INTRODUCTOIIY. 25 



of Scotland have been less abnndant near the land, and 

 on some parts of the coast are scarce within ordinary 

 inshore fishing distances ; but they are still plentiful in 

 deep water, and the fisherman's chief complaint is that 

 he must go farther to sea in order to catch them. That 

 the scarcity is only local is evident from the fact that 

 the deep-sea trawlers find no falling off in the numbers 

 of this fish on the grounds where they have long been 

 accustomed to find them at the proper season. We 

 have yet to learn what influences tlie movements of this 

 uncertain fish ; and if we knew more about the state of 

 our fisheries during the earlier part of the present cen- 

 tury, it is quite possible that we should find there was 

 the same variation formerly in the abundance of fish 

 near the land that has been noticed in more modern 

 times. Attention has been recently directed to the 

 subject in consequence of the development of the trawl 

 fishery in the North Sea. That appeared to the line 

 fishermen on the north-east coast sufficient to account 

 for the scarcity of this fish ; the beam-trawl seemed to 

 them especially suited to destroy the spawn, and it was 

 therefore readily assumed that it did so ; but we shall 

 be able to show presently that the only way in which 

 the trawlers can diminish the number of haddocks on 

 our coasts is by catching them, and that is what the 

 line fishermen themselves are so anxious to do. The 

 disappearance of the haddock from Dublin Bay a few 

 years ago was also attributed to the operations of the 

 trawlers ; but it is rumoured tliat they had long pre- 

 viously, for a time, forsaken the neighbourhood when 

 no such reason for their doing so could be given. Last 

 year these fish were again abundant on their old 

 grounds; and, in 1872, plenty of these fish were caught 

 there for about a week ; then they disappeared as before. 



