88 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



The following return ^ of the actual produce of one 

 of the Grimsby smacks during each of the five years 

 1860-4 was furnished by Mr. Henry Knott, of G-rimsby, 

 to the Royal Sea Fisheries Commissioners, and was 

 published in the Appendix to their Report in 1866. 

 It was represented as giving a fair idea of what 

 had been done during the time by trawlers properly 

 worked and with average success; and is valuable as 

 affording some data for estimating the quantity of fish 

 supplied to the markets by this method of fishing. It 

 also shows how much the prices obtained by the fisher- 

 men fluctuated ; although there is no reason to think 

 the consumers derived very much benefit from the low 

 prices often paid by the fishmongers. 



In the North Sea, at some distance from the land, 

 enormous catches of plaice and haddocks are sometimes 

 made, and the quantities of these fish which are still 

 daily landed at Hull and Grimsby from grounds which 

 have been regularly worked over for many years would 

 appear incredible to most persons who had not attended 

 the arrival of the trawlers, and gained some knowledge 

 of the extent of the interests largely dependent on the 

 continuous supply of these "offal fish." 



' Referred to at page 15. 



