

FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 273 



ing is primary and the sale secondary. The secondary 

 method of enforcing close-time would, however, appear to 

 go further to the root of the matter, because more fish are 

 caught for sale than for the actual consumption of fisher- 

 men. The secondary method has this further advantage : 

 it never can withhold the direct supply of fish food from 

 fishermen so as to occasion starvation ; the most it can do 

 is to deprive them of the extra articles bought with surplus 

 profits. Messrs. Caird, Huxley, and Shaw Lefevre came 

 to the conclusion in 1866 that, "leaving oyster fisheries out 

 of consideration," the 1 sea fisheries neither were, nor need be, 

 under restrictions in regard to close-time ; but since, outside 

 Blue Books, so little, if anything at all, has been written on 

 the relations of the State with Fishermen, any reasoning 

 showing the distinction between the intimately allied prin- 

 ciples of close-time for catching and close-time for sale will 

 perhaps be pardoned. There remains a further method of 

 protecting fish, which has sometimes been improperly 

 treated of under "close-time," but which relates to their 

 size at sale only. Examples of this are the obsolete enact- 

 ments of 1714 (i Geo. I. stat. 2), whereby, inter alia, no 

 turbot shall be exposed for sale if less than 16 inches "from 

 the eyes to the utmost extent of the tail ; " and also the 

 present valid legislation of 1877 already spoken of, by 

 which lobsters less than 8 inches long may not be possessed 

 or sold. 



The whole question of fish protection might be com- 

 prehensively dealt with under the seven following head- 

 ings : 



I. Close-time during which the particular fish protected 



may not be caught e.g., Ardnamurchan herrings, 

 between ist of February and 3ist of May. 



II. Close-time during which the fish protected may not 

 VOL. IX. E. 7. T 



