44: BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 



this ground. The news soon got abroad, and a migra- 

 tion of trawlers took place to the North Sea from 

 Brixham and Kamsgate, then coming into notice as a 

 trawling station. When the weather broke up, how- 

 ever, the soles dispersed; but the trawlers thenceforth 

 gave more attention to the North Sea, and year after 

 year, up to the present time, the number of North Sea 

 trawlers has increased, with the result of a propor- 

 tionate increase in the supply of fish from this great 

 fishing ground. In any very severe winter, or, as it 

 is called, a " Pit season," the trawlers still work the 

 Great Silver Pit with wonderful results, and every 

 winter the catches of soles there are on a large scale, 

 but varying very much with the temperature of the 

 season. Nearer the land there are many banks on the 

 Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts, others farther south 

 off Hastings and in mid-channel ; whilst in the west, 

 the Brixham and Plymouth grounds, small though 

 they are, have long been productive of a large supply 

 of fish of various kinds, according to the season. On 

 the east and south coasts of Ireland, also, and recently 

 on the south-west coast of Scotland, trawling has 

 proved a successful and profitable method of fishing. 

 No more conclusive evidence against the outcry which 

 is periodically made by alarmists in the ^newspapers, 

 that the trawlers are ruining our sea fisheries, can be 

 brought forward, than the simple fact that, at the 

 present time, the Brixham men have a larger num- 

 ber of trawl vessels, are catching more fish, and 

 making more money, than they have ever done since 

 Brixham was a fishing port, and the majority of their 

 vessels are now working over the same limited ground 



