THE FISHERIES 83 



the practice and customs in Scotland makes it highly probable 

 that these enactments were in point of fact enforced against 

 foreign fishermen as far as they could be. The Scots were 

 always particularly jealous about the fishings in the firths and 

 lochs " within land." An important herring fishery of this kind 

 was carried on in the lochs on the west coast, especially in 

 Loch Broom and Loch Fyne, in autumn and winter, by fisher- 

 men from the Clyde, the Ayrshire coast, and Fifeshire, who 

 built timber houses on shore where they cured the herrings ; 

 and this fishing was attended by Frenchmen, " Flemings," and 

 English, who purchased the cured herrings or bought the fish 

 and cured them themselves. 1 Wishing to catch the herrings for 

 themselves, these " divers strangers " most earnestly petitioned 

 Queen Mary in 1566 for "license to fish in the said lochs." But 

 the Council, to whom the petition was referred, after consul- 

 tation with the burghs, refused the request, and ordained that 

 " no stranger of whatever nation they be come in the said lochs, 

 nor use the commodity of the said fishing in any time to come, 

 but the same to be reserved for the born subjects and natives 

 of the realm," under pain of confiscation of ships and goods. 2 

 Some of the old Scots Acts, of the reign of James III. (1460- 

 1488) and later, refer to previous statutes, which seem to be 

 lost, respecting the herring fishery in the western seas ; and 

 they indicate that " letters " had sometimes been granted by the 

 king favouring foreigners in some way, but whether by 

 allowing them to fish there is unknown. 



On the east coast, where the Dutch carried on their great 

 herring-fishing from busses, there is evidence that a limit was 

 early fixed within which they were not allowed to fish, but no 

 contemporary records relating to it appear to have been pre- 

 served. It is probable that an arrangement was come to 

 between them and the Scottish fishermen, possibly in the reign 

 of James V. or even earlier, by which they were not to fish 

 within sight of land. At the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, when the question of unrestricted fishing was raised in 



1 Leslie, De Origine Moribut et Rebus Cfestis Scotvnim, 24. A point of land near 

 Inveraray in Loch Fyne was long known, and is still known, as Frenchman's Point 

 or French Farl, the tradition being that it was to this place that herrings were 

 brought to be sold and cured. Old Statistical Account of Scotland, v. 291. 



1 Register Privy Council of Scotland, i. 482. 



