314 DEEP-SEA PISHING. 



there at some distance from the land by the longline 

 fishermen early in the year. In April the fish are abun- 

 dant outside a line between Lewis and the north of Scot- 

 land. In May the herrings come into the Minch and work 

 their way southwards, but occasionally they enter the 

 Minch south of the islands, and in 1870, in particular, 

 theie was a very large fishery inside South Uist and Barra. 

 They generally remain in these waters for some time, 

 and the fishery is carried on far into July or even later. 

 In 1860 an Act^ of Parliament was passed by which 

 a close-time was established for herrings on the west 

 coast of Scotland. The Bill was brought in at the in- 

 stance of some of the curers at Grlasgow and other 

 places, principally on the west coast. By this Act 

 herring fishing was entirely prohibited from the 1st of 

 January to the 31st of May on any part of the coast 

 between Ardnamurchan Point and the Mull of Gal- 

 loway on the south, and from the 1st of January to 

 the 20th of May between Ardnamurchan and Cape 

 Wrath in the extreme north. Not a herring was 

 allowed to be taken during the close season for the 

 purpose of sale, or to be used as bait on the longlines, 

 or to keep the fishermen from starv^ation ; and it ap- 

 pears that this cruel prohibition was to be enforced 

 that the markets might not be supplied with fish which 

 were not always of the best quality, but yet were suffi- 

 ciently good to command a ready sale, and therefore 

 tended to lower the prices the curers would otherwise 

 have obtained from the proceeds of the comparatively 

 short summer fishing. It was professed that the early 

 fishing broke up the shoals before they entered the 

 Minch, and therefore diminished the supply in June 

 and July, and it was said that many of the fish caught 



1 23 & 24 Vict., c. D2. 



