HARBOUR ACCOMMODATION IN THE WEST. 
169 
with the fact, in perusing the evidence given by the West-Country 
fishermen before the Select Committee, that the Committee were 
astonished that the gross earnings of the West-Country boats 
should be so small compared with the East -Country boats, 
although the fishing-ground on the West Coast was admittedly as 
good as the East. No definite explanation was given of this 
discrepancy ; but in my opinion it mainly arises from the more 
energetic manner in which the East-Country men handle their 
boats. These latter keep out to sea for a week or ten days, and as 
frequently as possible send in their fish by carrying boats, while 
they continue fishing. A hooker or second-class boat, being a 
smaller boat, will I find at Plymouth gross one and one-third 
times the value of the boat, or at £200, the cost of the boat, 
will catch £266 worth of fish in the year 1 ? These are large 
figures, but they are in the main correct; and the totals for the 
fleet, which we have above described, show that — 
Trawlers (grosses) ..... 191^680 
Hookers and second-class boats . . . 326,914 
Or in all .... 518,594 
Or in round numbers half a million is hauled up from the sea and 
made serviceable to the feeding of the millions. This estimate 
does not include the catches made by strange boats, or the excep- 
tional hauls of pilchards, herrings, and mackerel. 
This then is only a glimpse at one of our local industries, which 
in the future will receive much more attention than it has in the 
past. We have been accustomed to worship the "land" as the 
only really producing field in the country. It is now r , however, 
dawning upon us that in proportion as we embark on the sea 
around our coast we create another food-producing property. To 
develop all these fisheries requires, in the first place, harbours ; 
without these it is impossible for this industry to be properly 
conducted. And this is what is being experienced all around the 
coasts at this moment. On the coasts of Devon and Cornwall 
much in this direction can yet be done with profit to the counties. 
Take, as an instance of an isolated fishing harbour, Mevagissey. 
This is a fishing village about five miles from St. Austell, with a 
population of about 3000. It is not connected with the railway 
system except through St. Austell. We have here a small natural 
harbour placed in the best possible position for protection, and it 
