FISHERY. 411 
Lite, that the whole of the Dutch filheries on the coafts of 
Greenland, Iceland, Shetland, and in the North Sea, do 
not employ above 27,000 tons of /hipping annually, in- 
ftead of 150,000 tons, as formerly. The author therefore 
regards the prel'ent moment as propitious to adventures in 
this line ; and he calculates that, if his hints are follow¬ 
ed, Great-Britain may annually take and cure more than 
half a million of barrels of cod-filh, and three times that 
number of barrels of herrings : the markets for which 
are always open. Doubtlefs, the field which he afligns 
for thefe adventures is ample enough to yield the im- 
menfe return on which he reckons, and which he thus 
defines : 
“ By the geographical fituation of the Britifii ifiands, 
the fillieries in the northern leas are our hereditary patri¬ 
mony. Sovereign of the northern part of America—from 
Sable cape in Nova Scotia, by Scilly point and Orfordnefs 
to Heilgeland, and from that line to the frozen ocean, the 
fea is under our immediate jurifdifition ; and the fifir con¬ 
tained in it, allowing the natural rights of Denmark, is 
our property. No other nation has any more legal pre- 
tenfion to filh north of that line, than we have to fifii in 
the Zuyder Zee, or in the Gulph of Bothnia. Without 
entering into a calculation upon the annual value of every 
cubic acre of the fea that furrounds the Britifii coafts, I 
may venture to affirm, that the fpace which I have here 
mentioned, as being under the natural jurifdiiftion of 
Great-Britain, is "in point of produce the mod valuable 
divilion of the ocean. Nature, for her own wife reafons, 
has made thefe northern feas the native climate and habi¬ 
tation of the mod numerous and valuable tribes of the 
fi fit kind. This grand nurfery feems to have been from 
the earlieft times a principal fupport to thofe nations that 
inhabited the fea-coaftsof northern Europe.” 
Among the ftations for taking the cod-filh, he confiders 
thofe of Peterhead, and of the Shetland and Lewis iflands, 
as the mod eligible. Of the herring-fifhery, he fays : 
“ I recommend it to be carried on in the deep fea, in pro¬ 
per veftels built for that purpofe. I would likewife re¬ 
commend, to filh on the Ikirts of the great herring Ihoals 
rather than on the middle of them ; the filh that precede 
and as it were accompany the (hoal, are infinitely better 
than thofe that are crammed into it.” 
He fuggefts various hints for the improvement of the 
Greenland whale filhery, of which lie gives a very de¬ 
tailed account : but feems to confider that which we 
carry on in the fouthern fea as entirely dependent on our 
ability to make head againft France; and this aifo will, 
in his opinion, be determined by the degree in which we 
cultivate the fillieries round our own iflands. If thefe are 
followed up with fpirit and judgment, they will employ 
50,000 failors, caufe foreign wealth to flow into the coun¬ 
try, animate our internal induftry, and materially add to 
our ftock of wholefome and grateful food ; while indi¬ 
rectly they will prove the bulwark of our political rank, 
and of our national independence. He propofes that thefe 
fillieries fliould be placed under the management of a cor¬ 
poration, which fliould be enabled to raife a capital of two 
millions and a half; and his own views of the valuable 
ends to be attained by fuch an inftitution are thus dif- 
clofed : 
“ The feveral nations of Europe have long been 
obliged to maintain their refpeftive ranks by military 
force ; the prefent ftate of the civilized world holds out 
no vilible profpetl that any other fort of fecurity is yet 
likely to be effectual; on the contrary, whoever polfelfes 
the greateft proportion of military force, alfumes an au¬ 
thority to legiflate for his neighbours. Great Britain is 
now an infulated ftate ; other nations feem to take no in- 
tereft in her profperity; Hie muft Hand by her own 
ftrength ; and to Hand, the bafts of the empire muft be 
fortified within by internal improvement, and they muft; 
be kept covered without by a preponderant marine. I 
have laid, that the invalion of Great Britain and Ireland 
is determined upon by the rulers of France, To fruftrate 
