58 THE IMPOVERlSHMbNT OF THE SEA. 



tiuu as to the average weight of fish landed by smacks on the South and 

 West Coasts, I have been compelled to use the same coefficients for 

 these coasts as for the East Coast. The evidence submitted in the 

 earlier portions of this paper seems to me to show that for the East 

 Coast those coefficients are approximately and sufficiently correct ; but 

 the low averages which result from the application of the same factors 

 to the boats of Western ports appear to demonstrate that the relative 

 catching power of steamers and smacks in these waters is not the same 

 as for those of the East Coast (cf. p. 62). 



It is, however, first of all necessary to determine the degree of error 

 which is introduced into the results by dividing the whole catch of 

 bottom fish among the first class boats alone. Part of this catch is, of 

 course, derived from small trawlers and liners, and it is conceivable that 

 changes in the quantity of fish landed by the smaller boats might 

 seriously affect the averages which have here been assigned to the 

 larger boats alone. 



In the middle of the period (viz. 1893) the gross number of second 

 class liners fishing from the East Coast ports as determined from the 

 returns of the collectors of fishery statistics was, approximately, 650. 

 The number of second class trawlers engaged in inshore fishing was 

 about 300, or 500 if we include the shrimpers of Yarmouth, Gravesend, 

 etc. Many of these boats are engaged in the line and trawl fisheries 

 for a limited portion of the year, and, of course, the weight of fishes 

 actually landed by the shrimpers is infinitesimal. Taking, however, the 

 total of these small boats at about 1,000, and allowing them an average 

 catch amounting to one-tenth that of a deep-sea trawler (see above, 

 p. 53), we may estimate the total catch of bottom fish derived from 

 these sources as 80,000 cwts., or 4,000 tons. If this amount be deducted 

 from the total quantity of bottom fish landed on the East Coast in 1889 

 and 1898 respectively, the remainder, when distributed among the esti- 

 mated number of smack-units for those years, yields an average catch 

 per unit of 58-9 tons in 1889 and 317 tons in 1898. The differences 

 between these averages and those given in Table VIII. (p. 34) are so minute 

 that no serious error in my results can be attributed to this source. 



The next point to examine is the discrepancy between my estimated 



averages per smack-unit for the East Coast and the actual catches of 



the Grimsby and Lowestoft smacks for the same years. The only 



figures available are for the first four years of the decade, and are as 



follows : — 



Catch per Unit. Grimsby Smacks. Lowestoft Smacks. 

 1889 . . . 60-6 ... 32-6 ... — 



90 . . . 



91 . . . 



92 . . . 46-2 ... 34-1 ... 42-4 



