56 I^ISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



subjected in the prosecution of an illegal fishing, which 

 may at any time be interrupted. They denied too that 

 as a class, they injure the nets of the drift-net fishermen ; 

 they pointed to the records of collisions between the drift- 

 net fishermen themselves before trawling was introduced, 

 and averred that the alleged instances of mischief on the 

 part of the trawlers have never been substantiated when 

 submitted to official investigation. They saw no difficulty 

 in carrying on the two systems of fishing together, as the 

 trawlers chiefly fish close to the shore in shallows, where 

 the drift-nets are rarely placed ; and they further asserted 

 that instead of driving the fish away, so that they will not 

 mesh in the drift-nets, they drive the shoals out of the 

 shallow into deeper water, where the drift-nets are enabled 

 to capture them ; and finally that the large hauls got by the 

 trawlers are of great benefit to the consumer of fish, by 

 enabling him to get herrings at a much cheaper rate than 

 he could by the old method of drift-net fishing, so that 

 the poor especially benefit by the abundance of fresh fish 

 thus thrown into the market. 



After full examination of petitions and evidence on both 

 sides, the Commissioners gave an elaborate judgment that 

 in their opinion the fishery of Loch Fyne had suffered no 

 diminution by the operations of the trawlers, but that on 

 the contrary, it is a steadily progressive fishery, when the 

 periods of comparison are made sufficiently long to correct 

 the annual fluctuations, which are always considerable in 

 this as in all other herring fisheries. In support of this 

 statement they adduced the following return for a period 

 of thirty years : — 



