6'8 ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 



" that it is there destroyed by weirs, draw-nets, and 

 " nets with canvass, or like engines in the middle or 

 " bosom of them, in harbours, rivers, and creeks 

 " within this realm, to the great damage and hurt of 

 " fishermen and hindrance of the commonwealth; 

 " for that every weir near the main sea, taketh 

 " in twelve hours sometimes the quantity of Jive 

 " bushels, sometimes ten, sometimes twenty or thirty 

 " bushels of the brood of sea-fish ; and also those 

 " which use draw-nets and nets with canvass, or 

 " engines in the midst of them, do, every day 

 " theyiish, destroy the brood of all the sorts offish 

 " aforesaid in great multitudes, &c. &c." Then fol- 

 low the enactments of the statute, but which do 

 not apply to my present purpose. I only mean to 

 show, by the preamble, that the roe has always 

 been considered to be deposited in shallow water 

 on the coast. The act does not mention the size 

 of the mesh of the net, but we shall have that more 

 particularly hereafter. 



Now by the statute 13 & 14 Car. II. c.2S., after 

 setting forth the importance of the fisheries, as 

 far as concerns the wealth and safety of the 

 realm, and the divers pernicious disorders and 

 abuses by the licentiousness of the times which 

 have crept in, and yet continue, evidently de- 

 structive of that trade ; it was enacted, that after 

 a time therein mentioned, " No person should 

 " from the first of June to the last of November, 

 " presume to take fish in the high sea, or in any 

 " bay, pool, creek, or coast of or belonging to 



