70 ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 



" late years the brood and fry of sea-fish has been 

 " greatly prejudiced by the using of nets of too 

 " small mesh, and by other illegal and unwarrant- 

 " able practices, it is enacted, that after 1716, if 

 " any person or persons shall use at sea upon the 

 " coast of England, any trawl net, drag net, or 

 " any net whatsoever, for the catching of any kind 

 *' of fish (except herrings, sprats, or lavidnian), 

 " which hath any mesh or moke of less than three 

 " inches and half at least from knot to knot, or which 

 " hath any false or double bottom, end, or pouch, 

 " or shall put any net or nets though of legal size, 

 " or mesh, upon or behind the others in order to 

 " catch the small Jish which would have passed 

 " through any single net of three inches and half 

 " mesh, all and every such person and persons so 

 " offending shall forfeit all and singular such net 

 " or nets so used contrary to the true intent and 

 " meaning thereof, and also ^20 to be recovered 

 " by distress, and in default of payment to be com- 

 " mitted to the county gaol for a year, the penalty 

 " to be divided between the informer and the poor, 

 " and the nets to be burnt." The seventh sect. 

 of the same act, " for the further preservation of 

 " the fry offish," makes it penal to take unsizeable 

 fish, and mentions the size under which fish ought 

 not to be taken. 



Now, after such an explicit act as this, can it be 

 believed that these trawlers, I believe to the number 

 of WO from Brixham alone, should fish with nets 

 in the bag of which the fish are caught and 



