CAPTURES BY LINERS AND TRAWLERS, 1895. 87 



kind of commercial apparatus, still further act as a bulwark 

 against extinction. Everything is on the side of nature in the 

 struggle. Even the capture of the adult spawning haddocks is 

 not the final stage, for the decks of the vessels are often covered 

 with masses of ripe eggs and milt which even the most careless 

 manipulations in throwing or washing overboard cannot alto- 

 gether sacrifice. More romantic than the Gorgon's head are 

 the never failing resources of nature in connection with these 

 and other food-fishes. 



Considerable increase had also occurred in the captures of 

 cod, which showed 4,969 cwts. and £1,452 over that of last 

 year. There was a smaller increase in the quantity of torsk, 

 conger and whiting, but the value of the latter was £1,112 less 

 than in 1894. On the other hand ling had receded by 6,864 

 and £8,042, green cod (saithe) by no less than 19,546 and 

 £2,853. 



The trawlers also produced a larger amount of round fishes 

 than in 1894, viz. 434,129 cwts. = £174,380, the increase being 

 86,302 cwts., but only £6,244 more than last year, which had a 

 deficit of £10,168 on the previous year (1893). As in the case 

 of the liners the captures of haddocks make a large proportion 

 of the increase, viz. 78,389 cwts. and £2,675, showing that the 

 size of the haddocks had been small, or that the values had 

 been low. Cod show an increase of 6,603 cwts. and £4,032, 

 and there is also a slight increase in ling, whiting, and a slight 

 diminution in saithe. 



Of flat fishes the liners landed 111,011 cwts. =£59,767, or a 

 slight increase of 5,767 cwts., the value remaining almost the 

 same as last year. Their chief increase in weight was in halibut, 

 viz. 2,709 cwts. over the previous year, but the value had been 

 diminished, since the trifling addition of £318 only resulted. 

 Flounders, plaice and brill were less by 2,305 cwts. and £1,675. 

 A large increase in skate was noteworthy of the year, viz. 

 10,877 cwts. = £1,778, yet this fish is as liable to be captured 

 in the trawl as any other form, though, as it happened, the 

 captures by trawlers were under those of 1894, one of the 

 irregularities so prevalent in marine fishing. Of other kinds of 

 fishes there was a diminution on the returns of the previous 



