108 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



In Plate V., representing one of the Yarmontli luggers 

 when " driving " or drifting, the single lantern she has 

 fixed on the top of the mitch-board shows the manner 

 in whicli the light was carried by these vessels before 

 the passing of the Sea Fisheries Act of 18G8. Accord- 

 ing to the Act passed in 1843 for carrying into effect 

 the Fishery Convention concluded in 1839 between 

 Grreat Britain and France, it was ordered that all boats 

 engaged in drift-fishing should hoist on one of tlieir 

 masts two lights, one over the other, and three feet apart ; 

 but very few of its provisions were ever enforced, and 

 drift-boats practically carried just what lights they 

 pleased, and placed them where tliey liked. Tl^e com- 

 plaints laid before the Royal Sea Fisheries Commis- 

 sioners in 1863-4 of the damage occasionally done by 

 trawlers when working where drift-fishing was going 

 on led to the discovery of the fact that drift fishermen 

 very rarely carried the two lights ordered by the Con- 

 vention Act for the purpose of showing that they had 

 their nets in the water. This would of course dispose 

 of any legal claim for damages against the trawlers ; 

 as, however great their carelessness might have been in 

 coming among the drift-boats, their answer to tlje 

 charge was reasonable enough, that they had no means 

 of distinguishing a drift-fishing vessel from any other 

 at a moderate distance. The complaint and reply to it 

 were sometimes made in amusing ignorance by both 

 sets of fishermen of there being any regulations re- 

 quiring the drift-boats to carry two lights, or forbidding 

 the trawlers to come within three miles of any drift-boat 

 engaged in fishing. The trawlers in fact brought a 

 counter charge that the drift-nets were on some occa- 

 sions shot across their course where they were towing 

 the trawl, and that they coidd not avoid the risk of 



