490 Transactions.— Zoology. 
Instead of meddling with the net, I would suggest that it be made illegal to 
bring fish under a certain size ashore for sale. It would be a very easy 
matter for the fishermen, when gathering the fish from the net, to leave 
behind all those under a certain prescribed size, and they would soon find 
their way into the deep water again. Although a good deal of the seine 
fishing is done during the night, there is nothing to hinder this being done. 
A somewhat similar practice is carried out in the Oyster-dredging trade in 
the Old Country—all under a certain size are thrown overboard again, If 
the fishermen were to be fined so much for every fish under a certain size 
found in their boats, the evil would soon cure itself, I would further sug- 
gest that an Inspector should be appointed to look after the above and 
other matters connected with it; one thing in particular being the pro- 
tection of the Salmon Trout which are now known to frequent the Harbour, 
and which will soon become extinct if the indiscriminate system of 
fishing be allowed to continue much longer. 
. In connection with this subject, there is another matter I should like to 
mention, though perhaps this is hardly the place for doing so—I mean the 
want of a Market-place for the sale of fish, where the consumer could meet 
with the fisherman directly, instead of, as now, through the medium of a 
middle-man or a shopkeeper. This has been a long-felt want, and has 
tended more than anything else to keep back the fishing trade; into which 
many enterprising men have entered only to be discouraged, and eventually 
disgusted, with the want of encouragement shown to them. Were a proper 
Market established in some convenient central position, put under proper 
regulations, and kept clean and tidy, I have not the slightest doubt that in a 
very short time such a thing as a scarcity of fish, except when caused by a 
eontinuance of stormy weather, would very seldom be heard of. 
