178 DEEP-SEA PISHING. 



the larger supplies of fish are daily obtained for the 

 market. To enter into many details on these subjects 

 would involve a great deal of wearisome repetition ; 

 and, except in the case of the larger stations, it will be 

 unnecessary to do more than indicate the general kinds 

 of fishing in which the fishermen of the several districts 

 are employed. The extent of the fisheries can be only 

 approximately ascertained, as nothing less than an in- 

 timate acquaintance with every fishing town and village 

 along the coast will enable one to understand how much 

 is being done. The Annual Returns published by the 

 Board of Trade of the number of fishing boats registered 

 under the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868, promised materials 

 for ascertaining the progress or otherwise of the fisheries 

 during the last three years, so far as the mere number 

 of boats in the three classes was any indication of the 

 extent and character of the fishing. But the form in 

 which the returns are given makes it impossible, even 

 with a considerable knowledge of the localities, to say 

 which boats or how many of them are engaged in any 

 particular work. The number of boats given is also 

 only approximately correct. In the first year of regis- 

 tration under the Act it was understood that boats of 

 every description which under any circumstances were 

 employed in fishing, whether for the purposes of sale or 

 not, were to be included in the returns, and numbers 

 of small private boats and a good many yachts of 

 various sizes were consequently registered ; but since 

 the exemption, by a subsequent Order in Council,^ of 

 all boats not actually employed in the fishing trade, 

 hundreds of craft have been taken off the register, 

 and we understand that a further reduction will pro- 

 bably be necessary. It is also quite possible that many 



' See Appendix. 



