40 THE liMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SEA. 



majority of the carriers, so that the error introduced under this head is 

 probably insignificant. Indeed, the steam carrier, although merely 

 engaged in transporting fish caught by other boats, is undoubtedly an 

 element in the catching power as a time-saving contrivance; and the 

 deficiencies in my estimates of these vessels may serve, by their 

 inclusion among the trawlers proper, as a rough measure of the catching 

 power due to the carriers in general. 



The figures representing East Coast trawlers which regularly land 

 their fish at Scottish ports have been taken from the Annual Keports 

 and other official publications of the Scottish Fishery Board, except for 

 the year 1892, the figure for which has been interpolated, owing to my 

 failure to find an official record for that year. 



The total deductions enumerated in the table have been made both 

 for the entire coast of England and Wales and for the East Coast, but 

 not for the Western Coasts, since they are based on data which apply 

 to the East Coast only. The steamers registered for the South and 

 West Coasts have been taken as being trawlers without exception. 



§ iii. East Coast Trawlers in Western Waters. 



As already remarked, for the purpose of these statistics of Bottom 

 Fish and Eishing Vessels, Kamsgate has been included among the East 

 Coast ports and as the southern boundary of the East Coast district. 

 But in determining the number of boats engaged off the East Coast and 

 off the remaining coasts respectively, it seemed necessary to take account 

 of the East Coast trawlers (both steamers and smacks) which have more 

 or less regularly visited the South and West Coasts during recent years. 

 The methods adopted in order to estimate the numbers of these " East 

 Coast visitors " of each kind were as follows. 



In the case of steamers the collectors' estimates of the number of 

 steam trawlers working from the ports of Plymouth, Newlyn, Milford, 

 and Fleetwood were added together for each year, and the numbers of 

 steam fishing boats actually registered at these ports were deducted from 

 the total so obtained. The differences have been taken to represent the 

 visitors from the East Coast. Thus : — 



Steamers reported to he Working. 



1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 

 Plymouth . 

 Newlyn 

 ]\Iilford 

 Fleetwood . 



Total . . 28 43 44 82 74 60 80 102 128 137 



