300 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



September, and during that period the smacks make 

 two or three trips. Welled vessels are not needed for 

 this work, as all the fish are cured ; they are split and 

 salted as soon as they are caught, and on the vessel's 

 return to Lerwick the fish are washed and dried in the 

 open ai]'. They undergo no packing, but are exported 

 in bulk. These smacks are not the property of the 

 fishermen, but are fitted out by the curers, the men 

 receiving half the catch, or its equivalent, after all 

 expenses are paid ; they are also provided with bread 

 by the owners. At the close of the deep-sea cod-fishery 

 the Shetland smacks are laid up for the winter, and their 

 crews find some other employment ; but the winter 

 days are too short and the weather frequently too 

 stormy for much fishing to be done on the coast. 



Under the head of " Line-fishing"^ we mentioned that 

 many of the Grimsby cod-smacks went northwards in 

 April, at the end of the longline season on the Dogger. 

 These vessels then work near the Orkneys and Shet- 

 lands as well as on the Faroe and Iceland banks, and 

 almost all the fish they catch is landed either at Kirk- 

 wall or Lerwick— most of it at the latter port, where it 

 is bought by the curers and treated in the same manner 

 as that brought home by their own smacks. The 

 Returns published by the Scotch Fishery Board of the 

 dried fish of different kinds cured at Shetland in each 

 year, therefore include the cod which are caught by the 

 Grrimsby vessels at the northern stations as well as those 

 which are obtained from the same grounds b}^ the Sliet- 

 land smacks, and the ling, tusk, and saithe taken by 

 the open boats nearer home. The proportion of fish 

 caught by the English vessels is very difficult to ascer- 

 tain, but it must vary year by year in accordance not 



' Pasie 145. 



