OF THE GRIMSBY TRAWL FISHERY. 441 
enough to speak with absolute certainty, tended to the confirmation 
of this view. With a view to still further preventing the closure 
of the meshes I tried the expedient of lacing the back and belly 
of the opening to a pole, so as to stretch the meshes to their utmost 
transverse extent, but a casual encounter with an anchor brought 
this experiment to an abrupt conclusion, and I have never had an 
opportunity of renewing it. 
I have been able, however, to make trial of another device, 
which seems likely to yield much better results than any other. In 
place of tieing the opening of the cod end in any way I procured 
an oblong wooden frame, across which were stretched square 
meshes of stout twine. The opening of the cod end was laced to 
this frame, so that the latter formed, as it were, the terminal wall 
of the whole net. Tested against cod ends of the same mesh, 
either marled or tied, this last method gave, as far as my experi- 
ments went, most satisfactory results, and everything that could 
pass through the meshes found its way into a large bag of shrimp 
mesh, which was fastened outside the lower end of the trawl proper. 
An objection urged against this arrangement was that the meshes 
of the frame, being stretched quite taut, would be apt to be broken 
by a stone or a heavy piece of wreckage, and thus the whole catch 
would escape. I have, however, safely boarded a stove chimney, 
an iron bucket, a pit prop, and similar thingsin the Humber without 
damaging the net, and there is no reason that the meshes of the frame 
should not be made of wire hawser, or even cast iron, if necessary. 
Of course a frame of this kind is rather a nuisance to unfasten, but 
the devising of a rapid method of opening it should not be difficult 
to any one with greater inventive ingenuity than I can lay claim to. 
To my mind the only serious drawback to the affair is that a 
wooden frame would soon get waterlogged and very heavy in deep 
sea work, Probably this could be remedied by having a frame of 
metal tubing (preferably aluminium) which would at the same 
time have a decidedly beneficial action in lessening the friction of 
the cod end against the ground. 
At the time my frame was in use I first became acquainted with 
a somewhat similar device, in which the extremities of the back and 
belly of the cod end are separated by the introduction on each side 
of a triangular gusset of netting, the base of which is laced on to 
a rod of wood. The opening of the net is therefore oblong, and is 
closed by an oblong piece of netting corresponding to my frame. 
The principle is the same, but | think that my own expedient has a 
decided advantage in keeping the meshes of the terminal wall abso- 
lutely taut and wide open. 
We must always return, however, to our original conclusion, that 
