80 
angler, conger eel, and under this category may be included skate, 
and all the flat fish with the exception of the dab. In the southern 
district the fishermen catch more haddock, ling, whiting, and about 
as many dabs. 
This contrast between the two areas was shown to be particu- 
larly striking in the account of the crab fisheries of the county in 
the last report. It was pointed out that the larger area at the disposal 
of the crabs was sufficient to account for the greater success of the 
crab fishermen in the northern district. It is now evident that the 
physical features have an influence, which may be explained by say- 
ing that a nearer approach to the coast is permitted to such fish as 
affect a soft bottom in the southern district, whereas in the north 
they are restricted to isolated areas in the hard ground, and to the 
region outside. In the northern region, for the same reason, a 
larger population of fish which affect hard ground or its neighbour- 
hood can be accommodated, and the food supply is greater. 
In the account of the trawling experiments the conclusions 
referred perforce to the flat fish, and it is now clear from the 
above that the difference between the two districts is greater 
than even our experiments have shown. The inference derived 
from the experiences of the fishermen points to the desirability of 
obtaining some accurate information by the employment, especially 
of experiments of the nature which have been described here as the 
"first haul," at certain stations in deeper water within and imme- 
diately without the district, and at other seasons than that in which 
we have been in the habit of trawling. 
The figures in Chart 5 showing the catches per month serve 
to indicate that the shoreward movement of haddocks, noted by 
Pennant for our coast, and described by the Rev. Cooper Abbs, 
Sunderland, still takes place. But if the accounts given by these 
writers are to be trusted, there can be no doubt that a considerable 
diminution in the intensity of this immigration of the haddock has 
taken place since the 18th century. The latter writer" recorded a 
remarkable decline in the catches of the fishermen in the counties 
of Northumberland, Durham, and York, in 1789, and the two or 
three following years ; and pointed out, " As far back as the memory 
of the oldest man reaches, for three months in the year (beginning 
about Martinmas), prodigious quantities of haddocks, in fine weather, 
• T. R. S., 1792. 
