45 
busy and happy that the lean Years are forgotten. These 
ebbs and flows generally cover a fairly long period of time, 
a new generation to a great extent arises, and past history 
is lost in the present. 
When I was a youth very large quantities of haddock. 
were brought into Fleetwood by the trawlers, and they 
formed a considerable portion of the catch. The quantity 
gradually fell off until in the latter seventies and the early 
eighties, the haddock fishing was extinct, and not a fish was 
caught. This could not be ascribed to the poor shrimpers, 
for I never saw or heard of a young haddock being caught 
by them during all my fishing, and I am sure no quantity 
could have. been, or I must have heard of it. I offered 
handsome rewards for any that could be obtained, as we 
wanted them for the Aquarium tanks. After several years, 
however, and happily about three years before the present 
officials got to work, the haddock began tore-appear. The 
first year they were very small, better the second, and 
they improved until they again became an important part 
of.the catch,’ “They have so much increased in quantity 
that so far the present year (1899) is a record. They form 
at present such an important part of the deep-sea trawl 
fishing from. Fleetwood that, if they were not there, the 
results would be very poor indeed. ‘In size, however, 
there is a little falling off this year. Whether it portends 
the decay of the. fishing once more I cannot say. I say it. 
