SCOTCH FISHERIES. 179 



established for herrings in 1860. The persons at 

 whose instance the law was made, were not the fisher- 

 men, but some of the curers, who sought to raise the 

 price of their fish caught during the regular season, by 

 prohibiting the capture of herrings of any description 

 at other times ; although the fishermen on many of the 

 poorer parts of the west coast were largely dependent 

 on them as food, and, to a still more important extent, 

 as bait for the line fishery. Thus, directly and in- 

 directly, the fishermen suffered, until their sore distress 

 became known, and the matter was inquired into. 

 Instructions were then given not to enforce the law. 

 In 1865 close-time was abolished on part of the coast, 

 and shortened on the rest ; and the Sea Fisheries Act, 

 1868, entirely did away with it on the whole of the 

 west coast, except within the three-mile limit from the 

 shore between Ardnamurchan Point and the Mull of 

 Galloway. The original close-time Act only applied 

 to the west coast ; and happily there are great diffi- 

 culties in enforcing that small portion of it which still 

 remains on the Statute Book ; for such local restric- 

 tions cannot be justified by anything that is known 

 of the cause of either the abundance or scarcity of 

 herrings in different years. 



The fisheries I have now mentioned are worked, 

 more or less, all along the west coast, in some places 

 more attention being given to one kind than another. 

 Among the islands near the mainland, herring-fishing 

 is less successfully prosecuted than farther out, and 

 the generally poor fishermen do their best to obtain a 

 living mainly by line fishing and lobster-catching. 



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