50 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



sider they are deleteriously affected. This consideration 

 ought to render it imperative that inspectors of sea 

 fisheries should not only annually visit every large fishing 

 station, but likewise observe the fisheries where they are 

 being carried on. Unfortunately, owing to the report of the 

 Royal Commissioners for Sea Fisheries (1865), wherein it 

 was suggested that all regulations should be abolished, and 

 every one permitted to fish in the sea in any manner he 

 pleased, it has not been deemed necessary to have any 

 inspector of sea fisheries. Any investigations are carried 

 on by the inspectors of salmon fisheries, and it is nobody's 

 business to watch the state of the sea fisheries, collect 

 statistics respecting the fish trade, or ascertain the habits 

 of the fishes. 



A trawl or beam-trawl is a net constructed for capturing 

 such species of fish as are usually found at the bottom of 

 the sea, and more or less conceal themselves in the mud 

 within the limits of the littoral zone, and rarely. as deep as 

 fifty fathoms, such as flat fishes, rays, skates, as well as 

 other forms, as haddock in the North Sea, which occa- 

 sionally resort there. The trawl is a somewhat triangular 

 bag-shaped net, the mouth of which is at its base, and is 

 kept open by a beam of wood which is horizontally attached 

 to its upper edge, this beam being supported at a short 

 distance, about three feet, off the ground at each end of its 

 outer extremity by an irregularly stirrup-shaped iron head, 

 termed a trawl-head. Superiorly a socket in the trawl- 

 head receives the end of the trawl-beam, while the lower 

 edge of the trawl-head is flat, straight, and termed the 

 " shoe," and this is on the ground while the trawl is 

 working. The net when at work has been well likened to 

 an old-fashioned bed watch-pocket laid on its face, when 

 its upper portion would be its back, the front edge of 



