NEED PROTECTION. 189 



fish as occurred near Dunbar in September 1861. A 

 shoal of herring having begun to spawn at a short dis- 

 tance from the harbour, were immediately assailed by 

 the fishermen with such indecent greed, that on Sunday 

 1st September, and the two following days, the neigh- 

 bourhood had the appearance of a fair, so great was the 

 bustle in disposing of the most improperly captured 

 herrings. This is monstrous. If a man were to open 

 a shop in Dunbar for the purpose of shaving or selling 

 "sweeties" on Sunday, we have no doubt that there 

 would be an outcry. But when lawless herring-slayers 

 profane the Sabbath, they are, if not unblamed, at all 

 events unmolested, which is all they care about ! Other 

 folks besides the fishermen of Dunbar are apt to leave 

 their sanctity on shore during the herring season. We 

 once heard a Gaelic minister threaten to keep back 

 from the communion-table all who should not abstain 

 from fishing on the fast-day. When fishing is thus 

 prosecuted " in season and out of season," we cannot 

 be surprised to learn that many of the Highland sea- 

 lochs, answering to the Norwegian fiords, no longer 

 roll abundance to the very door of the now almost 

 starving Highlander, whose unfair and unseasonable 

 fishing has driven the persecuted herring from its 

 haunts. In Norway, where 40,000 men are engaged 

 in catching the herring, every facility which science 

 and ingenuity can suggest is offered to its spawning in 

 the numerous fiords ; and the spawn and fry are care- 

 fully protected from molestation, in order that the fish 

 may keep upon their coasts, and breed in security. But 

 our Scottish Fishery Board is loudly accused of being 

 afraid to put in operation the law against trawling ; and 

 there is reason for questioning the discretion of the Board 

 in availing itself of the power to suspend any of the clauses 

 in the recent Act. In January 1861 the clause prohibit- 

 ing trawling with small-meshed nets was suspended, for 

 the purpose of permitting the fishermen of the Forth 

 to catch sprats, or garvies as they are called in Scot- 



