ENGLISH FISHERIES. 145 



manner, as the herring fishery, and cotton is now used 

 there as the material for mackerel nets. 



Trawling has been carried on from Yarmouth for 

 the last thirty years ; but the importance of the place 

 as a trawling station dates from ten years later, when, 

 as I have previously related, the vessels belonging to 

 the late Mr. Samuel Hewett first made that port their 

 head quarters. Since that time the number of trawlers 

 has been gradually increasing, although not so rapidly 

 within the last few years as in the ports of the Hum- 

 ber. I have lately heard, however, that the increase 

 is still going on. The system of collecting the fish 

 from the trawlers, and sending it on shore by special 

 vessels, has long been" at work in connection with the 

 Thames and Yarmouth smacks, as their fish, as a rule, 

 comes to the London market. Mr. Hewett had, at one 

 time, as many as eighteen " carriers " in almost con- 

 stant work ; and the same plan is still in operation, 

 sometimes by special vessels, or at others by one of the 

 regular trawlers, which fills up from the vessels of the 

 fleet, generally working in the same neighbourhood at 

 particular seasons, and giving a receipt to each smack 

 for the number of packages she sends. Before the 

 introduction of ice, everything depended on the carriers 

 making a quick passage ; it was racing work with them, 

 and great was the wear and tear of canvas and spars. 

 But the captain received a percentage on the price 

 obtained for his cargo, and so he got every mile out of 

 the vessel in the shortest time possible. Time is, of 

 course, still important ; but the loss of a day or two is 

 not of so much consequence as formerly. The steam 



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