MR. T, SOUTHWELL ON THE HERRING FISHERY. 
377 
The adult fish appear to reach a more advanced stage of ripeness 
before they approach the spawning banks ; ” a fact which is fully 
borne out in our own autumn fishery which, it is admitted 
by many, is commenced too early, and in confirmation of 
Mr, Matthews’ observations on the injurious effects of too small 
a mesh, one of our most experienced Yarmouth boat-owners 
assured me that such a net, although it fails to menh the best fish, 
nevertheless kills a large number of the finest herring by 
imperfect meshing, and that they fall away and are lost. 
Again, in the Keport before quoted (p. 44), Professor Ewart calls 
attention to the vast increase of later years in the number of small 
fish (so called “matties”) brought ashore, stating that in 1860 over 
192.000 barrels of Scotch full, crown brand. Herrings were landed, 
and only 171 barrels wore branded as “matties;” in 1875 the 
proportions were 281,000 full and 156,000 barrels of matties; and in 
1885 there were only 200,000 barrels of full, crown brand, but 
300.000 barrels of matties. He adds, “it is genendly admitted 
that the groat depression of the fishery industry which now prevails 
would, to a great extent, have been prevented, if half the small 
Herring [the matties] had been left in the sea.” And in a paper 
published in the Proceedings of the lioyal Physical Society of 
Edinburgh, the same authority again insists on the present 
paralysis of the fishery industry being, to a great extent, due to 
the largo quantities of simall immature fish with which the 
markets have been flooded, and states that “ this is undoubtedly 
largely due to the fishermen using small-meshed nets, which, while 
they fail to “ mesh ” the large fish, capture large numbers of small, 
often immature fish that are scarcely fit for food. There is every 
reason to believe that the present unsatisfactory state of the 
Herring fishery might soon disappear, were the fishermen and 
curers to arrange to use nets with a mesh measuring, at least, an 
inch from knot to knot.” 
That this is by no means an exaggerated view of the case ive 
have the evidence (of a “ practical ” man, Mr. A. Maconochie, who, 
at the late Conference, is reported to have said that the decreased 
size in the mesh has cost “ the unfortunate Scotch curers half a 
million of money ! ” Speaker after speaker admitted that the 
small size of the mesh, at present used, was highly detrimental to 
the fishery, and yet deprecated any interference with the present 
