lO 



shore that the bottom of the seine may be certain of 

 toucliing- the bottom of the sea. Mr. Dunn conceived the 

 idea of so arranging the seine that, when shot in deep water 

 round a shoal of fish, the bottom edges of the net might be 

 ch-awn together by ropes and the fish prevented from 

 escaping by " sounding." When he came up to London he 

 found a precisely similar idea carried out in what is called 

 a " purse-seine," exhibited in the United States section of 

 the Exhibition, and he then learnt that this net had been in 

 successful operation in America for several years, and that 

 shoals of fish, which would otherwise have escaped capture, 

 had been caught far out at sea in deep water by its means. 

 No doubt when Mr. Dunn conveys this piece of informa- 

 tion to his fellow-countrymen in Cornv/all he will find less 

 difficulty in inducing them to adopt the system than he 

 had when it was merely a " new-fangled idea " of his own. 

 But if there had been some central authority — such as the 

 Society whose formation I advocate — to whom Mr. Dunn 

 could have applied for information as to whether his idea 

 was entirely new, or had been adopted or found impracti- 

 cable elsewhere, he might have been saved much trouble, 

 and the fisheries whose interests he has so much at heart 

 might have derived earlier benefit from the introduction of 

 the net into general use. 



A " National Fisheries Society " aiming at showing what 

 might be done in our own country should in this way be in 

 a i)osition to give the fullest information as to what is being 

 done in every other country. While professing to be 

 National in its aim, it would be really International in its 

 character. I am sure that such an institution would not 

 fail to meet with every encouragement, not only from those 

 connected officially and privately with the fishing industries 

 of the wide possessions of the British Crown in every part 



