364 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



The 5o-fath()m line on the whole follows more closely the contour of 

 the actual coast line. It sends a pointed tongue into the entrance of 

 the English Channel, runs round the outside of the Scilly Islands, and 

 then forms a narrow channel between England and Ireland, but nearer 

 to the coast of the latter. It runs at no great distance from the south 

 and west coasts of Ireland, bounds a channel between the Outer 

 Hebrides and Scotland, as well as numerous depressions in the firths 

 and channels on the west coast of Scotland, runs northwards so as 

 to pass round the outside of the Shetlands, and then passes down the 

 east coast of Scotland in an irregular line. At about the latitude of the 

 Earn Islands the 50-fathom line turns to the east, and at the second 

 degree of east longitude runs north again to reach the edge of the 

 Norwegian depression previously mentioned. Thus to the east of Scot- 

 land and the Orkney and Shetland Islands there is a depression of 

 depths between 50 and 100 fathoms, while to the south and east of this 

 depression the depth is nowhere over 50 fathoms except in one or 

 two isolated pits : this shallow area includes the whole of the English 

 Channel. 



To the east of the depression, opposite the west coast of Jutland, lies 

 -the Creat Eisher Bank, bounded by the 40-fathom line to the north and 

 west, but outside the 30-fathom line. Lying obliquely across the broadest 

 part of the North Sea south of the Oreat Eisher Bank is the Dogger 

 Bank, bounded by the 20-fathom line all round, and rising at its south- 

 west corner to within 10, 9, and even 7 fathoms of the surface. South 

 of the Dogger Bank is a narrow depression descending to 50 fathoms at 

 its deepest part, but limited in extent. This is the Great or Outer 

 Silver Pit. Along the shores of Holland and Germany the 20-fathom 

 line is thirty, forty, and even fifty miles from the lines of islands, 

 Erisian and North Erisian Islands, which fringe these shores. These 

 shallow grounds are what the trawlers of Hull and Grimsby call the 

 Eastern Grounds. Between the 20-fathom line and the Dogger Bank 

 the depth is. greater, but does not exceed 30 fathoms. 



The 20-fathom line to the north of Holland passes right across the 

 North Sea to the English coast, bounding the Silver Pit on the south. 

 South of this line the greater part of the North Sea as far as the Straits 

 of Dover is less than 20 fathoms in depth. There are, however, isolated 

 depressions here and there. Narrow small pits occur off the mouth of 

 the Humber, called by the fishermen Little Silver Pit, Sole Pit, and Coal 

 Pit. Off the coast of Norfolk are a number of banks and shoals in the 

 form of narrow ridges, mostly lying between north-west and south-east. 

 Eurther south off the east coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, and running 

 parallel to that coast there is a depression descending in some places to 

 30 fathoms. To the east of tliis depression there are a number of 



