FISHING NATIONS AND THE FISHERIES 283 



be guilty of a serious omission if I did not give the 

 essential facts concerning them. 



The cod fishery, like all fisheries, is irregular. Year 

 in, year out, it yields the French fishermen about 

 .720,000, oil and roe included ; Iceland counting 

 for .280,000, the Dogger Bank for .20,000, and New- 

 foundland for .420,000. 



During the last ten years the Iceland fishery has 

 absorbed fewer vessels and a less tonnage. The causes 

 of this diminution are many. I will mention only two : 

 the increased wages of the crews r and the first unfruitful 

 essays of the steam trawlers. The evolution of the 

 Icelandic fishery was a trifle sudden. The fishermen, 

 apt by hereditary custom in the handling of lines, 

 knew nothing whatever about the otter-trawl, and the 

 ordinary trawler's crew knew nothing of the habits of 

 the cod. Unfortunately, too, in 1907 and 1908 the 

 fish kept close inshore, inside the territorial limit, 

 where supervision, based upon strict legislation, is 

 almost unsleeping. The Icelandic Parliament had 

 claimed the right to prohibit all steam trawlers even 

 from entering or re-victualling in territorial waters. 

 The previous year the schooner fleet did especially 

 well as well as before the appearance of the trawlers. 

 However, these trawlers, especially those from Fecamp, 

 made very large catches at the opening of the campaign. 

 This year, in general, they have succeeded. It would 

 seem that they are henceforth an established fact, and 

 an old captain of long-distance fishing boats told me 

 last October that they had conquered the Icelandic 

 banks. English and German shipowners were more 

 quickly convinced, for their trawlers grow more and 

 more numerous. 



1 See pp. 252-3. 



