67 
V.— STATISTICAL ACCOUNT. 
A. — Northumberland, not including North Shields. — The 
1 tches of the fishermen, belonging to the fishing ports on the coast 
1 her than North Shields, are made within the Committee's district, 
d only rarely in the waters outside it. A consideration of the in- 
rmation available with regard to these is necessary to render more 
mplete the account which has already been given. 
The government statistics for the years 1895 to 1905 are 
tanged in Table XV. so as to show the catches for the two 
visions of the county, the northern and the southern, which have 
cady been shown to differ so much physically, and also with 
gard to the relative proportions of fish and of crabs. In Table 
VI., the average annual catch of each of the species separately dis- 
lguished is given. In Chart 5 are a series of diagrams con- 
■ucted from the figures in these tables, to show the character of 
e fishing during the year, and the changes which have taken 
ice in the period of eleven years. 
The statistics are not absolutely accurate, and returns are not 
nade from three stations in the district, but the broad results are 
esented with sufficient accuracy for our purpose, and the figures 
• the succesive years agree' in demonstrating them. It is unfor- 
nate that dabs have only been separately distinguished since 1902, 
t the catches of plaice, together with other important white fish, 
we been recorded for the period under consideration. 
It is at once plain that while the catches of certain species, <■.■/., 
ddock and dab, are not very different in the two divisions of the 
WQty, there is a marked contrast in the case of cod, and flat fish, 
ttecially plaice. In the northern district, the catches of cod, which 
i mainly codling, with small cod, are nearly double, and of plaice 
uarly twenty times those of the southern district. In the northern 
• strict, moreover, there are caught more gurnards, anglers, conger 
s, and skate. It is only in the case of ling and whiting that the 
;ches on the whole are greater in the southern half of the county. 
The catching power in the two districts is certainly not quite 
Bal. In 190-1, the cobles and mules of the northern area numbered 
, and the cobles of the southern district, 78 (including Alnmouth, 
uble, and Cresswell, from which returns are not collected I, not 
linting such as are employed for salmon or trout fishing only, 
aring this in mind it may be concluded that the species of round 
id which are predominant in the northern district are cod, gurnard, 
