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I.— TKAWLING. 



Uncertainty as to origin of — Various kinds of trawl — Supposed long use of 

 — Principal trawling stations — Description of the beam-trawl — ■Beam, 

 heads, net, ground-rope — Arrangement and useof pocl^cts — Warp, bridles 

 ■ — Size and description of trawl-smacks — Improved rig — Cost of vessels 

 and gear — Barking sails — Working the trawl — Sliooting the net — 

 Towing — Action of the trawl — Ground fish and floating fish — Resist- 

 ance of the water — Heaving up — Hoisting in the fish — Varied contents 

 of trawl — Suitable weather — Depth of water — Condition of trawl-fish — 

 Classification of — "Prime and offal" — Abundance of certain kinds — 

 Fishing grounds, continued supply from — Plymouth, Brixham, North 

 Sea — Discovery of Silver Pit — Large number of trawlers. 



The most important method of fishing by which a 

 regular supply of the best and most varied kinds of sea 

 fish is obtained for the market is that commonly known 

 as " trawling" — a name evidently derived from trailing 

 or dragging; the trawl being a bag-net, which is towed, 

 trailed, or trawled along the bottom ; and it is so 

 constructed as to capture those fish esj^ecially which 

 naturally keep upon or near the ground. There are 

 several varieties of the trawl, but the differences be- 

 tween them relate to the appliances in use for its 

 effective working rather than to the principle of its con- 

 struction or the object for which it is to be employed. 

 In all cases ^ it has the general form of a triangular bag 



^ The term " trawl " belongs properly to the bag-net which is towed or 

 trailed along the bottom ; but on the west coast of Scotland the name is 

 systematically applied to the scan or circle net used for catching herrings. 

 The herring-trawl in Scotland is therefore the same kind of net as the scan 

 employed for catching pilchards, herrings, and mackerel on the English coasts. 

 The unfortunate misuse of the name " trawl " in Scotland has led to a great 

 deal of misapprehension on the part of writers on the sea fisheries ; and even 

 Mr. Couch, the well-known author of the Fishes of the British Islands, 

 appears to have been misled by it, as, when speaking of the various methods 

 of catching herrings, he says (vol. iv., p. 105), " We believe also that not long 

 since ingenuit}^ has contrived to render the trawl effective in the fishery for 



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