154 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



"sayingh," just mentioned was again prohibited in 1677, 

 and a special clause was enacted against the sinking even 

 of lawful " eight-and-twenty ' nets by ballasting them with 

 weights whereby they might be used as trawls. 



The prohibition against trawling, although enacted at 

 the fishermen's own request, was very ill observed. On 

 March 29th, 1678, the States of Holland instructed their 

 officers to strictly execute the law against all those who 

 should fish with trawls (cor den of schrobnetten) ; but never- 

 theless in the summer of that year the delegates from 

 Haarlem to the States reported about grievous disturbances 

 occasioned by trawlers at Wijk op Zee. Among the fisher- 

 men of this village one party stuck to trawling and there- 

 fore went by the name of " schrobbers," while another 

 observed the law and were styled " scholders," by reason 

 of their adhering to the lawful " scholnet," or plaice 

 net. The trawlers acted upon a principle frequently 

 followed by trespassers of every kind ; they annoyed 

 those who kept within the law by carving and destroying 

 their gear, and occasionally laying violent hands upon 

 their persons ; and the local magistrates, stated to be 

 " friends of the trawlers," made matters still worse by 

 sequestering the "scholders' 1 ' nets under a pretence of their 

 being sized contrary to the statute, and keeping them 

 under arrest so long as to occasion their owners a serious 

 prejudice, although the nets had to be ultimately released, 

 being found in accordance with the law.* Fishermen of 



have found no positive evidence to the fact, that the " eight-and- 

 twenty " size here alluded to was the same which was in 1683 declared 

 lawful for seines used in the Zuider Zee, viz. fourteen to half a yard. In 

 the first quarter of the present century, the " eight-and-twenty :: 

 measure was three Netherland inches and nine-tenths (see the Laws 

 of 1820 and 1825, in Part iii. of this essay). 

 * Res. Hoi 1. 1678, p. 391. 



