272 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



the 25th of June and the 25th of July, was noted when 

 reference was made to the repealed Norfolk Act of 1876. 



Also the legislation of 1877, which affords an indirect 

 close-time to oysters, by preventing their sale between 

 either the I4th of May or the I5th of June (as the case 

 may be) and the 4th of August. 



It may here be observed that a confusion has sometimes 

 arisen between the close-time for, and certain precautions 

 enforced to prevent the premature destruction of, salt-water 

 fish. The Ardnamurchan close-time for herrings and the 

 repealed Cromer lobster close-time are examples of close- 

 time proper; examples of precautions (sometimes impro- 

 perly referred to beneath the heading of close-time) which 

 may prevail all the year round are the obsolete enactments 

 of 1843, which limited herring-nets to a i-inch mesh, and 

 the legislation of 1881, still in force, by which beam-trawls 

 may be prohibited near clam-beds. It is now sufficient to 

 observe that both close-time and improper " close-time " 

 substantially ceased in 1868, when, with the exception then 

 made in favour of oysters, &c., and the subsequent protec- 

 tion granted to clams, all restrictions both on the time and 

 on the mode of deep-sea fishing were removed. 



Reference has been made to close-time both as defining 

 the period during which fish may not be actually caught 

 on the one hand, and as defining the period during which 

 they may not be offered for sale on the other. Ardnamur- 

 chan herrings may not be caught between the 1st of Feb- 

 ruary and the 3ist of -May, and oysters may not be sold 

 between the I5th of June and the 4th of August. Close- 

 time is thus twofold ; it either relates to time of catching 

 or to time of sale. As in Mother Glasse's receipt (" First 

 catch * your hare, then cook him "), so with fish ; the catch- 



* If at least it be not more correctly, " First case," or skin " your hare," 

 c. as Mr. Augustus Sala has more than once pointed out, I believe. 



