232 BRITISH FISHERIES 



statistics were collected was incomplete, as any- 

 one with local knowledge of the industry will be 

 able to show. Altogether, i6i places or districts 

 were taken into account. Two ports, Grimsby 

 and Hull, head the list, and over 60,000 tons are 

 landed at each of these places annually. Then 

 follow 15 places at each of which over 2500 tons 

 are landed, 18 places with an annual yield of 

 from 2500 to 500 tons, and 121 places at which 

 less than 500 tons are landed in the year.^ 



Now, taking the Lancashire Sea-Fisheries District 

 alone, it will be found that nine ports or districts 

 are omitted from this list, and at these nine 

 places there are over 300 persons employed in 

 gathering and landing shell-fish. It has been 

 said that at the places included in the official list 

 by far the greater portion of fish taken from the 

 British fishing grounds are landed. But a know- 

 ledge of the yield of the local fisheries, small 

 though they may be, is of vital importance 

 for purposes of purely local regulation, and the 

 omission of any consideration of the trade of 

 these places is most unfortunate. 



Other extraordinary errors in the official 

 statistics may be detected by anyone possessing a 

 local knowledge of any one area. Thus, the value 

 of the " shell-fish " landed from the Lancashire Sea- 

 Fisheries District for the year 1898 is stated in the 



1 See Report of the Inter-dept. Committee on Fishery Statistics for the 

 complete list. 



