FISHES AND MANKIND 389 



To give some idea of the relative value of these different vessels, 

 it may be pointed out that in 1926 the amount of demersal fish 

 caught by British fishermen and landed at British ports was 

 10,961,000 cwts., valued at £13,541,000; the amount of pelagic 

 fish, consisting chiefly of Herrings, landed in the same year 

 was 8,000,000 cwts., valued at £3^503^000. The old sailing 

 trawlers with their picturesque brown sails are rapidly bemg 

 replaced by more efficient steam vessels, but sailing "smacks" 

 and "cutters" may still be seen in some numbers at such ports 

 as Brixham, Plymouth, Ramsgate, Great Yarmouth, and 

 Lowestoft. The smacks are capable of making voyages of 

 five or six days' duration, and generally fish in water less 

 than forty fathoms in depth, while the cutters work in still 

 shallower water, and rarely stay away from port for more than 

 twenty -four hours. The steam trawlers of Great Britain 

 number about 1560, of which more than 1200 fish from the 

 ports of England and Wales. They are of three main types, 

 and vary in length from 115 to 170 feet, and with a gross 

 tonnage of 215 to 324. The fish-hold may be capable of 

 accommodating as much as 50 to 60 tons of fish, but in the 

 last year or two even larger vessels have been built, capable 

 of storing much greater supplies, and provided with apparatus 

 for extracting cod-liver oil on board. The drifters are somewhat 

 smaller vessels, measuring about 86 feet in length, and with 

 a tonnage of about 95. 



The literature concerning the numerous and diverse methods 

 of catching fish is voluminous, and it is no part of this work to 

 do more than to touch briefly on some of the more interesting 

 methods in use to-day. Leaving out of account such curious 

 practices of oriental countries as fishing with a tame otter, 

 with the Remora or Sucking-fish, and with a cormorant (a 

 method used in Japan for catching the Ayu, a kind of dwarf 

 Salmon), fishes may be said to be caught in four ways: by spears, 

 by traps, by nets, and by baited hooks. The spear was almost 

 certainly the earhest weapon to be employed, and is still m 

 use to-day in certain parts of the world. This was soon foflowed 

 by some kind of primitive trap, which may have partaken of 

 the nature of a simple wicker-work cage or basket, suitably 

 baited and designed to entrap roving fish. From this was 

 evolved the more efficient fish-weir or dam, a snare which 

 worked on the principle of allowing fishes to enter on the flood- 

 tide and retaining them on the ebb. Such weirs are still in use 

 on parts of the coast of Great Britain and in many other 



