152 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



poverty, to fish on public prayer-days, " provided it should 

 be done with good discretion." Measures for their safety 

 were frequently taken by the States of Holland, and they 

 had generally one or two small ships of war for their 

 special protection in time of war. Agreements to leave 

 each other's coast fishery unmolested were concluded with 

 Dunkirk, or their conclusion proposed, in 1606, 1644, 1674, 

 1703, and 1707 ; but as to the effect of these measures I 

 have not found any evidence. The circumstance of Dutch 

 coast fishery being mostly exercised at a short distance 

 from shore, and by flat and shallow boats, liable to be 

 stranded whenever a foeman hove in sight, may have 

 induced the Dunkirkers to show forbearance to prey so apt 

 to escape them, when the reciprocal safety of their coast 

 fishery from Dutch privateers and men-of-war was to be 

 gained by it. For the same reason " fresh-fishery ' : was 

 sometimes permitted when the other sea-fisheries were 

 prohibited on account of the wars.j 



Measures to prevent the exhaustion of the coast waters 

 are not on record before the year 1676, when at the request 

 of the coast fishermen themselves, viz., those of ter 

 Heide, Scheveningen, Katwijk, Noordwijk, Zantvoort, Wijk 

 op Zee and Egmond, a Placard of the States of Holland, 

 dated September ioth,J prohibited all such proceedings as 

 were reputed obnoxious to the preservation of certain 

 species of fish. " It has always been customary," says this 

 Act, " that nobody should fish with narrower gear than 

 plaice nets, being drift nets made upon a chip of the size of 

 a full eight-and-twenty " ( whatever that measure may have 

 been). " Some time before this, however, certain gain-seek- 



* Res. Holl. 1595, p. 531, 586. 



f Ibid. 1666, p. 49, 621 ; 1667, p. 101, and others. 



% Ibid. 1676, p. 385 ; Gr. PI. B., iii. p. 1366. 



