388 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



historical times have played an important part in the destinies 

 of nations. Mr. Maurice has pointed out that fishing was 

 probably the earliest form of hunting, and since men were 

 almost certainly hunters before they were cultivators, it follows 

 that fishing is the oldest industry in the world. Even in Tudor 

 times our fishermen were at work, not only in the North Sea 

 and other home waters, but also oflf the coasts of Lapland and 

 Iceland, and from this time onwards the part played by the 

 fisheries in the development of sea trade, in giving an impetus 

 to the building of ships, and so on, was a very important one. 

 The actual number of fishermen employed in Great Britain 

 to-day is only about sixty thousand, but it must be remembered 

 that thousands of hands are engaged in the subsidiary industries 

 offish-canning, curing, salting, herring-pickling, the preparation 

 of fish meals and fertilisers, oils of all kinds, and the like. 

 When to these are added the many men and women employed 

 in the transport of fish from the markets to the retail shops, and 

 to the fried-fish shops (handling about 40 per cent, of the total 

 quantity consumed), and those engaged in shipyards, net 

 factories, motor works, etc., it will be realised that a failure of 

 the industry would be a serious calamity with far-reaching 

 eflfects. It has been estimated that no less than four tons of 

 coal and one ton of ice are required to catch a single ton of 

 trawl fish, so that the industries concerned with these com- 

 modities would also suffer severely in such a contingency. 

 As a further example of the importance of the sea-fisheries to 

 the lives of nations, it may be mentioned that in their pursuit of 

 the Cod the French fishermen were led further and further 

 out into the Atlantic Ocean, and in due course this resulted in 

 the discovery of Canada; and it is by no means unusual for 

 the location of an important town or port to be settled with 

 reference to its relation to the fishing industry. According to 

 Dr. Bjornson, wherever a shoal of Herrings touches the coast 

 of Norway, there a village springs up, and the same is true in 

 Scotland, Newfoundland, Japan, Alaska, and Siberia. 



With the possible exception of Japan, the deep-sea fishing 

 industry of Great Britain is the most highly organised in the 

 whole world. It possesses about 2000 steam fishing vessels, as 

 compared with 465 in Germany, 456 in France, 366 in Norway, 

 and 228 in Holland. The kind of vessel used is dependent, of 

 course, on the sort of fish it is required to catch, but three main 

 types may be recognised : the trawler and liner, used for catching 

 demersal or bottom-living fish, and the drifter for pelagic fish. 



