35 



that he was quite prepared, with the sanction of the Execu- 

 tive Committee, on behalf of his firm in Montrose, to offer 

 a prize to any one who should adopt that system and make 

 it workable for the east coast herring fishery. The next 

 thing he noticed was the purse seine. He understood that 

 was largely used in America, and he thought if it were 

 brought into use in the herring fishery it would revolutionise 

 the trade to a large extent. If they could get these nets 

 to work on these large steamers they could soon bring 

 them into port. For some years past when the boats had 

 been going longer distances, instead of coming in in twenty- 

 four hours they were sometimes three days ; and he recol- 

 lected on one Sunday morning about ^"500 worth of herrings 

 had to be carted direct to the manure heap because they 

 had been three days in the boat instead of one. He should 

 also be glad to give a premium in connection with the 

 purse seine if it could be made available for herring fishing. 

 The only other matter he would speak about was a cod 

 net which was entirely new to him but which was exhibited 

 in the Norwegian, Swedish, and Canadian sections. The 

 nets of Norway and Sweden were what would be called 

 gill nets, or hung nets, sinking to the bottom. He had 

 never heard of a cod in Scotland or England being caught 

 in any net except the trawl. He should like, if possible, 

 to bring these three nets and the steamer before the fisher- 

 men of the United Kingdom, and would suggest that it would 

 be very valuable if some of the illustrated newspapers 

 would give drawings of the net and as much explanation 

 about them as their friends from those countries would be 

 willing to impart. 



Mr. WlLMOT (Canadian Commissioner), having heard the 

 Canadian name mentioned conspicuously in regard to a 

 particular description of net, wished to say a word upon 

 it. He was not going to discuss the question of herring 



