120 NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 



the fleets, and the statement in the Eastern Morning News of September 

 1st, that, on the previous day, the " cutter," or carrier, from the Eed 

 Cross rieet was in London with fish from 19 steam trawlers and 64 

 smacks, and the Great Northern cutter with fish from 10 steamers and 

 70 smacks, illustrates the extent to which this practice has been 

 carried. 



The local market at the St. Andrew's Dock is supplied almost 

 entirely by steam trawlers. A great deal of the variety in the modes 

 of fishing and in the kinds of fish brought to market at Grimsby, is 

 missed by the visitor to Hull. The Hull market has not such ex- 

 tensive relations as that at Grimsby, and does not offer the same 

 demand or price for prime fish. The Hull trawlers, therefore, attach 

 more importance to quantity than quality, and one does not find either 

 smacks or steamers there, as at Grimsby, which make a special point of 

 fishing for soles, turbot, and brill. There are no welled cod-smacks, or 

 cod-chests, in the dock, and the line fishing for halibut, tusk, cod, ling, 

 skate, etc., on the distant grounds of i'aroe and Iceland, is not pursued 

 to the same extent as at Grimsby. During my visit a number of the 

 steamers landing their fish at Hull were fishing on the Holman Ground, 

 and in the Skager Eack, or Sleeve, as the fishermen call it. One 

 steamer, using the otter -trawl without the patented arrangements, 

 landed 82 kits of plaice, 45 kits of large haddock, 58 kits of medium 

 haddock, 24 kits of cod, 5 kits of codling, 2 kits of hake, 6 kits grey 

 gurnard, 8 stone turbot, 13 stone halibut, 3 score cat-fishes, 5 score 

 ling, 5 score skate, 4 score rays. 



The Hull market does not offer such good facilities for observation as 

 that at Grimsby. The fish, as it is lauded in baskets on the quay, is 

 nearly all weighed, and then thrown into the kits, which are somewhat 

 narrow deep open casks, and when these are moved away for sale, the 

 various parts of a single vessel's catch are not kept together. To 

 ascertain the nature and amount of a vessel's catch, it is necessary, 

 therefore, to watch the whole process of landing, whereas at Grimsby 

 the wide shallow boxes, and the fact that the whole of a vessel's catch 

 is placed together in one spot on the pontoon, enable one to see at a 

 glance what a vessel has landed. 



The Hull steamers, and the fleets too, fish a good deal in spring on 

 the Eastern or small plaice grounds, but while I was in Hull the 

 quantity of fish on these grounds was too small to remunerate them. 

 I ascertained in the case of three steamers that they had visited these 

 grounds and fished there for a part of their voyage, but none of them 

 landed the smallest plaice which are usually there. None of the plaice 

 landed in these cases were less than 9 in. long, and the largest quantity 

 lauded from one vessel was 30 kits, the largest fish not exceeding 16 in. 



