16 
use of small-mesh nets. Having exhibited to the Congress 
the cod end of a trawl-net used from the port of Leigh, the 
mesh being about three-eighths of an inch, he said that it 
was monstrous that such a net should be allowed to be 
used. He quite agreed with the Chairman that they could 
not force a close time, or insist upon an enlargement of 
mesh of net without a convention of all nations. The 
Yarmouth fishermen very truly said that if they did not 
catch the spring herrings the Frenchmen would do so, but 
he maintained that it was a great shame that fish were not 
allowed to arrive at maturity. He had known midsummer 
herrings to be sold upon the beach at twenty-five shillings 
per hundred, but now it would not pay to send boats out 
to catch them. He did not intend to go into the question 
of long-line and hand-fishing, as that was the fairest mode 
of fishing there could be. Of course no one could stop the 
most minute fish from taking the bait upon a long line, and 
he held in his hand two small cod which had come all the 
way from Newfoundland, proving that small fish were 
caught in all parts of the world. He would not detain the 
meeting further by any remarks, but should be most happy 
to answer any questions which might be put. 
Mr. Capps (Lowestoft) said he was a practical drift 
fisherman, having been acquainted with fishing all his life. 
Some time ago Mr. Frank Buckland held an inquiry at 
Yarmouth upon the subject of Spring Herring Fishery, and 
after taking a deal of evidence, that gentleman had come to 
the conclusion that the spring herring fishery did no harm. 
It was well known in Yarmouth that if a spring herring 
lived for ten years it would never become a midsummer 
herring. Vessels commenced fishing about seventy miles 
east by north from Lowestoft, and there they caught the 
spring herring, which was not a young herring, but a 
