SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 219 



much what it was previously, and certainly has not been 

 improved to any noteworthy extent by the closure. With 

 regard to the allegation that frequent trawling on a line (and 

 it would be interesting to know where this line can be so 

 accurately kept) rapidly exhausts the fishes, it is only necessary 

 to point to the statement on p. 99, where it is shown that the 

 fishing-boats of St Andrews from the first introduction of the 

 method to the last day of it found that their richest trawling- 

 line was always the same, viz., Scooniehill in a line with the 

 steeples. 



The Frith of Forth showed no increase either in numbers or 

 size in its fish-fauna, but remained at the end of the experi- 

 ments very much what it was at the beginning. Protection 

 has not increased the food-fishes, nor has it added much to 

 the contentment of the liners, who, it may be, have not fully 

 appreciated their advantages. It is here and there asserted 

 that it is useless to shoot lines in the Forth, e.g. in the 

 neighbourhood of the towns of the east, as all the haddocks 

 have disappeared. Now, the " Garland's " work proves that, 

 within easy reach of the coast towns fair captures of haddocks 

 can be made, and which, by energy and perseverance, 

 might be considerably augmented. Moreover, while such 

 is the case, it is also a fact that during the slack period of 

 haddock-fishing a man and two boys may occasionally, in a 

 single night, secure £9 in herring-fishing. Politicians, animated 

 by a desire to benefit the liners by upholding the closure to 

 the three-mile limit, and by extending it if possible to the 

 13-mile limit, might pause in their efforts if they were aware 

 that it is a moot-point with some liners whether it would 

 not have been better to have confined the trawlers to the 

 three-mile limit, and have given them (the liners) the open 

 sea. No great weight, perhaps, need be attached to such 

 statements, but they show the uncertainty and unrest which 

 appear to be chronic in the department, and which do not 

 seem to have been improved by the methods sometimes 

 adopted. No beneficial effect has ensued in regard to oyster, 

 clam or mussel-bed in the area ; indeed, the case of the oyster, 

 which appears to shed spat but rarely in the Forth, or at 



