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scarce, but so scarce that the fishermen themselves are becoming 
alarmed at the future outlook, and have, through our conventions, 
asked that some laws be passed to protect them. 
That our laws, as they now stand upon our statute books, are 
not operative, we will endeavor to show. 
The act to amend section one (1) of an act entitled “An act to 
secure the unobstructed passage of fish in all the waters of this 
State wherein they were once accustomed to be found,” approved 
March 22, 1872, in force July 1, 1872, approved May 31, 1879, in 
force July 1, 1879, contains the following clause: ‘‘That from and 
after the adoption of this act, it shall be unlawful for any person 
to use any seine or net for the purpose of catching fish, except 
minnows, in any of the waters of this State, the meshes of whose 
seine is less than two inches.” 
The framers of the law no doubt intended, when the lawful size 
of the mesh was made two inches, to mean two inches square, or to 
measure 
d 
two inches from ‘“‘a’ to ‘‘b” as shown in Fig. 1, the proper way 
to measure a mesh; but as soon as such law was passed, manu- 
_ facturers and jobbers, to evade the law and find a market for their 
stock, issued price lists giving prices 6n seine or net-web measuring 
from ‘‘a’”’ to ‘‘c’ when drawn to its greatest length, as in Fig. 2. 
sr as 
eR ve 
d. 
Sat 
As soon as information was filed and suit brought under this act 
for violation of our law, these price lists, supported by evidence of 
those engaged in such traffic, are brought in to prove such measure- 
-ments, and in nine out of ten cases are held by court to be the 
correct way of measuring a mesh. 
If the act is allowed to stand upon our books as a part of our 
protective laws, it should, at least, be amended so as to define 
beyond any question the meaning of the words ‘‘two inches,” as 
applied to measurement of meshes. For with a seine whose meshes 
are two inches as measured by process described in Fig. 2, it would 
