BLOCH^S GURNARD. 55 



the produce of the next. On some parts of the Dorsetshire 

 and Devonshire coast, the trawling-boats and their apparatus 

 are much larger than those here described ; the former being 

 cutter-rigged vessels of seventy or eighty tons burden, and 

 their nets of thirty-six feet beam. Such vessels are con- 

 stantly employed trawling in West Bay, and the Brixham 

 and Torbay ground ; even as near London as Barking Creek, 

 boats and nets of this size are common ; but the fishing- 

 grounds for these vessels and their crews are in various parts 

 of the North Sea, where a large and stout boat is absolutely 

 necessary. The principal trawling off the Sussex and Hamp- 

 shire coast is in the Channel, from twelve to thirty miles 

 from the shore, and the men are seldom absent more than 

 one night at a time. 



Where the water is deep, this mode of fishing is success- 

 fully practised either in the day or night ; but if the water 

 is shallow and clear, but little success is to be obtained in 

 the dav. 



