IN THE BAYS ON THE SOUTH-EAST COAST OF DEVON. 439 



e.g. Mount's Bay, large quantities of plaice and soles are caught in their 

 seasons. On the rough patches, off the Start and off Portland, the 

 liners ("bolters") procure great hauls of conger, cod, ling, and rays. 

 Since the smacks frequently land their catches at Plymouth, or at 

 various ports in the south of Cornwall, it has been found impos- 

 sible to give even an approximate measure of the value of the grounds 

 in question. That these are rich and valuable there can be no doubt, 

 for they support the Plymouth sailing-trawlers all the year round as 

 well as frequent steam-trawlers from French and English ports. But 

 the roving instinct of the Brixham fisherman, as well as his desire for 

 greater gains, leads him to prefer the Bristol Channel. 



We come lastly to the home grounds and the small trawlers. A few 

 of the large smacks fish on these grounds occasionally in the intervals 

 of coming from and going to the Bristol Channel ; but they may be 

 neglected for the present until we have discussed the fishing of the 

 small boats. These number about seventy, and are known locally 

 by the peculiar term " Mumble Bees," said to be derived from a small 

 fishing village called Mumbles, near Tenby in Wales. Some of the 

 fishermen who went round to the Bristol Channel found at Mumbles 

 this smaller type of boat, cutter-rigged and about twenty-five tons, 

 and adopted it for the inshore fishing near Brixham. It follows that 

 the Mumble Bees are a comparatively recent innovation, though it 

 must not be supposed that there were no small trawlers at Brixham 

 before their introduction. As a matter of fact, there was a smaller 

 class of boat, under five tons and without deck, which still persists 

 at that port and other places round the coast, but they are for the most 

 part employed in hooking or lining at the present time. 



The fishing-grounds of the Mumble Bees lie within the area Start 

 Point to Portland (see chart). If a line were drawn from Start Point 

 six miles to the south-east, thence to the inner edge of the "Scruff" 

 and on to Portland, it would embrace the region beyond which the 

 Mumble Bees seldom venture. The line would enclose about 700 

 square miles of sea, little more than one-half of which is worked by 

 the trawlers. Eocks prevent trawling within the fifteen-fathom line 

 from the Orestone off Torbay right to Portland, and there are several 

 rocky patches off Downend, i.e. between Berry Head and Start Point. 

 The trawlable area is thereby reduced to less than 400 square miles, 

 and 70 square miles have been further cut off by the closure of the 

 inshore grounds^that is to say, the proportion of the enclosed grounds 

 to the outside trawlable area is about one-fifth.* Before the closure 



* The proportion is less in reality, because the crab-pots on the Skerries Bank and the 

 rocks closer inshore cut off one-third of Start Bay as a trawlable area. The proportion 

 of trawlable area within the enclosed waters to that outside is therefore about one-sixth. 



