FISHING STATIONS— SCXVJ'LAND. 325 



tented by Act of Parliament ; and altlioiigh tlie two kinds 

 of net have since been used indiscriminately by many of 

 tlie fishermen, a strong feeling has continued in maiiy 

 quarters against the sean-trawl, and has been greatly 

 increased by the unusual scarcity of fish in Lochfyne 

 during the season of 1873. Various explanations of this 

 failure have been suggested, as we learn from the Secre- 

 tary to the Board of Fisheries, who has kindly furnished 

 us with some interesting information on the subject. First 

 among the causes locally assigned for the great scarcity 

 of herrings in the locli is sean-trawling ; and consider- 

 ing the strong feeling the drift fishermen and many of 

 the curers liave long had against that method of fishing, 

 it is not surprising that they should again take the 

 opportunity of raising their voices against what some- 

 times injuriously affects their interests, although to the 

 material advantage of the general public. Then it 

 is stated with quite as much, if not more, apparent 

 reason that the great increase of late years in the length 

 and depth of the drift-nets has materially added to the 

 impediments which those nets have always presented to 

 the passage of the fish in their attempts to enter the 

 loch. To these suggestions it may be replied that, 

 although drift-nets have been used in all parts of Loch- 

 fyne for years and years long past, the fisheries there 

 have been very variable — there have been very good 

 years, and very bad ones; and if it be supposed that 

 the latter have been due to the barriers of nets nightly 

 floating in the loch, how are we to account for there 

 having been very successful fisheries under the same 

 circumstances ? In such deep water as there is in almost 

 all parts of Lochfyne it is very difficult to believe that 

 such addition as has been made to the depth of the nets 

 can have prevented the passage of the fish up the loch. 



