OF ALL COUNTRIES. 55 



has been deposited ; that the herring caught by the seine 

 are not fit for curing, on account of the injury received by 

 them in their capture ; that the trawlers or seiners are a 

 turbulent set of men, who wanton in mischief, and love 

 to cut away drift-nets or stab the buoys which float them, 

 and thus produce much damage to property ; that the 

 two systems cannot be carried on together in narrow 

 waters, as the trawlers get foul of the drift-nets, and drive 

 away the fish which would have meshed themselves ; and 

 that the extravagant gains of the trawlers, monopolised by a 

 few, alter the market prices by sudden fluctuations, to the 

 great detriment of the drift-net fishermen, who prosecute 

 their labour in a more steady and less gambling manner. 

 To this indictment the trawlers replied that when the mesh 

 is less than that of the legal standard they catch immature 

 fish, but that it is not their interest as a class to do so ; that 

 larger and finer herrings are caught by the trawl (meaning the 

 seine) than can be got by the drift-net ; that the enclosure of 

 herrings in a circle by a net drawn gently round them in a 

 retired locality on the coast cannot disturb the general shoal 

 of fish as much as their meeting numerous walls of netting, 

 often miles in length, let down into the sea to obstruct their 

 progress ; that their nets do not interfere with the spawning- 

 beds ; that there is only a small market for full fish on the 

 west coast, and for this reason alone it is not their interest 

 to catch fish in an immature condition ; that the destruc- 

 tion of the spawning-beds was not produced by them, but 

 by the drift-net fishermen on the coast of Ayrshire, who 

 sink their drift-nets as trammels to catch the fish in the 

 act of spawning ; that the fish caught by trawling is, by 

 the admission of all, good for the fresh market ; and that 

 the fish so caught are quite fit for curing, though there 

 may be an occasional inferiority in this respect, on account 

 of the rapid and careless handling to which the fish are 



