FISHING STATIONS— ENGLAND. 273 



single lofty fore-lng, which can be reduced to smaller 

 dimensions by no less than seven rows of reef-points. 

 A maimnast and mainsail on a smaller scale are some- 

 times also carried, but the boats sail and steer well with 

 only the foresail. These boats are sharp at each end, 

 and are used especially for the herring fishery. They 

 are of much the same style as the Scotch boats, but are 

 somewhat larger than those generally used ten years 

 ago north of the Tweed. 



Beyond Holy Island and the dangerous neighbour- 

 hood of the Fame Islands the boats and fisheries are 

 essentially Scotch, and the boats of both countries work 

 together on this part of the coast ; the fishermen from 

 the Firth of Forth sometimes going as far south as the 

 Tyne for the early herring fishery in May and June, 

 and then devoting a few weeks to the salmon nets. It 

 is only within the last few years that this herring 

 fishery has been attempted in that neighbourhood ; but 

 the fish, although selling well in the fresh market, are 

 very small, and not fit for curing. Objection is made 

 to this fishery, on the ground of its probably diminish- 

 ing the autumn shoals ; but judging from what has been 

 going on for some years at Lowestoft, where the autumn 

 fish continue abundant, notwithstanding the destruction 

 of young herrings in the spring, the objection may not 

 be well founded. 



Crabs and lobsters are fished for on most parts of this 

 coast, and a few mackerel are sometimes taken in the 

 herring nets. 



The line fishermen on the Northumberland coast 

 have an enemy to contend with which seems to be but 

 little known farther south. This is the myxine, a 

 worm-like fish of low organization, and variously called 

 the borer, hag, sucker, or rapper-eel. Numbers of these 



T 



