31 



waters 

 merits 



this is certainly available in several centres both on the 

 West and East Coasts, but is not applied for lack perhaps 

 of knowledge. It is hoped that at least one result of this 

 investigation will be to stimulate and facilitate new and 

 more rapid processes, not only by supplying in my final 

 reports full working details of apparatus and processes 

 from the fishinq- boat to the marketino- of the o-oods, 

 together with estimates of cost, but by indicating the 

 places where the knowledge and plant necessary can be 

 obtained or bought by practical men. 



32. So far as I have been able to see, the coast in 



general, save for slight exceptions, 

 Fitness of West Coast jg admirably adapted physically for 



iters for modern develop- , , ^ , ^ ^ ^ ■' 



;nts. modern developments. 1 he bot- 



tom appears to slope gradually to 

 the 30-fathom limit, thence more steeply too 10 fathoms, 

 after which there is a precipitous fall. But within this 

 lOO-fathom limit, which may also be taken as the trawl- 

 ing limit, there are perhaps 17,000 square miles in a 

 strip of sea averaging perhaps 40 miles in breadth, 

 nearly the whole of which has a smooth, undulating 

 bottom, usually of sand, mud, or ooze ; there seems little 

 to hinder a trawling net especially of the otter pattern. 

 The weather again is far better than in British waters ; 

 for 8 months, October to May, there is seldom anything 

 but fine weather ; the general direction and force of the 

 wind are known, and it is possible for months together 

 to count with certainty on good weather and on parti- 

 cular winds ; for months together boats may go regularly 

 to sea in the early morning with a strong landbreeze and 

 return in the afternoon with the seabrceze without fear 

 of either calm or storm. It is this regularity and certainty 

 of weather which contracts so strongly and so favourably 

 with the uncertainties, with the bewildering, violent, and 

 dangerous changes of British or other Western weather, 

 while the climate is, so far as the workers are con- 

 cerned, far more favourable than that of the winter in 

 the North Sea or on the New-foundland bank or even 

 in British waters ; even the sea is generally calm as 

 contrasted with the Atlantic, the Bay of Biscay, the 

 Adriatic, or the North Sea. Without the above advant- 

 ages, indeed, it would be impossible to risk even short 

 deep-sea voyages in the crank canoes which are practi- 

 cally the only boats in use. Hence for fishing other 



