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REPORT OF THE CLOSE-TIME COMMITTEE OF THE 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION, DUBLIN, 1878. 
[The following Report has been presented to the British Association by 
the Close-Time Committee. ] 
IT is with regret that your Committee has to report that, for the 
first time since its original appointment in August, 1868, the work 
it has not unsuccessfully had in hand has been brought in question, 
and this in a way which requires serious attention on the part of all 
who wish to preserve our indigenous animals from the extermination 
that, until the last few years, was threatening so many of them. 
In July, 1877, it having been reported to Her Majesty’s Secretary 
of State for the Home Department that “ the herring fishery on the 
coast of Scotland is in an unsatisfactory state, and that it is desirable 
that inquiries should be made to ascertain whether any legislative 
regulations would tend to promote the welfare of the fishermen 
engaged in the said fishery, and to increase the supply of herrings 
for the benefit of the public,” that gentleman appointed Mr. Buck- 
land, Mr. Spencer Walpole, and Mr. Archibald Young to be 
Commissioners to make such inquiries and to report to him the 
result thereof. 
In accordance therewith, the Commissioners above-named 
reported to the Home Secretary, under date March 1, 1878, and 
their ‘ Report, with ‘Appendices,’ was subsequently presented to 
both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 
This ‘ Report,’ containing certain conclusions arrived at by the 
Commissioners, naturally attracted the notice of your Committee, 
and, after due consideration, it was resolved that a letter should be 
addressed on behalf of your Committee to the Home Secretary in 
regard to some of those conclusions. 
The following is a copy of the letter thereupon sent :— 
“ To the Right Honourable R. A. Cross, H.M. Principal Secretary of State 
for the Home Department. 
6, Tenterden Street, Hanover Square, W., London, July 6, 1878: 
«‘Sir,—The Committee of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, appointed for the purpose of inquiring into the possibility of 
establishing a close time for indigenous animals, having had under their 
consideration the Report on the Herring Fisheries of Scotland, dated 
1st March, 1878, and the conclusions at which the Commissioners have 
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