FIELDS AND HARVESTERS 41 



east of the Dogger ; the Little Fisher Bank and the 

 Jutland Bank. There are the Horn Reefs, off the coast 

 of Denmark, the Broad Fourteens, not far from the 

 Dutch coast ; the Great Silver Pit, almost on a line 

 drawn between Flamborough Head and Heligoland; 

 the Long Forties, due east from Aberdeen, and many 

 places with strange names like the Puzzle Hole, Brucey's 

 Garden, Clay Deep, the Hospital, and the Cemetery. 

 Irrespective of romance or sinister import in the names, 

 the localities serve as harvest-grounds for the merciless 

 steam-towed trawls. Other great "regions" are the 

 Fladen Ground, nearly 300 miles north of the Humber, 

 and the Oyster Ground, which stretches half-way across 

 the North Sea from Heligoland towards Flamborough 

 Head. These shoals and grounds are named as fisher- 

 men have named them ; there are also official designa- 

 tions which are specially adapted to help official work in 

 connection with the North Sea industry. That work is 

 being done with great zeal and ability. 



These well-defined " regions" abound in fish, to be 

 had by all comers for the trouble of catching ; but the 

 whole of the North Sea itself, outside the coast-limits, is 

 the scene of operations of the modern British trawler. 

 She has the vast area of 152,000 nautical square miles 

 to work in, the greatest of all fishing-regions frequented 

 by trawlers ; yet nowadays not even that immense 

 locality nearly three times the area of England and 

 Wales satisfies the enterprise of steamboat owners. 

 There are eighteen " regions" frequented by British 

 trawlers, these " regions " having a total area of more 

 than 700,000 square miles. The Baltic Sea takes second 

 place in extent, with nearly 135,000 square miles, and 



