ON THE ENGLISH SEA FISHERIES. 85 
as the supply diminishes. At Milford Haven, this has been so 
much felt that the common fishermen have requested official 
interference. At Carmarthen, the report is, ‘about twelve years 
ago, the trawlers were able to catch fifteen or sixteen baskets o¢ 
fish at a haul. Now they have very little succees. The decrease 
is attributed to the inshore seines. From Tenby, the report is 
that the fish is not nearly so plentiful as formerly. The Bridge- 
water Bay Fisheries are said to have been almost destroyed by 
the hose nets. From the Cornish coast, that fishing is much 
less productive than formerly. A man who, forty years ago, 
could support his family decently by fishing with hook and line, 
varied by nets for pilchards, mackerel, and perhaps herring, is at 
this time but little removed from poverty. The capital barely 
repays itself by the time it has been worn out in the service. 
Devonshire coast:—Deep sea fishing as productive as ever, but 
in bays and shallow waters the fish is very scarce, and the supply 
much diminished of late years, Formerly, there used to be a 
great quantity of dabs, flounders, and other flat fish, which have 
now almost entirely disappeared. The decrease is attributed to 
the increasing use of in-shore seines. On some parts of this 
coast, hundreds of waggon loads of small fish—soles, cod, whit- 
ing, and turbot—are taken in the year, and bushels on bushels 
are thrown away with the weed to die. The Dorsetshire coast: 
—The report is that the fishing is not nearly so productive as 
formerly. From the Sussex coast:—That the fishing is greatly 
reduced. Brighton, once a fishing village, is now almost sup- 
plied from London. From the Kentish coast, I learn that fish, 
especially turbot, brill, and plaice, are much more scarce than 
formerly; but the Dover trawlers declare that the fishing there 
is about the same as in former years. From the Essex, Suffolk, 
and Norfolk coasts, complaints are made of the fearful destruc- 
tion of fish of all kinds by the system of stow boat fishing, and 
that a great quantity of fish is annually sold for manure; and off 
the Norfolk coast the fishery is said to be less productive than 
formerly by 50 per cent. The Lincolnshire report speaks of great 
damage done by improper modes of fishing—especially with the 
trawl-—and gives a striking example of the good arising from a 
