FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 267 



This was done by the Norfolk Crab and Lobster Act, which 

 was repealed in the following year. The enactment neverthe- 

 less deserves notice as a specimen of a Local Act, and because 

 it contains the principles more widely carried out in the 

 Public Statute of 1877. It commenced by reciting that the 

 " crab and lobster fisheries on the sea-coast of Norfolk had 

 been greatly injured," and its operation extended from Salt- 

 house on the north to Mundesley on the south so as to 

 include midway Cromer of crustacean notoriety. Lobsters 

 less than 7 inches long, and crabs of less diameter than 

 4^ inches, were declared " unsizeable," and to " take " 

 signified to capture " without forthwith returning alive into 

 water with as little delay as possible." It became illegal to 

 -" take " or possess any lobster irrespective of size between 

 the 25th of June and the 25th of July ; or to sell at any 

 time or season, under a penalty of $, " unsizeable " crabs or 

 lobsters. The penalty was recoverable within six months 

 of the offence before two Norfolk justices, and half of it 

 might by them be awarded to the complainant (39 & 40 

 Viet. c. n). 



The Act of 1877 (40 & 41 Viet c. 42), which repealed 

 the Norfolk enactment, amended the oyster, crab, lobster, 

 and other sea-fishery laws generally. It treated, firstly, of 

 oysters, unlike the Norfolk Act, which concerned crabs 

 and lobsters only ; secondly, of crabs and lobsters ; and 

 thirdly, it regulated the procedure necessary for the 

 enforcement of its provisions. 



In Great Britain, under a 2 penalty, persons are pro- 

 hibited from selling deep-sea oysters between the I5th of 

 June and the 4th of August, and other oysters between the 

 1 4th of May and the 4th of August, unless the oysters were 

 either taken in foreign waters, or preserved in tins or re- 

 moved for cultivation within certain districts. One of these 



