THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 229 



the hook-fishery by bumboats in winter, and even in 

 autumn and summer, and subsequently occasioned a 

 curious incident in the race for premiums characteristic of 

 Dutch sea-fisheries between 1775 and 1850. Fresh-herring 

 or " steurharing ): fishermen, who had only fl.2oo a year as 

 a premium, began to desert their business for the more 

 favoured hook-fishery ; and the owners of herring smokeries 

 in the coast villages complained of a scarcity of herring 

 supplies to their establishments. The premium for " steur- 

 haring >: fishery was therefore augmented to fl.3OO per 

 boat, by Decree of July nth 1835, No. 72 ; whereupon a 

 shifting in the opposite direction took place, and hook- 

 fishers from the coast turned fresh-herring fishers to such 

 an extent that the municipality of the Hague complained 

 of their market being under-stocked with fresh haddock 

 and plaice. A sliding scale of premiums was now adopted ; 

 and it was enacted by Decree of November 6th, 1840 

 (Staatsblad No. 71), that such of the two rival fisheries as 

 should have the greater number of boats engaged in it in 

 any year should in the next be entitled to the premium of 

 fl.25O, and the other to the full bounty of fl.3OO. 



Besides the prohibition from trawling in the winter months, 

 another measure for the preservation of fish-life along the 

 coasts was taken in 1842. It will be remembered that the 

 use, within the sand-bars, of the shrimp trawl, known in the 

 Placards of the seventeenth century by the name of 

 " sayngh " had been permitted at all times by those enact- 

 ments, while they prohibited trawling at greater depth and 

 distance. The several laws and Decrees of 1820 and fol- 

 lowing years had likewise left the use of the " saayem " (as 

 the implement was now styled) unrestricted. But it was 

 now discovered that, although the spawn of plaice, &c., was 

 supposed to be deposited on the bottom at some distance 



