MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE HERRING FISHERY. 77 
Alul this brings us to what in tlie opinion of many, who are most 
competent to speak with authority, is the root of all the evil. Up 
to the year 1808, the size of the mesh was regulated by Act of 
I’arliament to one inch from knot to knot ; but in that year the 
restriction was removed, and every man left to do w'hat is riglit in 
his on'ii eyes. The result is, that many nets, instead of being 
tliirty-six meshes to the yard, are forty to forty-three meshes. In his 
book on the Herring, Mr. de Caux speaks very strongly of the 
folly of decreasing the size of the mesh ; “ firstly, because, as the 
public prefer large Herrings to small ones, whenever there is a lar<je 
dtdivery of small Herrings, the prices fall rapidly ; and, secondly, 
because small mesh nets will kiU, but will not catch, large full 
Herrings. A small mesh simply catches a large Herring by its nose, 
and not by its gill covers ; and, therefore, the Herrings so meshed 
and killed arc held so lightly that, when dead, they drop out of the 
meshes witli the motion of the sea, or the hauling in of the net, 
and, of cour.se, are lost to the fishermen.” Never was the wisdom 
of Mr. do Caux’s argument more strongly exemplified than in the 
past season. The “ deliveries of Herrings” sent the 
prices down to almost nothing ; and those wretched things, which 
would have passed through a one-inch me.sh, were taken to the 
exclusion of the big fish, which would have been both more 
valuable for food, and have brought remunerative prices to the 
iishermen. What will be the result when the North Sea Fishery 
Commissioners have exposed all the domestic arrangements of the 
Herring, and taught the fishermen to follow up the unhappy 
fish with the more exact knowledge of their haunts and habits 
which continued research will doubtless reveal, and with the 
thermometer trailing over the boat’s (juartcr to indicate when the 
sea is at “ Herring-heat,” it is not diliicult to imagine — provided 
they are also allowed to sweep up shoal after shoal with their 
small-meshed nets, as they have done in the past season, aided only 
by the old-fashioned “rule of thumb.” 
In addition to the unremunerative nature of the fishery, the 
owners have suffered severely from the depredations of the foreign 
trawlers. The ruthless manner in which the Belgian trawlers are 
allowed to cut adrift, and often carry bodily away, the drift nets of 
the Herring fleet, is a disgrace alike to the Belgian as ivell as to 
our OAvn Government. The loss sustained by our fleet during the 
