CHAP. IL] MODES OF SEA-FISHING IN FRANCE. 57 



are 60 trawlers ; at Boulogne, 100 ; at Tourville, 109 ; at 

 Treport, 53 ; at Calais, 84 ; with lesser numbers at smaller 

 ports, most of them being engaged in supplying the wants of 

 Paris with deep-sea fish ; and as the coasts are provided with 

 excellent harbours of refuge, the trawlers follow their avoca- 

 tions with regularity and success. 



The modes of sea-fishing are so much alike in every 

 country that it is unnecessary for us to do more than just 

 mention that the French method of trawling is very similar 

 to our own, about which I will by and by have something to 

 say. But there are details of fishing industry connected with 

 that pursuit on the French coasts that we are not familiar 

 with in Britain. The neighbouring peasantry, for instance, 

 come to the seaside and fish with nets which are called las 

 pare ; and these are spread out before the tide is full in order 

 to retain all the fish which are brought within their meshes. 

 The children of these land-fishers also work, although with 

 smaller nets, at these foreshore fisheries, while the wives poke 

 about the sand for shrimps and the smaller Crustacea. These 

 people thus not only ensure a supply of food for themselves 

 during winter, but also contrive during summer to take as 

 much fish as brings them in a little store of money. 



The perpetual industry carried on by the coast people on 

 the French foreshores is quite a sight, although it is a fish 

 commerce of a humble and primitive kind. Even the little 

 children contrive to make money by building fish-ponds, or 

 erecting trenches, in which to gather salt, or in some other 

 little industry incidental to sea-shore life. One occasionally 

 encounters some abject creature groping about the rocks to 

 obtain the wherewithal to sustain life. To these people all 

 is fish that comes to hand ; no creature, however slimy, that 

 creeps about is allowed to escape, so long as it can be disguised 

 by cookery into any kind of food for human beings. Some 

 of the people have old rickety boats patched up with still 



