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fields, &c., were of value; population was muchsmaller, means 
of transport were much inferior, demand for sea fish was less, 
the great ocean fishing grounds were many of them undis- 
covered, and, above all, steam trawling was unknown on a 
commercial scale, and'no means existed of preserving fish 
for more than a few days, consequently at this time it paid 
to fish the small Irish Sea beds for all they were worth. 
Yet even at this time the fishing fleet from Fleetwood, by 
far the most important of all on the Irish Sea, never num- 
bered more than 150 small boats carrying four or five men 
anda lad. To-day there are only 44, and during the life of 
the Sea Fisheries Committee, instead of a great revival, 
there is a steady decrease, for in 1890 there were 66, and had 
it not been for the benéficent action of Dame Nature referred 
to previously, in bringing such shoals of haddock off our 
coast, probably there would not have béen a dozen, as the 
catch of haddock, reaching as it does to a ton and more per 
day per boat, is the source of profit, and this is the industry 
supposed to be protected at such cost of money and indi- 
vidual suffering. Yet there is a great increase in the amount 
of fish landed at Fleetwood. Why this contradiction ? 
Something has taken place~ totally independent of the Sea 
Fishery Committee; though very lightly alludedcto by the 
scientists, it is of vast importance to our subject. Fleetwood 
has been thought by some of the Great Grimsby firms to be 
a convenient port for landing their fish, and a fleet of 50 or 
