THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 533 



description brought to market by coast-fishermen from 

 Katwijk did, about 1850, fetch the same prices as regular 

 brand-herring sold at the same time.* It could not be 

 better proved that the vaunted superiority of herring caught 

 by busses over herring caught by bum-boats, and the 

 latter's unfitness for any curage unless by smoke, were 

 either fictions or rules fraught with many exceptions ; a 

 fact as to which the experience of later years has not left 

 the shadow of a doubt. 



Of fresh-fishery I have not found any peculiar account 

 during the period now spoken of. It was, indeed, no 

 longer a separate business, being exercised by bum-boats 

 of the North Sea coast, concurrently with hook and smoke- 

 herring fishery, and especially at seasons when the latter 

 was not permitted ; and all the year round, by a multitude 

 of small craft of various descriptions, in river-mouths of 

 Holland and Zealand, and in the Zuider Zee The trawl 

 was the fresh-fisher's favourite implement in the North Sea 

 during the months when its use was not prohibited. The 

 capture of anchovy, of which I have found scarcely any 

 positive mention made in earlier times, became an industry 

 of some importance in the first half of the present century, 

 when the Zuider Zee was especially its area, and it was 

 commonly carried on with a net of conic shape, and of 

 course very narrow, dragged between two ships ; probably 

 the same practice which we have seen prohibited in the 

 latter part of the i8th century. Anchovy-fishery has 

 always been subject to strong vicissitudes, and often gave 

 rise to reckless speculation on future fishing returns. Thus. 

 the annual quantity of anchovies brought to market at 

 Monnickendam between 1847 an d I ^S3 averaged about 



* Report of the Committee on Sea- Fisheries, 1854, p. 90. 



