THE 



HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



PART I. 



SEA FISHERY IN THE NETHERLANDS BEFORE THE 

 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE DUTCH REPUBLIC. 



ANYBODY may conclude from a slight survey of a map of 

 the present Kingdom of the Netherlands, that the sea 

 must at all times have supplied food to its inhabitants. 

 The country is bounded by the North Sea on two sides ; a 

 gulf called Zuider Zee runs far inland and multiplies the 

 extent of its sea-shore ; and both this outer and inner sea 

 are pregnant with fish of several kinds. The several 

 river estuaries supply a number of ports and roadsteads 

 for fishermen's vessels ; for those river mouths, whose 

 shallowness was until a few years ago a serious obstacle to 

 the development of modern steam navigation in the Dutch 

 ports, and has accordingly had to be artificially corrected 

 in several ways, at the cost of many millions, afford, and 

 have at all times afforded, plenty of depth for the largest 

 of fishing craft. A glance on the map along the sandy 

 and havenless North Sea coast north of the rivers will, 

 moreover, at once show the existence of several villages 

 separated from the fertile part of the country by leagues 

 of sand-downs, and which, therefore, can never have had 



