130 BRITISH INDUSTRIES. 



Steam carriers have been successfully employed for 

 some few years past in collecting the fish from the 

 North Sea trawlers and bringing it to London ; and 

 there are now five of these steamers kept in constant 

 work, besides sailing vessels. 



An industry of some importance of its kind has its 

 head quarters at Leigh, a few miles above Southend. 

 This is the well-known shrimp fishery, the proceeds of 

 which are sent in such large quantities to the London 

 market. The shrimp net used here for catching the 

 brown or true shrimp, is peculiar to the Thames and 

 its immediate neighbourhood, and is practically a 

 beam-trawl, with a second beam below instead of a 

 ground-rope. This lower beam is made of a stout piece 

 of oak nine feet long, two and a half inches thick, and 

 three and a half wide, and is weighted with about 

 twenty-five pounds of lead run into spaces excavated 

 on the upper side. The upper beam or pole is only 

 six feet long, and is supported at the centre by a stout 

 stick about a foot and a half high, which is securely 

 fixed into the middle of the lower beam. A bag-net 

 is fastened to these two parallel pieces of wood, and 

 tightly strained at the ends, this framework forming 

 the mouth of the net, which is about twelve feet in 

 length, and tapers rapidly to the free end. The meshes 

 are necessarily very small, so that the shrimps may not 

 pass through. A simple but ingenious plan is adopted 

 to prevent stones and small rubbish entering the net 

 whilst it is being towed over the ground, and at the 

 same time not to interfere with the capture of the 

 shrimps. It is founded on the observed habit these ani- 



