192 SEA FISHERIES 



But the chopping and changing which this system will 

 demand will only be possible to large steam trawlers, 

 safe, well equipped, speedy, and backed by plenty of 

 capital. Such methods are impossible to the small 

 fishermen whose daily work is in territorial waters, within 

 sight of the native steeple. Deprived of means and 

 resources, attached by routine and poverty to the patch 

 of ocean where their fathers have laboured, to the same 

 boats, the same tackle, these unhappy men destroy far 

 more than they produce. " Far from imitating the 

 English fishermen, who know how to place their 

 personal experience at the service of the general welfare, 

 they are distinguished by mutual distrust." This phrase, 

 quoted from the report of a French consul, was applied 

 to the fishermen of the Baltic, not to the French ; but 

 one might only too well suppose that the latter were 

 referred to ! When the sardine is rare on the Breton 

 coast, it is far simpler to seek it a few miles out to sea 

 than to stay at home in the village and complain of 

 starvation. God helps him who helps himself ! All the 

 tunny fishers and many sailors assert that when the 

 sardines desert the coast they are abundant in the sea. 

 Let the fishermen go out after them, with suitable boats 

 and gear ! The small German fishermen of the Baltic, 

 behind whose backs I have criticised the French, now 

 pursue the choice species which have deserted them far 

 into the open sea. In the neighbourhood of Arcachon, 

 as the result of the motor-boat fishery, a host of sardine 

 factories have sprung up on the coast. In short, the 

 depopulation of territorial waters is the result of small 

 means, of poverty-stricken methods ; and the cause of 

 the evil is technical and financial in a word, social. 

 Yet, as it is prudent, in dealing with the people of the 

 coast, to take account of their spirit of routine, we must, 



