134 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



The scene of operations of the North Sea 

 fishermen is by no means limited to the area 

 in the map over which the two words wander. 

 Roughly, for purposes of definition, we may 

 say that a North Sea fisherman is one who lands 

 his fish at an Eastern port. The fishing grounds 

 of East Coast trawlers now range from Iceland 

 and the White Sea to the coasts of Portugal and 

 Morocco. In these directions the pioneers have 

 been the codmen and the " liners/' which catch 

 their fish on hooks attached to long lines some- 

 times seven miles in length, carrying 7,000 hooks 

 which are lowered to near the bottom and 

 attached to buoys. 



Professor Huxley's Commission of 1863 held 

 the view that not only were as good fish in the 

 sea as ever came out of it, but that there were 

 as many, and as large, and that there was no 

 reason to suppose their number would diminish. 

 Indeed, when we consider that an unfertilised 

 fish egg is rarely found in the sea, and that, 

 according to Dr. Fulton, of the Fishery Board 

 for Scotland, the female turbot produces annually 

 8,500,000 eggs, the cod 4,500,000, the haddock 

 450,000, the plaice 300,000, the flounder 1,400,000, 

 the sole 570,000, whilst the herring has to be 



