ENGLISH FISHERIES. 135 



Billingsgate) had six, and with four of these, which 

 were very superior to the other two, he visited the 

 coast of Scotland in the course of his fishing expe- 

 ditions, and was at that time the chief medium for 

 conveying goods to and from the north of Scotland. 

 In the year 1745, his four smacks were engaged by the 

 Government to carry the loyalist troops across the 

 Moray Firth from Mickle Ferry to Inverness, from 

 which place they proceeded to the memorable battle 

 of Culloden. In 1766, a Mr. Olibar, a fishing-smack 

 owner at Harwich, made the first attempt to fish for 

 cod with long lines on the Dogger Bank ; but although 

 he was very unsuccessful, he still persevered, and at 

 last was so fortunate, that in 1774 the number of 

 smacks had increased to sixty-two, of which forty 

 went regularly to the Dogger Bank to fish with long 

 lines. In 1788 there were seventy-eight smacks, and in 

 1798 the number had increased to ninety-six. About this 

 period a few attempts were made at Gravesend, Green- 

 wich, and Barking, to construct smacks of a similar de- 

 scription, and the Harwich fishery gradually declined. 

 In 1852 there were only five cod-smacks belonging 

 to Harwich, and there has been very little alteration 

 since that date. Harwich is, however, still used as a 

 storing place for live cod, and cargoes of these fish are 

 regularly delivered there from smacks hailing from 

 Gravesend and other places on the Thames, the state 

 of that river being such as to make it hopeless to 

 keep the cod long alive in it. The store-chests for 

 cod at Harwich are moored in the tideway, and are 



