3G4 A Plea for Riv&r Fisheries. Ciiapt. xxv. 



them when mature; and of these sorts even 

 Nos. 17, 18, 24, , .,..,,. , , , , , 



25, 26 in the same only one individual in a thousand would be 



grown enough to make of them a comfortable 



mouthful. Furthermore, even those fish which can eat a larger 



fish than their neighbours can, not unfrequently take smaller 



ones by preference. There would be few indeed, then, of the 



predatory fish that would habitually prey upon the fish which ran 



be taken by the 2-incli mesh and escape the 4-inch mesh. As they 



are not only not required, then, by the larger fish, but would also 



be likely to injure them by out-numbering and starving them, 



and especially their young, if given immunity from the netting to 



which the larger sorts are subject, would it not be advisable to add 



them to the food of the people, and to that end to permit a mesh 



calculated to catch them ? Such a mesh, it is repeated, is one 



2 inches in circumference.* 



78. While advocating the allowance of a mesh <>f this size in 



rivers, it would seem undesirable to allow any smaller ones ; for if 



there be no restriction placed on the size of meslies, it is probable 



that the fry of large fish will be captured along with the smaller 



kinds of fish ; for below a certain size it is not always so easy to 



recognise the young of large fish, at least not so easy as to be able 



at once to pick them out and return them to the water alive, not 



easy enough to be able to detect them at a glance in the fisherman's 



or salesman's basket, not sutliciently easy to justify the magistrate 



in presuming mala fides against the destroyer thereof. It' no 



meshes less than 2 inches in circumference be allowed, there will 



be no difficulty about recognition, and the fry of the larger sorts 



can In; returned to the water. Again, the restriction of smaller 



meshes will have the effect of leaving the smallest 

 Para. 79. 



sorts of fishes as food for the bigger ones. These 



will scarcely be able to increase on and injure the larger ones 

 l>\ competition for food, for the fish that never grow large enough 

 to be captured by meshes of 2 inches in circumference are more 

 easily kept under by the predatory fish, because there are more 

 iish that are large enough to prey upon them, and because more of 

 them are required to satisfy the Largest, It is not likely, more- 

 over, that they will prove unequal in numbers to feed the larger 



* In larger rivers, perhaps :i inches would be better, because the predator] fish 



an 1 irgi r. 



