110 THE SEA-FISHERIES [PART I 



principal fishes caught. During the last few years steam liners 

 have increased greatly in number and now go beyond the limits 

 of the North Sea proper to the north and north-east of Scotland, 

 where the halibut is the most valuable fish caught. Then come 

 cod, ling, skates and rays, tusk (Brosmius), and other fishes in less 

 abundance. I am speaking so far of the larger line boats which 

 are comparable in their equipment and personnel with the steam 

 trawlers and smacks. But all round our coasts short lines are set, 

 and this form of fishing carried out from small boats is often of 

 considerable local importance. 



Quite different methods are followed in the pelagic fisheries. 

 Here we have to catch nektic animals which inhabit all strata 

 of the sea from the bottom to the surface. The principal pelagic 

 fish is the herring, and then come the mackerel, pilchard and sprat. 

 Herring fishing lasts all the year round, for the great shoals visit 

 in a rough sort of succession all parts of the British coasts from 

 Stornoway round the north of Scotland and down the east coasts 

 of Britain. Smaller fisheries take place at various parts of the 

 coast ; in the Firth of Clyde, round the Isle of Man, in the English 

 Channel and to a limited extent off the coast of Wales. In nearly 

 all localities herrings are caught by drift nets, which are perpen- 

 dicular walls of netting, connected together to form " fleets " or 

 "trains" each of these being about 8 yards in depth and often two 

 miles in length. The nets are weighted and buoyed and sunk to 

 the depth at which the fisherman judges the shoals are situated. 

 They are not attached but drift with the tide, and the fishes 

 striking against them are enmeshed by the gills. Sometimes (in 

 the Clyde) a seine net, " circle net," or " trawl net " is shot round 

 the shoal, or part of it, and is then hauled enclosing the fish^. 

 Mackerel are caught either by nets or they are trolled for by light 

 lines sunk a little below the surface, the hooks being baited with 

 pieces of mackerel skin, pieces of tin or any other glittering object. 

 Pilchards are taken off the coast of Cornwall by large seine nets 

 which are shot round the shoal from a boat which rows out fi'om 



1 No more interesting account of the herring fishery has ever been written than 

 that by Fulton in the Aim. Bep. Fishery Board of Scotland for 1899, Pt. iii. 

 pp. 242 — 271. Methods and legislation are alike discussed in a manner seldom 

 seen in fishery memoirs. 



