STEAM DRIFTERS 169 



duty being the publication of an annual report 

 on the sea fisheries ; the administration of the 

 Acts relating to the registration and activities 

 of the fishing fleet was transferred to this 

 Department in 1894. 



In 1888, 1891 and 1894 sea fisheries dis- 

 tricts were created round the coasts of England 

 and Wales, but the most important Scottish 

 district, the Moray Firth, was, under the 

 Herring Fishery (Scotland) Act of 1889, closed 

 against trawling, a regulation which has led 

 to infinite trouble and to the humiliating result 

 that, since foreign vessels could not be com- 

 pelled to observe the restriction, a number of 

 English trawlers were transferred to foreign 

 flags to enjoy the same immunity. In spite of 

 this, however, the number of herring, like that 

 of all fish landed in England and Scotland in 

 the last thirty years, ha^ shown a steady 

 increase. 



Section II.— The Twentieth Century. 



The early years of the present century were 

 chiefly noteworthy for the extraordinary in- 

 crease of steam drifters. With a wider scope 

 of action and independent of weather, these 

 vessels have not only greatly increased the 

 average catch, which rose from the then record 

 of 2,000,000 cwts. in 1889 to over 3,000,000 cwts. 

 in 1902—5, but have altered the habits of the 

 fishers, many of whom now devote themselves 

 exclusively to herring, which they pursue at 



