ing season, whether male or female. If they are polygamous the effect is the same, unless, as is the practice among gamekeepers with pheasants, it be thought necessary to kill a certain number of the males annually.

Another important fact arising out of this inquiry, is, that the female is a very considerable time in depositing her roe, during which she is exposed to the spearer, and therefore these spearers should be strictly watched, and severely punished when detected in the practice.

Should any one pronounce this a trifling subject, and complain that more has been said about it than there was any occasion for, which I dare say many ignorant and some malignant people will not fail to do, I answer, "that whatever God has

judged worthy of himself to create, is not below "us to examine and consider; the same hand "that formed the whale, the elephant, and the "lion, has likewise made the louse, the gnat, "and the flea. Innocently to amuse the imagi"nation in this dream of life, is wisdom; and nothing is useless that, by furnishing mental employment, keeps us for a while in oblivion of "those stronger appetites that lead to evil.”

I now quit the elementary part of this subject for another, and I wish that in doing it I could use the apostrophe of Junius to Lord Camden; but that cannot be, for in truth the change is only travelling from one "barren waste" to another. However, he that is whole needs not a physician,

F

but he that is sick it is because no "verdure quickens," that we desire to fertilize the soil. If we can suggest such improvements as may make it productive, the fruit will amply repay the labor; and with the hope of so doing, though certainly in an inferior ratio to that of the desire, we proceed to the next topic.

ON THE

CHANNEL-FISHERIES

ON THE COAST OF

DEVON AND CORNWALL.

THE defects and abuses of the law with regard to the channel-fisheries are as detrimental to the public interest as are those which we have just examined on a similar subject. I will adopt the same mode of enquiry as has been pursued with regard to the salmon-fisheries: - endeavouring to point out where the defects lie how the laws are abused and in what respect they ought to be amended A very few prefatory observations will, however, be necessary.

It is well known that all sea-fish deposit their roe in creeks, bays, and shallow water, near the shore; because a certain, though a very small degree of the sun's vivifying power is absolutely necessary to bring such roe to maturity. This is not only a truth established by the observation and experiments of scientific men, but we have legislative authority in its behalf. By the 3 Jac. I. c. 12. entitled, An Act for the better Preservation of Sea-fish, it is stated in the preamble, "asmuch as it is certainly known by daily ex"perience, that the brood of sea-fish is spawned "and lieth in still waters, where it may have to "receive nourishment, and grow to perfection; and

"For

"that it is there destroyed by weirs, draw-nets, and "nets with canvass, or like engines in the middle or "bosom of them, in harbours, rivers, and creeks "within this realm, to the great damage and hurt of "fishermen and hindrance of the commonwealth;

for that every weir near the main sea, taketh "in twelve hours sometimes the quantity of five "bushels, sometimes ten, sometimes twenty or thirty "bushels of the brood of sea-fish; and also those "which use draw-nets and nets with canvass, or

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engines in the midst of them, do, every day

they fish, destroy the brood of all the sorts of fish "aforesaid in great multitudes, &c. &c." Then follow the enactments of the statute, but which do not apply to my present purpose. I only mean to show, by the preamble, that the roe has always been considered to be deposited in shallow water on the coast. The act does not mention the size of the mesh of the net, but we shall have that more particularly hereafter.

Now by the statute 13 & 14 Car. II. c.28., after setting forth the importance of the fisheries, as far as concerns the wealth and safety of the realm, and the divers pernicious disorders and abuses by the licentiousness of the times which have crept in, and yet continue, evidently destructive of that trade; it was enacted, that after a time therein mentioned, "No person should "from the first of June to the last of November,

presume to take fish in the high sea, or in any "bay, pool, creek, or coast of or belonging to

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"Cornwall or Devon, with any drill net, trammel, " or stream-net or nets, or any other nets of that "sort or kind, unless it were at the distance of one league and a half at least from the respective shores, upon the penalty of forfeiture of the said "nets so employed, or the full value thereof, and "one month's imprisonment without bail or mainprize."

I think that there can be little doubt, but that among "the divers pernicious disorders and abuses "crept in by the licentiousness of the times," in contemplation of the legislature on the passing of this act, was the destruction of the young fry and brood of fish in the shallows, which made it necessary that these fishing trammel-nets or trawl-nets should keep a league and a half from the shore; instead of which, and in utter disregard of the act, they sweep the bays, shores, and creeks with their trawls, destroying every thing that comes into them, both great and small, old and young.

This is a very serious evil, and is one great cause of the scarcity of the best sorts of channel-fish; yet it is remediless as the law now stands, because no prosecution can be enforced under it but by an information at the suit of the King's AttorneyGeneral, where the expenses and difficulties are so great that no man will interfere. But great as this evil is, amu ch greater one remains to be stated, for the 1 Geo. I. c. 28. entitled "An Act," among other things, "for the Preservation of the Fry of Fish," after reciting by the 4th sect. "that whereas of