ENGLISH FISHERIES. 107 



trawl-smacks belonging to the place, a large propor- 

 tion of the trawling on the Tenby ground is done by 

 Brixham boats, some of which regularly work there 

 from April to September, the only time when the fish 

 are found there in any abundance. The trawling 

 ground lies between Lundy Island and Carmarthen 

 Bay. Line fishing is carried on in this neighbour- 

 hood in winter ; and mackerel, herrings, pilchards, and 

 sprats are caught by seans, but their visits are very 

 uncertain. The oyster fishery at Mumbles or Oyster- 

 mouth used to be of some importance, but it has 

 greatly diminished, and many of the boats formerly 

 employed in it have been sold to Brixham men for 

 line fishing. 



On the south side of the Bristol Channel, the only 

 fishery which requires notice is that for shrimps at 

 Burnham, in Bridge water Bay. For this purpose bag- 

 nets are suspended from stakes driven into the sand ; 

 and, as the nets are placed close to the ground, vast 

 numbers of shrimps find their way into them as the 

 tide ebbs, and, having once entered, escape is prevented 

 by a peculiar arrangement within, on much the same 

 principle as that commonly applied in mouse-traps, 

 and generally adopted in the baskets or " pots " used 

 in the west of England for catching crabs and lobsters. 

 There have been great complaints made in past years 

 of the destruction of small fish in these shrimp nets, 

 and no doubt numbers of small fry have been caught 

 in them. Complaints of this kind have been made on 

 several parts of our coast for years past, but the evi- 

 dence furnished by the immense and increasing supply 



