134 NORTH SEA INVESTIGATIONS. 
upon the deck, is for about three weeks’ consumption. Consequently, 
the run to and fro occupying about a week and half a day, there 
remains at most only about a week for fishing operations. This, never- 
theless, has been found quite enough to fill the ship, and imdeed 
some vessels have landed large catches after only twelve days’ 
absence. The Danish, and other continental steam trawling vessels, 
are rather larger than our own, and can therefore, I suppose, 
remain at sea for a longer period, but our fishermen consider that 
any advantages that may be gained by increasing the size of 
vessels are more than counterbalanced by the injury which a large 
vessel is apt to inflict on the trawl in a heavy swell. This distrust 
may ultimately be overcome, since we know that similar fears which 
manifested themselves at every increase in the tonnage of smacks 
have never been realised. 
There have been two causes which account chiefly for the poorness 
of the pecuniary results of the Iceland venture—the great size of 
the plaice and haddock, and the poorness of quality of the former. 
This last character was especially noticeable in 1892. The spawning 
season off Iceland is much later than with us, many fish spawning 
as late as June. Consequently the plaice first landed last year were 
for the most part recently shotten, and they had hardly recovered 
condition to any appreciable extent before the season closed. More- 
over they were only landed during the time when fish of all sorts 
were tolerably abundant, and had to contend in the market against 
great quantities of much smaller examples of theirown species from the 
eastern grounds. It might be thought, after all the clamour that 
we have heard about the diminution in size and numbers of North 
Sea trawl-fish, that a good supply of large specimens would be 
welcome, but it is one of the most regrettable features in the trade 
(in view of the facility for obtaining legislation based on the 
size of fish landed), that very moderate sized or even small fish are 
in far greater demand than large ones.* Thus in 1892 the Iceland 
plaice could only fetch from 8s. 6d. to Ils. per box, though the 
boxes were piled so high that none could have contained less than 
10 stone; as much or more could often be obtained for a box of 
small fish from the eastern grounds, and if the condition of the 
Iceland plaice left something to be desired, most assuredly that of 
the others was not much better. 
Against the haddock nothing could be urged except that they 
were too big, the quality being undeniably splendid ; yet in 1892 
they were even less remunerative than the plaice. Boxes of 10 stone 
sold for eighteenpence or two shillings, and seldom brought as much 
as three shillings. Since I have been at Grimsby I have seldom 
* Vide infra, p. 139, 
