GREAT BRITAIN. 223 



A most important subject, and one which deserves a 

 more searching investigation than it has yet received, is 

 whether the fish are decreasing in quantity around our 

 coasts, and, if so, the reason ? To illustrate one side of this 

 question, I give an extract from a letter from an east coast 

 fisherman, which speaks for itself : " It is well known among 

 fishermen that there is a falling off in the supply of plaice 

 and soles to an alarming extent, whatever may have been 

 said to the contrary by smack-owners and fish salesmen. 

 To explain this, I shall have to carry you back to the time 

 when we first went to fish off the Sylt, about ten years ago, 

 at which time very nearly all the ground from Horn Reef 



Heligoland was covered, as it were, with shoals of small 



lice, and intermixed with these plaice were a good many 

 >les, both large and small. We have got as many as 

 iighty baskets of small plaice and ten baskets of soles for one 

 light when we first went there, and very nearly all the plaice 



mid be thrown overboard, and you may be aware that they 

 always die after they have been hove on board a trawler. 

 These fish are so small that I have counted two hundred 

 and fifty in one basket, such as we use at Grimsby. The 

 small plaice that are brought to London market are the 

 largest picked out, the others are thrown away. Now, we 

 have fished there every summer, having big bags of small 

 plaice on board, and throwing them away for the sake of 

 the soles, till by destroying the young brood, full-grown 

 plaice have grown very scarce. At the present time very 

 small plaice will sell well, so that now the soles have grown 

 scarce off the Sylt, the small plaice, being saleable, make 

 up, so they are bound to be caught unless stringent 

 measures are taken for their preservation. You must 

 remember that the quantity has decreased during these last 

 few years, twenty baskets being the most you would get for 



