FISHING STATIONS— SCOTLAND. 323 



considerable extent. As if tliese offences were not suffi- 

 cient, many of the curers added to the cry, and said 

 that herrings- caught by the sean-trawl were not fit to be 

 cured, for they did not bleed at the gills like those taken 

 by the drift-nets, and, further, that the markets were 

 sometimes so glutted by the large takes of fish, and 

 prices fluctuated so much from day to day, that the 

 buyers did not know what to be at. 



The result of these several complaints was that in 

 1851 an Act ^ was passed to put an end to seau-trawling 

 for herrings on the coast of Scotland ; but it not 

 proving effective, more stringent measures were brought 

 to bear on the fishermen in 18G0^ and 1861,^ and fish- 

 ing by the sean-trawl was completely suppressed. So 

 strong a feeling existed, however, among a large body 

 of the fishermen and others that the complaints against 

 sean-trawling were unjust and the prohibition injurious 

 to the interests of the public as well as to the fishermen 

 immediately affected by it, that in 1862 a Eoyal Commis- 

 sion was appointed to especially inquire into the subject ; 

 and in September, 1864, the question was independently 

 considered by two of the members of the general Sea 

 Fisheries Commission, the third Commissioner being 

 purposely absent from the second inquiry as he had 

 taken part in the proceedings of the previous one. 



The conclusions arrived at by both Commissions were 

 decidedly adverse to the opponents of sean-trawling, 

 and were to the effect that the fishing in Lochfyne had 

 suffered no diminution by that method of working ; on 

 the contrary, it had been steadily progressive, when the 

 periods of comparison were made sufficiently long to 

 correct the annual fluctuations, which are always con- 

 siderable in this as in all other herring fisheries. They 



^ 14 & 15 Vict., c. 26. 2 23 & 24 Vict., c. 92. ^ 24 & 25 Vict., c. 72. 



Y 2 



