( Iha.pt. XXV. Sue o/Meahea. 363 



balanoe the smaller, and thus maintain due proportions; but if one 



Bort is aetted by man. and the other sort has immunity, theba] « 



is disturbed, and the larger fish are no longer 



l':ira. 25. 



able to maintain their position. It is true thai 

 the predatory sorts of fish are not few in number; hut their 

 numbers must none the less have been calculated by nature with 

 reference to the number and prolificacy of the smaller sorts of 

 fish. But, however well calculated they may be to keep the 

 latter within due bounds, they must cease to be able to do so 

 when their relative position is as altered as it must be, by net- 

 ting the larger fish and not netting the smaller. The balance 

 is disturbed by the netting being thrown into one scale only. 



The mischief of the balance being disturbed lies in the fact of 

 much of the insect life in the waters being the common sus- 

 tenance of both large and small sorts offish. If the latter dispro- 

 portionately 111016886 on the former they monopolize this food; 

 and the larger fish, and especially their young, are starved. Min- 

 nows have starved out trout. It has been a question whether it 

 would not improve the Thames fisheries to allow again a certain 

 amount of netting of the smaller fishes. If this can be a question 

 mi a river which is crowded every day with hundreds, and perhaps 

 thousands, of professional and amateur anglers, armed with the 

 best of tackle, it must surely be beyond a doubt in a country 

 where there are no amateur anglers, and the professionals are few 

 indeed, and very rudely equipped, 



77. On both these grounds, therefore, it would seem that the 

 size of the meshes t" !»e prohibited should be reconsidered. The 

 object should be not to interfere with the netting of fishes which 

 are always small, and only to protect from premature capture the 

 young of such as are calculated to grow to a large size. Two 

 inches in circumference is found to be the size of mesh most con- 

 venient for the capture of several sorts of small 

 rats numbered :<, S, tisli which are the most abundant in the t'anara 

 i!'- 1 ."/, 1 ':,'; "',.'■ "' ",' ! ' livers. These are fishes, that when at the size 



£/, ou, ol, Jo in the 



li-t iiiven iii A.ppen- to which they ordinarily attain, would escape 

 through a mesh 4 inches in circumference 

 Their ordinary size is, nevertheless, such that but few fish are able 

 to prey on them There are no sorts, it would seem, but those 

 given in the margin, that would be large enough to prey on 



