250 DRIFT versus TRAWL NETS. [CHAP. vi. 



ture is in reality a " seine " net ; and, so far as the size of the 

 mesh is concerned, is all right. The mode of using this net I 

 shall presently describe ; in the meantime I may state that 

 the practice of " seining" has given cause to much disputation 

 and many quarrels, some of them resulting in violence and 

 bloodshed ; the whole dispute having given rise to the recent 

 Commission of Inquiry. It is worth while, I think, to abridge 

 the commissioners' account of the cause of quarrel, and the 

 arguments used on both sides of the question. The drift-net 

 men assert that immature herrings are caught by the trawl, 

 and that that mode of fishing breaks up the shoals, and that 

 these scatter and do not again unite, as also that the seine 

 destroys the spawn. A graver assertion is, that the trawled 

 herrings are not fit for curing in consequence of their being 

 injured in the capture ; likewise that the seine-net fishers are 

 given to brawling and mischief. The assertion is also made 

 that it is quite impossible for the two kinds of fishing to be 

 carried on together, especially in confined places like Lochfyne. 

 The real reason is, I think, brought in last viz. that the 

 great quantities of fish taken on a sudden by the trawlers 

 affect the markets and derange the prices all to the great 

 detriment of the drift-net men. The trawlers are quite able 

 to answer all these questions both individually and by a 

 general denial. They say that it is not their interest to con- 

 tract the width of the mesh, and that, in fact, the trawl-net 

 mesh is quite as large as the other. They assert that a seine- 

 net is not so much calculated to disturb a shoal of herrings 

 as the drift-net, which is of great length and at once obstructs 

 the shoal. They deny that they have interfered with the 

 spawning-beds, and also state that they have no particular 

 interest in catching foul fish, as they sell their herrings chiefly 

 in a fresh state, and say that their fish are most adapted for 

 the fresh market, likewise that they can be cured as easily as 

 herrings caught by the drift-nets. They emphatically deny 



