PISHING IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PLYMOUTH. 279 



It is in tlie winter months, however, when the herring and 

 mackerel season is at its height, and the Cornish boats arrive from 

 Fowey, Looe, and Penzance, that the neighbourhood of Plymouth 

 assumes its busiest aspect. The drift-net fleet alone is then com- 

 posed of between three and four hundred sail. 



In order that the fishing prosecuted around Plymouth may be 

 known, and the various fishing grounds worked upon at different 

 times of the year clearly demonstrated, I have thought it advis- 

 able to attempt the construction of monthly charts, each one 

 showing, as nearly as possible, the average condition for that 

 month. It must, of course, be understood that in these charts it 

 is impossible to show all the minor fluctuations of the fishing. 



There must always be a certain number of boats which, not 

 succeeding in one place, try others, it may be far removed from 

 the locality in which the majority of boats are fishing; or the 

 shoals of fish themselves may suddenly alter their positions, so that 

 the boats have for some days to scatter in all directions in search of 

 them. Still, the fishing of one month is so distinct from that of 

 another, and the alterations take place in such regular order, that 

 it seems to me to be quite possible to construct charts which will 

 represent exactly what grounds may be expected to be worked over 

 in any particular season. 



In this, the first attempt at anything of the kind for this locality, 

 I do not say that the markings or positions of the various fishing 

 boats may require no alteration, since it is possible or probable 

 that some exceptional condition may be included in what is only 

 meant to be an average condition ; but a basis will, at all events, 

 have been constructed from which to work. 



Key to Symbols used in Monthly Fishery Charts. 



