264 DEEr-SEA FISHING. 



as at the more soutliern station, and tlie Scarborough 

 boats are mostly employed in the various fisheries in 

 turn, as the seasons come round. The herring fishery 

 and that by longlines for cod and haddock give the 

 most important employment ; a few mackerel have also 

 been taken by hook along this coast in recent years, but 

 these fish are not in sufficient regular abundance to 

 make it generally worth while to have special nets for 

 catching them. Crab and lobster fishing, however, 

 employ a large number of men at particular seasons. 

 The creel or cage trap, also called a " pot," but of a 

 different shape from those having that name in the 

 West of England, is much used here, as it is very easily 

 worked and is very effective, but it has the disad- 

 vantage of catching very small crabs ; and the tempta- 

 tion to keep them when thus caught has induced 

 some fishermen in the common interest to use another 

 kind of trap, which permits the escape of the small 

 crabs and lobsters. This is called a '' trunk," and is 

 simply an iron ring about 2 feet across, to which is 

 attached a shallow net of 2 inches mesh. Fresh bait 

 is fastened in the centre to a cross-line, and a number 

 of these trunks are then sunk in a suitable place and 

 marked in the usual manner by a cork buoy. Much 

 larger crabs and lobsters are taken by these trunks 

 than by the ordinary creels, but it requires more skill 

 to work them, as there is nothing to prevent the crabs 

 and lobsters from crawling out, and the lobsters are apt 

 to make a sudden spring backwards just as the net is 

 being taken out of the water. The trunks are largely 

 used at Flamborough, but nowhere else along this part 

 of the coast. 



Whitby is chiefly interested in the herring and line 

 fisheries, and has only two or three small trawlers. 



