NORTH SEA. FISHERS AND FIGHTERS.
North Sea Fishers and Fighters. By Walter Wood. (Kogan Paul, Trench and Co. 12s. 6d. not.)—Mr. Wood has given us in this volume a work of varied interest to which we would willingly afford far more space than circumstances permit. " Fishers " come first, and we are told something about them in the past as well as in the present. Two hundred years ago the English fisher- men were largely what those of the North of Scotland are now, "amphibious creatures who got their living both by sea and land, working with the plough and the not and line." Now they specialize, and their habit of life makes them peculiarly interesting. The reader will be well repaid if ho will spend a little time in- seeing what My. Wood, a most sympathetic observer, has to say about them. Then he may turn to the fish, and will be reassured at finding that the harvest of the sea is not likely to fail In this and that spot there is scarcity instead of plenty. The trawlers have swept the coast fishing grounds of Whitby and other places bare ; but in the sea generally there are still as many fish as have come out of it. Grimsby is a new contra of the fishing trade. The 453 tons of 1854 have grown to 179,792 (the return of 1910), but this does not mean the diminution of the totals of other ports. Since this book appeared the herring totals of the East coast have exceeded all previous records. Then Mr. Wood has something to say about "Fighters." Some may demur to the inclusion under this heading of Admiral. Rohzdesvensky—there is a full account of his strange attack on the Gamecock fleet—but there are notable names, both Dutch and English, De Ruyter and Tromp, and Blake and Paul Jones. Mr. Wood also tells us some tmgio stories of shipwreck. Altogether this is a remarkably interesting book.
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