and fet at defiance this project of our neighbours, it is 
high time that the Britifii government were preparing ef¬ 
ficacious means. Our heavy navy may not always pre¬ 
vent an invafion by row-boats ; but 50,000 Britifii failors 
daily employed in our fillieries in the Britilh feas, if they 
did not prevent an attempt being made, they would at all 
events render its fuccefs for ever impoftible. The Britilh 
fifliery corporation fliould therefore be (0 organized as to 
form a permanent part of our national.defence. The 
men employed in the fillieries would contribute to the de¬ 
fence and fecurity of the empire in more refpefts than 
one ; in aftive occupation they would always be healthy, 
moral, and brave ; the fruits of their labour would in the 
mean time be rearing up another generation of vigorous 
youths to fucceed them ; catching filh in the Britilh feas, 
they would appear equally formidable to our neighbours, 
as if they were on-board the royal navy at Spithead ; in 
reality they would be more formidable to the enemy, and 
more ufeful to their country. Fifty thoufand Britifii 
failors, daily employed in the Britilh fillieries, would pre¬ 
vent every idea of invafion : by their induftry provisions 
would always be plenty ; their valour would bridle the 
audacity of our natural enemy ; and they would form an 
effectual circumvallation around the kingdom. Velfels 
built for the cod and herring fillieries might be fo con- 
ftrueted as to carry two or more guns each. In cafe of 
public danger 1000 or 1200 fuch veftels, being always 
equipt and ready, would form a flotilla far luperiorto any 
armament of that fort which our neighbours could ever 
fend to fea.” It is a circumftance very much in favour 
of the eftablifhments here recommended, that they ac¬ 
tually exifted in Holland for two hundred and fifty years,, 
to as great an extent as that which this author propofes j 
and, if this faft be duly confidered, they cannot be re¬ 
garded as chimerical projects. 
We are happy to learn that the cod-lifliery off the 
coaft of Ireland, on which lubjeft Mr. Frafer fo ably 
dwelt, is begun to beeftablifhed ; and fome large cargoes 
have already readied the London market. For the fur¬ 
ther improvement of this fifliery, a new mode of capturing 
the filh has alfo been recommended, by adopting the 
trammel net, in preference to the life of the hook. This 
trammel is the invention of Thomas Walton, efq. of 
Oyfternaven, near Kinfale ; who, reflecting; on the prin¬ 
ciple on which the herring and maekarel nets are con- 
ftruCted, conceived the idea of applying it in the caption 
of the larger defcriptions of filh. He therefore had a net 
thus contrived, and the experiment furpaffed his molt 
languine expectations. In order to prove that the tram¬ 
mel filhery demands the attention of government, Mr. 
Whately gives a ftatement of the advantages which it 
polfelfes, comparatively with the mode now praCtifed:—■ 
“ The colt of a hooker is from one hundred and thirty to 
one hundred and fifty pounds. It is navigated by four 
men and a boy, whole more ufual method of caption, is 
by the exerclfe of the line. The fuccefs is not merely 
dependent on unrelaxed attention. The mariner mult 
have the fuperadded good-fortune of meeting the objects 
of his refearch in a biting humour, otherwife his labour 
and watchfulnefs are exerted in vain. The finny tribe, 
may play around his hook, balk in his view, but he will 
fometimes experience the delire and the di(appointment 
of Tantalus. A fet of trammel nets, with a boat, will, 
coft from thirty to thirty-five pounds. It employs four 
men, and requires no attention after being immerfed, as it 
captures the filh whilft purfuing their natural courfe. It 
will alfo admit fufficient leifure to the men to throw out 
their lines. It has occalionally taken ten times, ufually 
thrice, the number of hake in one night which the crews 
of the hookers htfd been toiling unremittingly to procure. 
Hence it appears that the quantity of filh thus taken, ex¬ 
ceeds incalculably the number caught with lines. There 
are inftances of thefe nets entrapping fifteen and eighteen 
hundred hake in the fpace of one night, when the greateft. 
fuccefs of a hooker, during the molt abundant feafon, in. 
the- 
/ 
