148 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



fishermen that, comparatively small as the fish are, 

 they readily sell at a good price, and there are not 

 enongh cod at that season in the distant grounds to pay 

 for catching them. Cod fishing is so far peculiar that 

 it is only the fact of the fish commanding a high price 

 that induces men to incur the heavy expenditure neces- 

 sary for building and equipping vessels for the purj^ose ; 

 and as the same smacks and fishermen work both the 

 inshore and offshore fisheries, any undue destruction of 

 cod at the former should become apparent to the men 

 when they change their ground. The margin of profit 

 for the owner of a cod-smack is not so large but that 

 any serious diminution in the catch for the year would 

 soon be felt ; but although the charge of taking small 

 cod is of many years' standing, and is as well founded 

 now as it ever was, it is difficult to believe that the 

 consequences have been so disastrous as the prophets 

 told us would be the case ; for instead of the smacks 

 diminishing in number, and the owners becoming 

 ruined, there has been a large increase of vessels 

 during the last ten years, many of them are of a 

 larger class than formerly, and therefore more costly, 

 and the number of fish brought to market has averaged 

 about the same as before for each smack. There are 

 good years and bad ones with fishermen of all classes, 

 however ; and some of the liners complain of the last 

 two or three years not having been so productive as 

 usual. Should there be any sensible diminution in 

 the supply of cod in future years, as the result of ovei^- 

 Jishing, a very simple remedy will certainly be applied : 

 in all open-sea fisheries, such as that for cod, a time 

 must come, long before the fish are nearly exterminated 

 (if that be possible) or even reduced to small numl)crs, 

 when it will be unprofitable to fish for them ; the smack- 



