326 APPARATUS FOR FISHING. 



years that cotton has been advantageously substituted for 

 hemp in the manufacture of drift-nets ; and the special 

 object of bringing together in the present International 

 Fisheries Exhibition the fishing appliances of all nations is 

 that they may be examined and compared, like with like, 

 so that the people of each country generally interested in 

 the success of its fisheries may see how others are working, 

 and have an opportunity of studying the different plans 

 adopted for the effective use of the gear they are them- 

 selves most concerned with. Nowhere in the world are all 

 the most important methods of fishing in more general use 

 than on the coasts of Western Europe ; our own seas 

 especially abound in various kinds of valuable fish ; and no 

 persons have a greater interest in making themselves 

 acquainted with improvements in fishing apparatus than 

 those who depend for their livelihood on the important 

 fisheries around the British Islands. 



