of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



49 



With the other table it enables us to see that there was no great winter 

 fishing from 1855 to 1874, and that until 1870 the winter fishing was 

 chiefly in December. From evidence given in 1864 before the 

 Royal Commission it appears that the spring fishing for spawning 

 herrings on the banks came to an end in 1856, and that it was declining 

 for some years before that time ; and that the herrings did not return 

 until 1862, when the close-time was in force.* In the late autumn of 

 1865, as appears from the notes of the Fishery Officers, herrings came 

 back in abundance to the Ayrshire coast. None were taken in 

 October of that year, but on 3rd November the fishermen at Ayr 



*Ibid., p. 1189. 



