THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 213 



great number of this fish are however captured by means of well- 

 baited lines, and in some places a drift-net is used. Any kind 

 of bait almost will do for the mackerel-hooks — a bit of red cloth, 

 a slice of one of its own kind, or any clear shiny substance. 

 Mackerel are not quite so plentiful as they used to be. 



As to when the Gadidse and other white fish are in their 

 proper season it is difficult to say. Their timea of sickness are 

 not so marked as to prevent many of the varieties from being 

 used all the year round. Different countries must have.difierent 

 seasons. We know, for instance, that it is proper to have the 

 close-time of one salmon river at a different date from that of 

 some other stream that may be farther south or farther north ; 

 and I may state here, that during several winter visits which I 

 made to the Tay, beautiful clean salmon were running in De- 

 cember. There are also exceptional spawning seasons in the case 

 of individual fish, so that we are quite safe in affirming that the 

 sole and turbot are in season all the year round. 



There is no^organisation in Scotland for carrying on the white 

 fisheries, as there is in the case of the oyster or herring fisheries. 

 So far as our most plentiful table fish are concerned, the supply 

 seems utterly dependent on chance or the wiU of individuals. 

 A man (or company) owning a boat goes to sea just when he 

 pleases. In Scotland, where a great quantity of the best white 

 fish are caught, this is particularly the case, and the conse- 

 quence is that at the season of the year when the principal white 

 and flat fish are in their primest condition, they are not to be 

 procured ; the general answer to all inquiries as to the scarcity 

 being, "The men are away at the herring." This is true; the 

 best boats and the strongest and most intelligent fishermen have 

 removed for a time to distant fiishing-towns to engage in the 

 capture of the herring, which forms, during the summer months, 

 a noted industrial feature on the coasts of Scotland, and aUures 

 to the scene all the best fishermen, in the hope that they may 

 gain a prize in the great herring-lottery, prizes in which are not 

 uncommon, as some boats wUl take fish to the extent of two 

 hundred barrels in the course of a week or two. Only a few 

 decrepit old men are left to try their luck with the cod and 

 haddock lines ; the result being, as I have stated above, a 

 scarcity of white and flat fish, which is beginning to be felt in 

 greatly enhanced prices. An intelligent Newhaven fishwife 

 recently informed me that the price of white fish in Edinburgh — 

 a city close to the sea — has been more than quadrupled within 



