8 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



business is fishing ; that is the end and object of his 

 going to sea ; and it is the charm of that profession, 

 which so long as it brings him in even scanty returns, 

 prevents him from readily changing to another. 

 Fishermen in slack times will sometimes ship for a 

 coasting voyage or a trip up the Mediterranean, but 

 this is done with the sole idea of employing their 

 time till the herring or some other profitable fishing 

 season returns. The voyage is begun with the com- 

 parative certainty that it will be completed in a few 

 weeks or months, and then the attractions of their 

 old pursuit will lead them back to their homes, and 

 the profits to be derived from a steady prosecution ot 

 the fishery. 



It may be said that the entry of fishermen in the 

 Naval Reserve is opposed to the views we have put 

 forward ; but the number of thoroughbred fishermen 

 who have enrolled themselves in that preliminary 

 service is utterly insignificant compared with the vast 

 body of men who are still unfettered by such an 

 engagement. It is not difficult to discover why fisher- 

 men should have a dislike to the Navy. One cause for 

 it is that whatever fishery regulations are enforced, 

 such as marking and numbering boats, carrying lights, 

 &c., the duty is very frequently performed by naval 

 men in some shape or other — Coastguardsmen, or those 

 from Admiralty cruisers. Thus the naval man comes 

 to 1)0 regarded by the fisherman as a sort of natural 

 enemy ; not one, however, who can or will do him any 

 serious harm, but who obliges him to conform to certain 

 regulations, perhaps admitted by him to be possibly 

 useful, but at the same time not productive of such 

 obvious advantage to him as to compensate for the 

 trouble and expense of attending to them. A second 



