CH. V] THE SEA-FISHERIES 105 



manufactures have experienced in the strenuous struggle for wealth 

 of the last century. Though it is essentially still the art of the 

 hunter yet the methods evolved for the capture of marine animals 

 have been greatly improved during the last few decades of that 

 era. The fishermen have directed a great amount of observation 

 towards ascertaining the habits of fishes and other economic animals 

 with a view to their capture in increased numbers and fishing 

 apparatus is continually being improved. 



The methods of modern commercial fisheries are of course based 

 on a study of the habits of marine creatures. Bottom-living 

 nektic animals are caught by means of apparatus which work on 

 or near the sea bottom : these are trawls, dredges, lines, bottom 

 set nets and seines, crab and lobster pots and other devices. 

 Truly benthic animals are caught by the same apparatus, or by 

 other more special forms of fishing gear such as the tangles or 

 swabs which are used to obtain the red coral of commerce. Pelagic 

 animals are caught by drift nets, seine nets, and lines. Planktonic 

 organisms have as yet no use in commerce and the fisherman is as 

 a rule ignorant of their existence, except such as form a nuisance 

 to him. 



It is quite impossible to do more than to indicate the prin- 

 cipal methods of fishing pursued in the seas round the British shores. 

 An adequate account of fishing gear has yet to be written, but at 

 any rate we are concerned here not so much with the study of the 

 fishing instruments from the point of view of the professional fisher- 

 men as with their interest to the naturalist in a study of the general 

 conditions of life in the sea. So I will notice only the principal 

 types of fishing gear. These are modifications of the dredge, 

 seine net, trap and line. The trawl and line for the bottom-living 

 nekton and benthos, and the seine and line for the pelagic nekton 

 are the types of fishing apparatus. The trawl is now incomparably 

 the most important of the instruments used in sea fishing, and the 

 history of the development of the fishing industry during the last 

 quarter of the nineteenth century is that of the continued improve- 

 ment of trawling vessels and their fishing gear. All kinds of 

 trawling vessels now ply the seas. There is the modern steam 

 trawler, a relatively large and powerful vessel commanded by an 

 expert navigator (for she has to traverse an extensive sea-area) and 



