16 BRITISH IND USTEIES. 



Trawlers, however, are not the only fishing boats 

 which have increased in size and cost. A very remark- 

 able change has in recent years .been made in the 

 Scotch fishing boats, especially those on the east coast, 

 and much of the danger to which they were so fre- 

 quently exposed during the heavy gales from the 

 east and north-east is now guarded against by using 

 decked fishing boats instead of the entirely open 

 boats which, for generations past, had been almost the 

 only ones employed there. The annual loss of life 

 among these hardy fishermen from their boats being 

 swamped, either when overtaken by the sudden gales 

 in the treacherous North Sea, or whilst running 

 through the broken water in attempting to enter their 

 little fishing harbours, was for years insufficient to 

 induce them to give up what their fathers had been 

 accustomed to work with. But a more sensible course 

 has recently been pursued ; and an alteration from 

 undecked to decked boats having been made in some 

 few instances, the advantage of the change became so 

 evident, not only in the greater safety of the fishermen, 

 but also in their being able to go out and carry on 

 profitable fishing in weather which would have for- 

 merly obliged them to remain on shore, that decked 

 boats rapidly grew in favour, and now most of the 

 boats at the important stations are of that description, 

 and they are added to every year. With the change 

 of style there has also been an increase in size, bringing 

 a great number of them within the first class ; the second- 

 class boats have accordingly considerably diminished 

 in number. Not less remarkable than the change from 



