BULLETIN ou Thu united states fish commission. 293 
The following remarks by Holdsworth on the origin of the trawl-net, 
though they do not throw any additional light on the matter, show, 
nevertheless, how difficult it is to find anything concerning the early 
history of this apparatus which may be considered reliable: 
“The origin of the trawl-net appears to be unknown, but an emi- 
nently primitive method of working it is still in use on the Atlantic and 
Mediterranean coasts of Spain. *' * * Its chief feature is that in 
order to keep the mouth of the net open so as to work efficiently, two 
vessels are employed. They are termed ‘Parejas,’ signifying pairs or 
couples, and they sail together at a certain distance apart, towing the 
net bet ween them. An improvement on this plan, although very far from 
being satisfactory, is the hammer or pole-trawl, still used on some parts 
of the south and southwest coasts of Ireland. Only one vessel is re- 
quired to work it, and the mouth of the net is extended by ropes lead- 
ing from wings of netting on both sides of it to poles projecting one on 
each side of the vessel. It is but a clumsy contrivance, and only suited 
to smooth and shallow water. * * * The otter-trawl is the same 
kind of net as the one just noticed, but otter-boards are fastened to the 
ends of the wings, and by their peculiar and kite-like action cause the 
extension of the mouth of the net without any necessity for poles. The 
otter trawl is much used on board yachts, but does not meet with much 
favor from professional fishermen. Their preference is given entirely 
to the beam-trawl, which has been in use for many years, and, notwith- 
standing some disadvantages, has on the whole proved to be a pro- 
ductive and useful implement of fishing. There is nothing to show 
when the addition of the beam was first made to the trawl, nor is it 
certainly known whence the idea originated. There is some reason to 
think, however, that to Brixham is due the credit of having first adopted 
it in this country for deep-sea fishing, and possibly of having introduced 
it, although we believe Barking also puts in a claim to it. The com- 
mencement of the system probably dates from some period in the last 
century. Old fishermen at Brixham remember their grandfathers being 
trawlers ; but the number of vessels and their size were then small com- 
pared with those of the present day, and we can obtain no further in- 
formation on the subject than that beam-trawling had been carried on 
for a long time, or, as was said by one old fisherman, whose chrono- 
logical ideas were perhaps not very clear, 4 may be from the time of 
Moses’ — a possibility not quite consistent with the general idea at Brix- 
ham that beam-trawling originated in that long-famous fishing port.” 1 
Although we may be left in doubt as to the time and place that wit- 
nessed the introduction of the method of beam-trawling in Great Brit- 
ain, it is, nevertheless, a well-established fact that this fishery did not 
attain very important proportions until within the present century. 
Of late years, however, more especially since 1850, it has developed 
1 Deep-sea Fishing and Fishing Boats, by Edmund W. H. Holdsworth, Loudon, 
1874, pp. 52, 53. 
