312 EVIDENCE ON THE TRAWL QUESTION. [CHAP. vn. 



by the system of trawling. Trawling is without doubt the 

 most efficient mode of getting the white fish at the bottom of 

 the ocean ; and were it made penal, London and the large 

 towns would at times be entirely without fish. As a matter 

 of course, trawling must exhaust the shoals at particular 

 places. A fleet of upwards of 100 smacks, each with a beam 

 nearly 40 feet long, trawling night and day, disturbs, frightens, 

 or captures whatever fish are to be found in that locality, en- 

 trapping, besides, shell-fish, anchors, stores that have been 

 sunken with ships ages ago ; even a wedge of gold has been 

 brought up by this insatiable instrument. The only remedy 

 is to widen the field of action. 



It is best, however, in a case of dispute, as in this trawl 

 question, to allow those interested to speak for themselves. 

 I have gone over an immense mass of the evidence taken by 

 a recent commission appointed by Parliament to make in- 

 quiry on the subject, and will set some parts of it before 

 my readers, so that, if a little trouble be taken in weighing 

 the pros and cons of the matter, they may be able to form 

 their own judgment on this vexed question. A Cullercoats 

 fisherman is very strong against the beam-trawl. He is 

 certain that thirty years ago we could get double the quantity 

 of fish, during the fishing season, that we obtain now, and 

 that the supply has fallen away little by little ; and he says that 

 even ten years ago it was almost as good as it was thirty years 

 ago. Some years hence England will cry out for want of 

 fish if trawling be allowed to go on. The price of fish has 

 doubled, he says, of late years. " When I was a young man, 

 there were nine in family of us, and my wife could purchase 

 haddock for twopence which would serve for our dinners. 

 Now she could not obtain the same quantity for less than 

 ninepence or tenpence. Of recent years the number of fisher- 

 men and fishing-boats has greatly increased. I do not 

 think the fishermen of the present day are better off than 



