FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 181 



The fisheries along the nortli-west coast of England 

 are of a very varied character. Drift-fishing is neither 

 important nor regular, as the herrings are uncertain in 

 their visits ; and when they make tlieir appearance in 

 the bays, where the fishing mostly takes place, a great 

 many of the boats are not well provided with suitable 

 nets for catching them. Trawling is carried on to a 

 considerable extent, both inshoi'e and oft' the land, and 

 shrimping is an important fishery in many districts. 

 Liverpool is the oldest of the deep-sea trawling stations 

 on this part of the coast, but this fishery appears never 

 to have been prosecuted with much energy, and the 

 number of smacks there has been for many years sub- 

 ject to great fluctuation. Fleetwood has of late become 

 the principal station, and the smacks sailing from that 

 port have largely increased in size and number during 

 tlie last twenty years. Whitehaven, Blackpool, and 

 Southport, are also interested in deep-sea trawling, and 

 the extension of railways along the coast has helped to 

 develop this particular industry. The trawling grounds 

 lie between the English coast and the Isle of Man, and 

 some of the vessels, those belonging to Liverpool espe- 

 cially, work a good deal in Carnarvon and Cardigan 

 Bays. 



Inshore trawling by the smaller boats is very general 

 in all the rivers and bays, both for flat-fish and shrimps, 

 and the latter fishery is very productive. Morecambe 

 Bay has long been famous for its shrimps, the fishery 

 for which has been carried on there for a great number 

 of years. The ground consists of a large extent of 

 sandbanks, which for the most part are laid bare at 

 low water, leaving innumerable channels between them ; 

 and in these the shrimps are found in myriads. The 

 ordinary beam-trawl, but with a very short ground- 



