherwise than by oars only, that is, sometimes by sails and sometimes by oars, and the third class those with which oars only are used. The last class is supposed to include only small boats used for harbour fishing ; x but as there are very few boats in which a sail of some kind is not sometimes hoisted, the customs have a discretionary power to put very small boats into the third class, notwithstanding their occasional use of a sail. The registers for each port are sent to the registrar-general of shipping, and appear in the annual returns published by the Board of Trade. There is great difficulty, however, in obtaining precise accuracy in the returns for many parts of the coast; new boats sometimes escape registration, and boats which have been lost or broken up some times remain for a year or so on the list. But, imperfect as these returns undoubtedly are, they are of some value in giving an approximate idea of the number of the fishing craft, and of the average size of those in the first class. It must be remembered, however, that this class includes boats ranging from 15 tons to 70 or 80 tons. The tendency now is to fish farther from the land than formerly, and to use decked instead of open boats ; the result is that there is a steady increase in the first class boats, and a diminution in the number of the 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 and 1877, arranged according to their classes : Years. First Class. Second Class. Third Class. Boats. Tonnage. Boats. Boats. England 1876 1877 3,142 3,425 121,445 137,768 8,777 7,825 2,890 2,044 Scotland 1876 1877 2,782 2,940 47,743 51,039 9,888 9,326 1,470 1,303 Ireland 1876 1877 393 405 9,364 9,861 2,802 2,817 2,949 3,002 Isle of Man. 1876 1877 235 254 5,017 5,446 107 123 41 11 Totals ... | 1876 1877 6,552 6,770 183,569 198,668 21,574 19,968 7,350 6,349 We will now proceed to give an account of the several valuable fisheries carried on around the coasts of the British Islands, with some details of the appliances in use, and the manner in which they are worked. ENGLISH ENGLISH FISHERIES. On the coast of England the FISHER- 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 beam-trawl, the drift-net, the sean, the stow-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. Trawl- Trawling. The most characteristic mode of fishing is iu g. that known in England as &quot; trawling,&quot; or in Scotland as &quot; beam-trawling,&quot; and consists in towing, trailing, or trawl ing a flattened bag-net, often 100 feet long, over the bottom 1 By a recent order in council all open iisliing boats which do not fish beyond three miles from land are exempted from registration. This practically abolishes the third class which has hitherto appeared iu the returns. in such a manner as to catch those fish especially which naturally keep close to or upon the ground. It is very desirable that the name &quot; trawl &quot; should be restricted to this net, presently to be described, as much confusion has been caused by the practice, general in Scotland (which has misled even such writers as Mr Couch, see Fishes of the British Islands, iv. 105), of applying the name to that very different kind of net which has for centuries past been almost universally known as the &quot; sean,&quot; &quot; seine,&quot; or seyne,&quot; and may be traced back through the Saxon segne to the Latin sagena, a sweep-net. In the United States and Canada, the word &quot; trawl &quot; is still more misapplied, being given to what is in England commonly called the long line or bulter. The beam-trawl may be simply described as a triangular, The flat, purse-shaped net with the mouth extended by a horizon- beam- tal wooden beam, which is raised a short distance from the trawl - 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 as the net is towed over the bottom. The beam of course varies in length according to the size of the net, and depends to some extent also on the length and power of the vessel which has to work it. In the large &quot; smacks,&quot; as the trawl-boats have long been called, the beam ranges 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 wood may not be lessened by more trimming or chipping than is absolutely necessary. If the required length and thickness cannot be obtained in one piece, two or even three pieces are scarfed together, and the joints 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 effected 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 secured by ropes, the forerigging 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 &quot; heads or irons&quot; 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 part of a stirrup. It is called the &quot; shoe,&quot; 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