37 
shown that when the meshes were tight the net would take 
fish you did not want to take. You might impose what 
restrictions you liked on the net, but when there was a 
certain strain upon it, though theoretically a given size 
mesh would allow any size fish to escape, practically it was 
not so. You could not allow a shoal of large fish to escape 
because there was a danger of taking some small ones. If 
that line of action were adopted no very large fish would 
be taken. He listened with great pleasure to the opening 
address by Mr. Jex, at Norwich, and also to the one 
delivered by Professor Huxley, in which he made the 
statement which had been referred to, that he would allow 
fishermen to fish as when, how, and where they liked ; and 
he would advise all his friends to hold their judgment in 
suspense on that matter, because it was not at that con- 
ference that they would get at the real state of the case. 
After all, it might turn out that Professor Huxley was 
correct in his conclusions ; but there was not sufficient time 
to enlarge upon the matter, and to show how it might be 
so. One gentleman spoke about steam trawlers, others 
against trawling altogether, others about line-fishing and 
drift-net fishing, but in all these investigations it would be 
found that the various classes of fishermen abused the 
means used for the capture of fish by other classes, and 
this consideration must have its due weight. He admitted 
the public generally were not actuated by ideas of that 
kind. To them it was a broad question, could anything 
be done to maintain and preserve the bountiful supply of 
fish which was so valuable as an article of food? But a 
right conclusion could only be arrived at by getting the 
scientific man with his knowledge of natural history and 
other sciences, and the practical fisherman, and putting the 
views of one against the other, and having the thing 
