86 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



and when once the net is clear of the ground the fish are 

 often heaped together at the end of the bag, although 

 not necessarily so, and this may tend to crush and kill 

 some of them. This result, however, only follows to 

 any extent when, in consequence of the had weather, it 

 requires two or three hours' work to get the trawl on 

 board. The length of the haul of course affects the 

 condition of the fish more or less, because the longer 

 they are confined in the net whilst it is dragged over 

 the ground, the more they are likely to suffer from the 

 crowding and knocking about ; and the quantity of fish 

 tells in the same way. Round-fish at all times suffer 

 more than flat-fish ; but when fish of any kind are 

 killed they become so much dead weight pressed against 

 the net, and accordingly are especially liable to damage, 

 having lost their elasticity and power of movement. To 

 these causes of injury may be added the occasional 

 admission of large stones to the net, but this is not a 

 very frequent one, and when it occurs leads perhaps as 

 often to the net being torn as to injury to the fish. 



These difficulties in trawling, however, are to a great 

 extent exceptional ; and although much has been said at 

 various times by the agitators against this method of 

 fishing, for the purpose of showing that trawl-fish must 

 necessarily be " mangled and unfit for food," it is never- 

 theless the fact, that practically all the turbot, brill, 

 soles, and doreys which come into the market — fish 

 which fetch the highest price, and of which hundreds of 

 tons are consumed every year by the richer classes — 

 are caught by the trawl ; whilst thousands of tons of 

 plaice and haddocks, with other kinds of so-called in- 

 ferior fish, are procured by the same method, and are 

 eagerly bought, not only by that large proportion of 

 the population whose necessities oblige them to seek for 



