ON THE ENGLISH SEA FISHERIES. 79 
three miles outside Hope’s Nose and Berry Head. The Brix- 
ham fish market is a covered space adjacent to the pier. As 
the boats drop in, the fish is brought in in large and small 
open baskets, which are laid upon the ground, under the direc- 
tion of the women, who are said strictly to maintain the character 
popularly ascribed to fishwives in general. The average value of 
the fish sold on a well supplied market day may be, at a guess, 
£250. The fish is sent off by railway, chiefly to Bristol, and 
along the Great Western Railway to London, and other large 
towns along the line. 
The practice of fishing with seine nets, or rather drag nets, 
is also common in Torbay and the neighbourhood. This would 
seem to be a very destructive systemindeed. The net is carried 
out to sea for a mile or more, and then drawn ashore. By this 
means, enormous quantities of young fish are taken, fit only 
for the purposes of manure. They are often left on the shore 
till it is convenient to remove them, greatly to the annoyance 
of those whose avocations may take them into the locality of 
the heap. 
A great deal of discussion has taken place lately about trawl- 
ing for herring in Scotland. I may here remark that what 
is called trawling in Scotland is simply the process of fishing 
with an inshore seine or drag net, quite different from the 
system I am about to attempt a description of. As usual, 
there is something to be said on both sides, and it may be 
as well that I should give the trawler’s side first, and as com- 
pletely as Ican. The Rey. J. R. Nankivell, a gentleman whose 
whole time is spent among the Brixham fishermen, and who has 
kindly furnished me with the most,valuable information, after a 
close enquiry, made on purpose, it gives as the “decided opinion 
of the Brixham trawlers that the deep sea fishery at Brixham is 
quite as productive as it was twenty years ago, in fact that the 
yield per man is, if anything, greater. That a very inconsider- 
able quantity of spawn is injured by the trawl, for it is never 
hauled in with the trawl; and the fishermen consider that most 
of the fish go into shallow water, rivers, bays, &c., to spawn, 
where there isno trawling. That the fish when taken out of the 
