THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 279 



tion of the water have not unfrequently occurred ever since 

 1857, becoming towards iSSo constant and loud. A 

 local inquiry instituted by delegates from the Sea Fishery 

 College in 1878 showed that the peculiar species of small 

 herrings caught in the Zuider Zee and sold as "pan-herring ' 

 \vere indeed liable to be destroyed by the use of narrow 

 nets, and that anchovy-fishery with very narrow pocket- 

 nets, dragged through the water at a great speed, either 

 between two vessels or between two beams rigged out from 

 one boat, might be presumed to extirpate herring, as fry of 

 herring was caught in those nets in great quantities, and 

 thrown away or sold as manure. Some Zuider Zee fisher- 

 men, it appears, were actually in the habit of " fishing for 

 manure " in this manner, when no full-grown fish could be 

 caught. The pocket-nets alluded to, and especially the net 

 used between two boats and called wonderkuil from the 

 astonishing returns of small fish yielded by it, could not 

 however be prohibited altogether ; for without them it was 

 not possible to catch anchovy, which article, as shown by 

 Appendix N, continues to be of much importance in the 

 Zuider Zee. Anchovy is not a fish resident in the said water, 

 but visits it in the early summer, generally between May 

 1 5th and July I5th, when there is no pan-herring fishery 

 of importance ; and the plain way to conciliate the interests 

 of both trades was, therefore, to allow the use of the 

 incriminated pocket-nets between the said dates, and to 

 prohibit it at all other times. A statute to that effect has 

 accordingly been established by law of June 2ist, iSSi 

 (Staatsblad No. 76), which, further to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of herring, flounder, and smelt, prohibits at any time to 

 buy or sell, transport, possess, or use fish of those descrip- 

 tions inferior to certain dimensions. In a word, statutes 

 analogous to those described in Part III. chapter IV., have 



