ENGLISH FISHERIES. 15 



Along the north-east coast of England the fisheries 

 are mainly for herrings by drift nets, and cod, haddock, 

 turbot, holibut, coalfish, and some others by long lines. 

 An exception occurs, however, at Scarborough, which 

 is a trawling station, and takes precedence of Hull in 

 that respect by about ten years, although it is now far 

 behind it in importance as regards both the number 

 and size of its fishing boats. The Scarborough 

 fisheries, in fact, include several kinds, and the same 

 boats are used for each in turn. The regular trawl- 

 smacks at Hull are specially built for one purpose, and 

 all the energies of the fishermen are engaged through- 

 out the year in that one object. It is not surprising, 

 therefore, that in the matter of trawling, Scarborough 

 has been left behind, although her first-class boats 

 have continued to increase during the last few years. 

 The inshore fisheries along the Northumberland coast 

 have been subject to fluctuations at various times, 

 which have led some of the fishermen to bring charges 

 of destroying spawn of different kinds against the 

 deep-sea trawlers ; but it is due to them to say, that 

 when these charges were brought against the deep-sea 

 fishermen, no one was aware that the spawn of cod, 

 haddock, plaice, and most probably the other kinds of 

 flat fish, was not deposited at the bottom, but floated 

 freely in the water. That there was not the slightest 

 evidence of spawn having been destroyed, probably did 

 not affect the belief of those fishermen who expressed 

 themselves so strongly on the subject ; but if fish had 

 at various places become as scarce as was alleged, it is 

 clear some other explanation of the failure must be 



