OUR FISHERIES 57 



the trammel-men to all intents and purposes separate castes, 

 but each method of fishing is actually characteristic of certain 

 parts of our coasts and practically unknown in others — a sure 

 sign of skilled labour. Thus, whereas, with the single excep- 

 tion of the pilchard-seans of St. Ives, the drift-net is all- 

 important in Cornwall, in Devon, the neighbouring county, 

 or duchy, on the east, the drift-net already loses importance 

 and gives place to the trawlers of Plymouth and Brixham. 

 On the cast coast, again, of both England and Scotland the 

 drift-net for herring is of first importance in summer-time, 

 while in winter all the ablest hands are away line-fishing for 

 cod on the Dogger, or on still more northern haunts of 

 halibut and haddock. The Scotch are practically ignorant 

 of trawling as practised at Brixham : what they call "trawling" 

 is in reality seaning, which, as will be seen presently, is a very 

 difFerent matter. Strictly local fisheries, such as the use in the 

 Thames and a few other estuaries of the huge stow-net for 

 sprats, are rather a development of local conditions ; neverthe- 

 less, these also accentuate the skilled nature of fishing labour. 

 It is necessary to lay great stress on this recognition of fishing 

 as skilled labour, because herein lies more than half the 

 difficulty of legislation. If it were unskilled labour only, 

 there could be no serious question of the conflicting interests 

 of difFerent classes, since a transfer of energy would be simple. 

 The fact is, however, that it would in many cases be easier for 

 the hand on the trawler to take to agricultural work or the 

 quarries than to earn his living with hook and line. 



Further knowledge, then, both in and out of Parliament, 

 is what is needed before we can hope efi^ectually to protect the 

 fisheries. More has been done in the right direction during 

 the last fifteen years than during the preceding fifty. The 

 researches of Mcintosh, Giinther, Boulenger, Cunningham, 

 Holt, Garstang, Herdman, Meek, Allen, and others in this 

 country, and the contributions of Hensen, Sars, Dannevig, 

 Heincke, Hermes, Dohrn, Delage, RaflFaele, Grassi, Giglioli, 



