NORTH SEA FISHERIES 47 



harvest may migrate or disappear in a 

 night ; yet when luck comes his way he 

 finds that after gleaning a space of ground 

 he can go again the next day with pros- 

 pects generally of meeting with the same 

 or better fortune. With a bad season the 

 farmer has to wait another year to re- 

 coup his loss, the harvester of the deep 

 can change his farm with every voyage. 

 The skipper of a British trawler, given a 

 fair average of ability, often has an in- 

 come equal to that of the captain of. the 

 ocean-going liner, yet the dangers he has 

 to brave, the uncertainty of fortune he 

 will meet, the fluctuating prices he will 

 obtain for his catch, all tend to give the 

 fisherman a gambling, generous nature, 

 and also to make him exceedingly super- 

 stitious. There is no industry in which 

 fortune plays so great a part, and this factor 

 no doubt is almost essential to the life, for 

 the hardship and monotony of a calling in 

 which for nine-tenths of the year the worker 

 is out of touch with the world, have the same 

 effect on human nature as the occupation of 

 the gold miner, and the relaxations of the 

 two callings generally run on parallel lines. 



