3850 EXAMINATION OF THE PRESENT STATE 
in the modification of the fishing industry of communities which were 
originally devoted to longshore and drift-net pursuits, cannot be better 
illustrated than it is in an account which my friend Mr. T. N. T. Potts 
has given me of the Sunderland fishery during the period covered 
by his own memory. It is reproduced at length in a succeeding 
chapter (p. 367). 
In the smaller fishing stations, where no sufficient harbour or 
beaching accommodation exists, it follows that there are no large 
fishing vessels. Such may be owned and manned by the men of a 
small station, but of necessity they frequent some port with a suit- 
able harbour. The work is chiefly carried on in small open boats, 
cobles and whalers, which can be beached without much difficulty, 
The nature of the fishing varies with the time of year. In the 
spring and early summer the manipulation of crab-pots will 
occupy the bulk of the community; later in the year the herring 
make their appearance, and promptly receive due attention. For 
their capture either the small open boats are used, or larger 
decked boats which spend the rest of the year high and dry on 
the beach, or, at Whitby, far up the river. 
The herring season (or in the south the crabbing season) over, 
recourse is had to line-fishing, chiefly for cod and haddock, and the 
question of bait at once becomes of importance. If a productive 
mussel-bed exists within a reasonable distance, cargoes are brought 
and re-sown by the larger vessels before the latter are laid up, 
and from time to time the supply is renewed,—by the cobles, if 
weather permits ; if not, by rail. Where the coast is rocky, “ flithers ” 
(limpets) are collected, as required or available. Lugworms are 
highly prized, but are comparatively little used, as few are obtainable 
at any place where an inshore line-fishery is carried on, and their 
perishable nature has so far militated against their dispatch from 
the Humber estuary, where they swarm unmolested in countless 
thousands. On the sandy part of the Yorkshire coast south of 
Flamborough the chief bait supply appears to be whelks, obtained 
by “ potting ;” but other bait, such as squid, herring, and mussels, is 
imported, 
It need hardly be remarked that the conditions, social and other- 
wise, under which the deep-sea fisheries are carried on from large 
ports, such as Grimsby and Hull, are altogether different from 
those which obtain among the small inshore communities with which 
we have just been dealing, Deep-sea fishing, involving prolonged 
absence from port in every possible kind of weather, can only be 
carried on in decked vessels of considerable size, and manned by a 
number of skilled hands; and we find the fisherman, instead of 
being owner or part owner of the boat in which he fishes, is usually 
