CHAP, vi.] THE PERIOD OF CAPTURE. 241 



As to tins division of the question, it has been said .that it 

 matters not at what period you take a herring, whether it be 

 old or young, without or with spawn ; that fish cannot again 

 be caught, and will never spawn again : and it is argued, 

 therefore, that the taking of fish in "the family way" no more 

 prevents it from reproducing than if it had been killed in the 

 condition of a medic. The same argument was used in the 

 case of the young salmon ; and it was asked : If you kill all 

 your grilse, where are you to find your salmon ? but I shall 

 have more to say on this part of my topic by and by. 



The herring breeds, then, and is caught in greater or lesser 

 quantities, during every month of the year. There is no 

 general close-time for the herring in Scotland. On one or two 

 parts of the west coast it has hitherto been illegal to capture 

 this fish at certain seasons, although the restrictions are not 

 general. How is it that the time selected by fishermen for 

 the capture of this fish corresponds with the period when it is 

 a crime to take a salmon ? If a gravid salmon be unwhole- 

 some, is a gravid herring good for food ? Do not the same 

 physical laws affect both of these fish ? There cannot be a 

 doubt but that at the period of spawning, this fish, as well as 

 all other fish, is in its worst condition so far as its food- 

 yielding qualities are concerned, because at that time of its life 

 its whole nutritive power is exerted on behalf of its seed, and 

 its flesh is consequently lean and unpalatable. Yet it is a 

 great fact that the time which the herring selects in order to 

 fulfil the grandest instinct of its nature is the very time 

 appointed by man for its capture ! In fact, that is the period 

 when herrings are at a premium ; they must be " full fish," or 

 they : canuot obtain the official brand ; in other words, shotten 

 herrings i.e. fish that have spawned are not of much more 

 than half the value of the others. When it is taken into 

 account that each pair of full fish (male and female) are 

 killed just as they are about to give us the chance of 



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