266 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



rapidity which tells of long practice in the work, and 

 in a few minutes a goodly pile of herrings is collected 

 by their side. We have seen as many as twelve full- 

 sized herrings taken from a single coalfish, and they 

 have been in such a condition that they might almost 

 all have been sent to market without exciting any 

 suspicion among the purchasers that they had not been 

 caught in the most orthodox manner. These herrings 

 g^re professedly saved for bait, but we have no doubt 

 that many of them find their way into the frying pan. 

 Staithes was formerly a great place for cured fish, as 

 the facilities for sending the fish fresh to market were 

 very small before the extension of the railways to the 

 coast. Some cartage is even necessary at the present 

 time, but a much larger proportion of the catches is 

 now sold fresh than formerly. The cured fish is split, 

 salted, and dried on the rocks, and sent away to various 

 markets. An old custom of calling the larger class of 

 fishing boats " fi'men boats " still prevails here ; it 

 originated in the fact of these boats each carrying five 

 men in old times, the smaller boats only having three. 

 A larger number of hands, usually seven or eight, are 

 now carried by the yawls. Turbot or " bratt " nets are 

 successfully worked by the Staithes fishermen, although, 

 according to their report, the catches are not nearly as 

 large as they were formerly. This is the general 

 statement along this coast. Assuming the diminution 

 to be real, the ex^^lanation of it is not very easy to 

 give, if the circumstances of the case are looked into. 

 The feeling of the fishermen along the north-east 

 coast has been and continues very strong against the 

 trawlers ; and, of course, a decrease in the local supply 

 of any kind of fish is there ascribed to the " iniquitous 

 system of trawl-net fishing." The decrease in the 



