FISHING STATIONS— I<]N(iI. AND. 271 



increased, and tlie average takes per boat are about tlie 

 yanie as they used to be. Tlie great want is of mussels 

 for bait ; and it is reasonable to conclude that if the 

 supply were more abmidant a larger number of line-fish 

 would be caught. The affairs of the Cullercoats fisher- 

 men seem to be generally flourishing ; the men have 

 been enabled to build themselves good houses, and that 

 has led to improvements in other ways. The fishermen, 

 moreover, have been busy in the construction of a new 

 and very costly breakwater on the south side of their 

 little harbour ; it is expected to be completed this winter, 

 and it will probably be followed by a considerable im- 

 provement in the size of the fishing boats. No doubt 

 a great deal of tlie money thus usefully spent has been 

 obtained by the sea fishery for salmon ; but what has 

 been gained in that way has not been all extra profit, 

 for the herring fishery has been neglected except by a 

 few boats, and that had always been looked forward to 

 as a productive and profitable fishery during the short 

 time it lasted. We are glad to have been able to obtain 

 trustworthy information aboi^t the present condition of 

 Cullercoats, for it is purely a fishing village, within 

 easy reach of railway communication with the markets. 

 Facilities for disposing of the fish are of course of great 

 importance, but only while the supply offish continues; 

 and from the present very flourishing state of Cullercoats 

 it is clear that the anticipations of ruin in consequence 

 of trawling have not been realized, for it is impossible 

 to credit the salmon fishery with all the improvements 

 of the place. It is one of the curious features of the 

 trawling question that the objection to the system takes 

 the most opposite forms : in some places trawling in 

 shallow water is considered to be so destructive to the 

 young fish that it is said it should not be allowed within 



