THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 265 



but their control was not now more efficient than it was in 

 former centuries, when we have seen foreign dealers fre- 

 quently complain of bad herring being sold under Dutch 

 prime brands. 



Such were the principal reasons which in the first ten 

 years after the legislative reform counteracted actual im- 

 provement, the progress of which shall now be described. 



Cotton nets had been first used in bum-boats, as said 



above, about 1857, and were in a keeled vessel in 1861. 



In 1865 about one-third of the fleet had some cotton nets 



on board, but not a vessel could use many of them ; for on 



account of their lightness they did not sufficiently steady 



the clumsy " hookers " while lying before the fleet. The 



virtue which increased the catching power of the nets 



was a defect as regards navigation ; and whenever 



a fleet chiefly composed of cotton nets was tried, the 



vessel was apt, as soon as part of the nets was got on 



board, in rough weather to drift across the rest. The 



evil might have been stopped by enlarging the fleets ; 



but there is, of course, a limit to the surface of net that can 



be managed in one ship of a given size. Experience soon 



showed that light vessels were required to get the full avail 



out of cotton fleets ; and this seems to have been the reason 



why they were at first principally used in bumboats, two 



of which, belonging to Mr. Maas, tried the Shetland seas in 



1862, being the first Dutch flat-bottomed vessels ever seen 



in those waters. But if bum-boats were light, they on the 



other hand afforded too little stowage for an abundant 



catch. The point to be gained was to have a vessel at 



once light enough to manage a cotton fleet in all weathers, 



and capacious enough to carry as much herring as could be 



caught in such a fleet. 



Mr, Maas, now as formerly ahead in fishery innovation, 

 E. 8. T 



