PROTECTION OF DEEP SEA FISHERIES. 401 



outs there are both good and bad on board all classes of 

 vessels, this to a great extent depending on individuals and 

 circumstances. A point which was overlooked, when the 

 lights question was under consideration, was the manner 

 of the working of foreign trawlers. It was shown in 

 evidence as regards the pointing of an English trawler's 

 head, how that in a light wind she would hang off the wind 

 more than in a breeze, but it was not shown, how that 

 foreign trawlers, as a rule, trawl bodily to leeward for 

 various reasons, one alleged reason being that they catch 

 more fish of the skate tribe, by so doing, than of the fish 

 known in this country as " prime/' the former being highly 

 prized on the continent. Therefore, in this case, the 

 pointing of a vessel's head would be at a right angle to the 

 direction she was moving in, making the use of side lights 

 (as proposed) more deceptive than in the case of English 

 trawlers. There can be no doubt but that the system of 

 one white light for trawlers, and two for drifters, as has been 

 in use for many years, without any extraordinary number 

 of collisions, ought to become law. Since these new 

 regulations have been staved off from year to year, special 

 notice has been taken of all casualties to fishing vessels, 

 and no unusual amount of these can be brought forward 

 to show that these lights are dangerous, or that any change 

 is required. Pilot cutters, which number only about one to 

 every hundred fishing vessels, should carry a red and a 

 white mast-head light, to correspond with the colours of 

 the flag they fly in the day-time. One white light would 

 then have for its signification, a vessel with one net, or 

 trawler ; two lights would signify a vessel with more than 

 one net, or drifter. It is only too true that in some cases 

 both pilot cutters and fishing vessels do not trouble 

 themselves to alter their working lights and carry their 

 VOL. I. E. 2 2 D 



