170 THE HERRING INDUSTRY 



different times upon the different coasts instead 

 of catching them at one season only and then 

 turning their attention to line-fishing. Steam 

 trawling has also increased in enormous pro- 

 portions round the coasts of England. A steam 

 drifter will take over a ton of herring with 

 500 square feet of nets as compared with under 

 half a ton with the same spread of nets if used 

 by a sailing vessel. In 1907, when Holland 

 had only 81 steam trawlers, France had 

 224, Germany 239, and England and Wales 

 no less than 1,317, the total number of steam 

 trawlers in Germany and Holland in 1905 

 scarcely exceeding the mere additions to the 

 British fleet in 1906 (" Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica," 11th ed., Vol. X., p. 430). In 1904, the 

 value of the herring caught by British trawlers 

 was £1,870,000, while that of Holland in the 

 same year was £575,000 and that of Germany 

 £220,000. Before the war there were, how- 

 ever, distinct indications that the North Sea 

 and the Scottish North Sea ports were being 

 less widely fished than before, since other and 

 more profitable fishing grounds beyond the 

 North Sea were available. When we read, 

 with regard to the North Sea, of '*a gross 

 decrease of more than 25 per cent, in 1905 as 

 compared with 1903, and, in relation to the 

 catching power employed, to an average 

 decrease of 2j cwts. per boat per diem" 

 (op. cit,9 p. 430), the matter was obviously 

 serious, but any attempt to forecast the 



