FISHING STATIONS -SCOTLAND. 



313 



fishinct stations. 



SCOTLAND (continued). 



Stornoway — Fisheries at the Hebrides — Herring fisliery in the Minch — 

 Close-time for herrings — Bad effects of — Inquiry into, and consequent 

 legislation — Curing herrings — Branding disregarded — Irish markets — 

 Longliuing — Line-fish generally cured dry — Lobster fishery — Trade in 

 periwinkles — Fishing boats — Eeturns of cured fish — Campbelton to 

 Greenock — Inshore beam-trawling — Lochfyne — Disputes between drift 

 and seau (" trawl ") fishermen — Alleged objections to sean-fishing — Pro- 

 hibition of seaning — Inquiry into the subject by two Commissions, 

 resulting in repeal of prohibition — "Recent scarcity of herrings in Lochfyne 



— Various suggested explanations of it — Peculiar character of Lochfyne 



— Great depth of water — Situation of the loch favourable for the visits of 

 the herring, but the object of those visits not easily explained — Lochfyne 

 fishing boats — Keturns of cured herrings — Ardrossan to Dumfries 



— Ballantrae banks formerly spawning ground for herrings — Set-nets ibr 

 cod and turbot — Solway fisheries unimportant — Summary of Scotch 

 fisheries and remarks on the fishermen. 



On the western coasts of Scotland the first station to 

 be noticed is Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, and an 

 important centre of both herring and white fisheries. 



The herring fishery in the Minch — the sea separating 

 the western mainland of Scotland from the Outer He- 

 brides — is a very valuable one, and as it begins earlier 

 than the regular east coast fishery, boats from Caithness 

 and the neighbouring counties, the Orkneys included, 

 generally take part in it before their own season com- 

 mences. The herrings are rarely fished for on the 

 Atlantic side of the islands, but tliey are frequently seen 



