354 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The followiiip- official statement shows the small 

 extent of the fishery in the Lancashire and Western Sea 

 Fisheries District: — 



Landed at Liverpoo] — 



Wt. in cwts. Value in £'s. 



1906 nil nil. 



1907 3cwts nil. 



1908 4c^yts 1 



1909 Icwt nil. 



1910 Icwt nil. 



1911 nil nil. 



As a matter of fact, however, the real value of the 

 fishery must be higher than is represented hy these 

 figures. It is known that four to five hundred whelks 

 are landed weekly by small sailing boats, and these sell 

 at Is. to Is. 3d. per hundred. In addition to these, 

 others are ap]iarently landed by longshore fishermen and 

 find their way with illegal-sized flat fish into some of the 

 smaller fish-shops. 



In addition to whelk-catching by means of wicker 

 pots, dredges are occasionally used; "trotting" is 

 another method adopted in the south-eastern districts of 

 England. A number of shore crabs arc strung together 

 with a needle and string, so as to make a bunch. These 

 are sunk to the bottom and left for a time; they are 

 aftoiwai'ds drawn up and (he wliclks removed from them. 



In England, some years back, llie irade in whelks 

 must have been of considerable importance, for one finds 

 that tlie Lynn fishery alone supplied about 1,250 tons a 

 year, for wliidi jbout £10,000 was paid, and (iiinisl)y 

 exceeded this witli a value of £22,000. These figures 

 probably include Fusus antiquus (the " hard whelk "), 

 which seems to have been more prized in some mark(>ts. 



