FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 207 



increase in that of the wliole parish, vvhicli Mr. Barry 

 does not mention, and probably did not observe ; and 

 the discrepancy has been explained by the Registrar- 

 General in a very simple manner, namely, that the 

 limits of the town were first defined in 1851, and only 

 about 300 of the population of the parish were then 

 excluded; but in 1861, when more correct boundaries 

 were fixed, about 1600 were excluded from the town. 

 The apparent decrease was therefore solely due to the 

 alteration of the toum boundaries. 



In the census of 1871, the town population of 

 Brixham is that included within the Local Board 

 District Boundaries, which are not quite the same 

 as those fixed in 1861. But the census returns for 

 fishing towns like Brixham are really of little value, 

 as the number of fishermen on shore on any particular 

 day is subject to variation. For example, the last 

 enumeration took place on a Sunday, when most of 

 the smacks were in port, and a large portion of their 

 crews sleeping on shore ; and the return shows a con- 

 siderable increase in the population, partly from this 

 cause ; but although these fishermen may be legitimately 

 included among the inhabitants of the town, their 

 exclusion on former occasions by the mere accident 

 of the day on which the census was taken, makes a 

 comparison of the returns useless for judging of the 

 increase or decrease of the local fisheries. 



The number of fishing smacks on the Dartmouth 

 register at the end of 1872 was 136 ; and with one or 

 two exceptions they all belonged to Brixham men, either 

 living at home or settled at other stations. There was 

 a slight increase between 1863 and 1872 in the number 

 of smacks regularly working from Brixham, nearly 100 

 vessels having been thus engaged in 1872 ; and the 



