8 
nets with a mesh of thirteen-sixteenths of an inch at Yar- 
mouth and Denes during the past week. The nets to 
which he referred were particularly used by his brethren 
from over the border, the Scotchmen from Banff, and 
that neighbourhood. When these nets were used, they 
were acted upon by the action of the sea, the result being 
that the large fish which struck the net were nosed, the 
greater proportion of the large fish being lost, and only 
the small taken. He thought it was quite time that the 
Government took the subject in hand, and defined the 
mesh of net to be used. He quite agreed that the mesh 
should not be forced upon British fishermen unless a conven- 
tion could be made with other countries, with all the fisher- 
men fishing in the same waters. The mackerel net was used 
in much the same way as the drift-net, but the mesh of that 
as used by the people on the east coast was twenty-seven 
meshes to the yard, and was used in the same way, but 
many were now using thirty-two and thirty-three meshes 
to the yard. No doubt that acted in the same way with 
mackerel as the drift-net did for herrings. Of course 
they could not make a convention as to that without all 
the other countries agreed. Pilchard were captured by the 
drift-net of forty to forty-two meshes to the yard, and 
the question now for consideration was whether the mesh 
was too small or too large. That subject was one which 
he hoped the practical men now present would deal with. 
The garvie or sprat was also caught by the drift-net, and 
he held in his hand a sprat-net obtained from Leigh, in 
Essex, of a very small mesh, and, of course, those present 
would understand that the mesh was smaller when wet than 
when in a dry state, the consequences being, that when 
such a net was used the small fish could not escape. It 
had been said by gentlemen of high theoretical authority 
