NOVEMBER 201 



by the said association accounted for sparlings to the 

 amount of 300. But note, that no close-time could 

 have been enforced unless the association had acquired 

 control of all the fisheries in the eight miles of estuary. 

 It is most improbable that the fishermen at all the 

 various fisheries would have refrained from taking 

 advantage over those who faithfully observed a close- 

 time which could not be legally enforced. There is no 

 sounder or more significant etymology than the 

 derivation of our word ' rival ' from the Latin rivalis 

 that is, a dweller on a rivus or river-bank. 



XLIX 



Our bay, the southernmost in Scotland, like every 

 other expanse of salt water has been the scene The Bay 

 of unnumbered tragedies; but, so far as ofLuce 

 recorded, only twice has it been the theatre of a naval 

 action. The character of these two actions was so 

 different the first being a fair fight between chivalrous 

 seamen, the second a dirty, dastardly crime of a class 

 that has drawn a cloud of infamy over the State which 

 caused it to be perpetrated that perhaps a brief 

 narrative of both these affairs may be of some interest, 

 especially because the Press Censor would not allow 

 any notice to be made of the later of them in the news- 

 papers at the time. 



To begin then. In 1759 Great Britain and France 

 had been at war for nearly three years, and it was 

 known that the enemy was making elaborate pre- 

 paration for the invasion of our country. There lay at 

 Dunkirk a squadron of five French frigates, with troops 



