208 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



trawl-fishery has never been more prosperous than in 

 recent years. This no doubt has been partly owing- to 

 the increased demand for fish and the higher prices 

 obtained for it ; but it clearly points to the fact that 

 the Brixham fishing ground has not yet been exhausted, 

 although it has been regularly and systematically 

 trawled over by an increasing number of smacks for 

 probably a hundred years. If Mr. Froude may be rehed 

 on, we may nearly treble that time, but we are content 

 with the shorter period, about which there appears to 

 be little question. AYe have already mentioned the 

 extent of the regular Brixham trawling ground, but it 

 may be desirable to speak of it again in this place. It 

 lies between the neighbourhood of Start Point and a 

 little to the north-east of Torbay, and is about 20 

 miles in length and of variable width, but mostly from 

 3 to 8 miles off the land. Some of the smacks oc- 

 casionally go a little farther eastward or westward ; 

 in the summer a few visit Tenby, and in the winter 

 about a dozen fish in the North Sea, but nine- tenths of 

 the work is done on the home ground, and all the year 

 round. 



It will be unnecessary to say more about this last 

 report, the general tenor of which is strongly adverse 

 to fishing with the trawl, which, after having been 

 carried on for nearly a century, was then more thriv- 

 ing and more extensively worked than bad ever been 

 known ; and we should not have noticed either of the 

 reports if Mr. Barry had not been known for so many 

 years as the Inspecting Commissioner of Irish Sea 

 Fisheries, and the chief adviser in all cases involving 

 the making of regulations for their management 

 previous to the appointment of the present three in- 

 spectors of the general fisheries of the sister country. 



