ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 6i 



Now I pass to the provision about purse seines. The use of 

 purse seines is prohibited. 



The President: May I ask one question, sir? A close season 

 has the special purpose of protecting the spawning period ? 



Senator Root: That is natural. 



The President: And how long is the spawning season? Can 

 you tell me how long it is ? 



Senator Root: I suppose but a few weeks. Certainly it does 

 not last all winter. 



The President: Nor all summer. Probably not as long as 

 from the loth May to the 20th October ? 



Senator Root: Certainly not. Of course, different fish spawn 

 at different times. My understanding is that the herring spawn 

 in May. Mr. Lansing says they spawn in May, and that the 

 spawning period lasts about a month. 



Now, I will refer to purse seines. A purse seine is a kind of 

 seine that is adapted to use by vessels, as distinguished from the 

 seine adapted for use by men who can draw the seine on the shore. 

 It is simply a seine with a cord running through rings at the bottom 

 so that when fishermen have to use it \yho have not any bottom 

 to use it on, who cannot go ashore and draw their seines so that 

 the fish will be kept in by being drawn along the bottom, they can 

 make a bottom for themselves by pulUng in the foot of the seine. 

 That is a simple little device to enable vessels that caimot go to 

 shore to utilize seines. 



Upon this general subject of "seines" I would like to call your 

 attention to the report of Mr. Joncas, read at the International 

 Fisheries Exhibition in London in 1883. Mr. Joncas, I beUeve, 

 was a Canadian. 



Sir Charles Fitzpatrick: A Canadian, I understand. 



Senator Root: At p. 606 of the United States Coxmter-Case 

 Appendix he tells about the implements used. He says: 



'"The nets used by our fishermen are generally thirty fathoms long by 

 five or six wide.' 



