300 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
of the bottom of the North Sea suitable for trawling over which a beam 
trawl has not passed. Mr. Ansell thus describes what may be termed, 
perhaps, the accidental discovery of a new fishing ground some forty 
years ago, though it may more properly be said that this find was a 
happy combination of chance and enterprise, which so frequently influ- 
ences the welfare of mankind : 
“ Chance brought about one of the most astonishing results in the 
history of the fishing trade about the year 1844, and founded the trade 
at Hull in consequence. One of the Ramsgate boats, in extending her 
searches for fish, was by adverse winds blown farther north than it was 
the intention of the crew, but, determined to make a try, they shot their 
trawl in what is now so well known as the Silver Pits, and their plucky 
venture and labor were rewarded by a miraculous draught of fishes, 
which were nearly all soles. Yerv soon this became noised abroad, and 
other boats followed, who were equally rewarded with good results.” 
According to Holdsworth, the Great Silver Pit was first worked 
over about 1843, during a severe winter. 
“The Well Bank and Botany Gut [he writes] had been explored and 
discovered to be very productive grounds; and between them and the 
Dogger, and bearing nearly true east from Flamborough Head, the 
Admiralty chart showed a bed of deeper sounding, ranging in some 
parts of it from 30 to 40 fathoms; the whole extending for about 60 miles 
east and west and from 6 to 10 miles wide. This patch was marked 
the i Outer Silver Pit,’ and on trying it with a trawl, in the deeper parts 
at the western end and near the middle, soles were found during that 
very cold season in almost incredible numbers; the nets were hauled 
up bristling with fish trying to escape through the meshes; and such 
catches were made as the most experienced fishermen had never dreamed 
of. * * * In subsequent years the Silver Pit has again been found 
very productive whenever the winter has been very severe, or, as the 
trawlers call it, in ‘Pit seasons.’” 
The same author tells us, however, that “soles are generally dis- 
tributed wherever there is clean sandy ground, but they are not found 
so much in very deep water, except during cold weather. The London 
market is principally supplied with this fish from the banks of the 
Norfolk coast and from the Channel. * * * It is rarely that any 
number of soles is landed at Hull, and the Grimsby shops are often sup- 
plied from London.” 
D. The Fishermen. 
The crew of a beam trawler varies from four to seven persons on a 
sailing vessel, and from six to eight on a steamer. The cutters of the 
south of England (from Plymouth, Brixham, Ramsgate, Dover, and 
other ports), which vary in size from 25 to 50 tons, usually carry four 
persons in a crew, one or more being boys. Many of the Yarmouth 
vessels, if not the majority of them, have seven in a crew, but the trawl- 
