Page:VCH Cornwall 1.djvu/690

 A HISTORY OF CORNWALL this at the time of the year when no other fishing is possible. The fish are exported to French markets. The deep-sea trawling off the coast is carried on chiefly by the large trawlers from Plymouth and Brixham, and much fish from this source is landed at Newlyn in the spring and early sum- mer ; but many of these boats, which are much larger than those of the local fleets, carry their catches to their home ports. A small amount of trawling is done by local boats near the shore, especially in Mount's Bay. Trammels are chiefly used by the crabbers to catch Ballan Wrasse (locally known as John Ray or Jocky Ralph) and other coarse fish for use as bait in the crabpots, but the surmullet, pollack, and other high-class fish caught command a ready market. There is a small number of boats employed in fishing with boulters, catching considerable quantities of the large pollack (a fish which reaches a size of as much as 15 or 16 lb., and is locally esteemed a great delicacy) and conger, with other bottom fish. The oyster fishery in the Helford estuaries and the several creeks of the Fal was at one time a large and remunerative industry, but from various reasons has fallen off very considerably. Of late years there has been a fair improvement, and about twenty-five boats are engaged more or less regularly at the work. With the exception of Falmouth, where the boats used are the well-known yawl-rigged Kea punts, and Mevagissey and Polperro, where many of the boats are cutter-rigged, the Cornish fishermen, as a whole, adhere to the old-fashioned dipping lugsail for their boats, in defiance of the common opinion that the inconvenience of work- ing these sails more than outweighs their undoubted sailing qualities. 586