FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 201 



merit of this method of fishing cannot now be traced ; 

 it is quite possible, however, that it was in use in bays 

 and sheltered places, where small craft could be em- 

 ployed, long before it was attempted in the open sea. 

 There is plenty of evidence that at the beginning of the 

 present century trawl-boats and the nets they used 

 were very much smaller than those now employed ; 

 and it appears likely that, as we have suggested, the 

 advantages of the beam-trawl were first ascertained by 

 working with small nets in shoal water. It is worthy 

 of notice that on the many parts of the coast of the 

 United Kingdom where this method of fishing is carried 

 on by small craft inshore, the same general triangular 

 form of trawl-head is adopted ; and this, with a few 

 modifications, is used by all the deep-sea trawlers from 

 Brixham and the stations colonized by men from that 

 town. Barking, on the other hand, has a pattern^ of 

 its own ; and it was only used by vessels from the 

 Thames until they adopted Grreat Yarmouth as a fishing 

 station ; since that time trawling has been rapidly 

 gaining favour with the Yarmouth and Lowestoft men, 

 and the Barking pattern is now more or less in use at 

 those ports, both by native and London smacks. From 

 its localization, and its peculiar and more symmetrical 

 shape, it appears likely to have been intended as an 

 improvement on the pattern in general use on other 

 parts of the coast; and therefore does not aiford any 

 evidence as to when trawling was begun by the Barking 

 fishermen. 



We are not disposed to think deep-sea trawling has 

 been carried on for any very long period, either from 

 Brixham or Barking ; it is true that there is not much 

 evidence to be obtained on the point ; but Barking 



^ Sec Trawl-Lcad, A, p. 56. 



