of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



307 



Jura and Scarba, Loch Linnhe, the Sound of Mull, and the numerous arms 

 of the sea opening therefrom and adjacent thereto. It is suggested that 

 these watchers should be under the control of a general Board, and the cost 

 defrayed from an assessment to be levied by that Board on all the District 

 Boards rateably within the limits in question. The general Board to be 

 composed of a representative from each District Board. The voting of the 

 representatives and the election of a chairman to be regulated in terms of the 

 18th section of the Act of 1862. 



*The last piece of evidence which I shall quote, bearing upon the 

 subject of scringing, is from a letter from the late Mr Thomas Tod 

 Stoddart, author of The Angler's Companion to the Lochs and Rivers of 

 Scotland, which is printed (pages 100-103) in the Eeport of 1871, by 

 Mr Buckland and myself. He there writes as follows : — 



* Illegal Fishing practised on the Coast of Argyllshire, dec. — Scringing, as it 

 is termed, with mackerel or herring nets, is largely practised near the mouths 

 of the Argyllshire rivers. In dry seasons, during July and August, when 

 the finnocks and sea-trout show a desire to enter the fresh water and swim 

 about in small shoals close to the shore, ready to take advantage of the first 

 freshet, great havoc is perpetrated among them, and that in a manner openly 

 and without interference, by the coast fishermen. During the two last 

 summers— those of 1868 and 1869, particularly that of 1868 — I had many 

 opportunities of seeing how industriously, and with what success, scringing 

 operations were carried on in the neighbourhood of Oban, and also at Salen 

 in Mull, and of judging also how the practice acted to the prejudice of the 

 river fishings in the neighbourhood — those, for instance, of the Awe, the Add, 

 the Nell, the Feochan, the Euchar, the Aros, and the Knock or Baa. Every 

 lawful morning, weather permitting, numbers of those fish were brought into 

 Oban bay by t)oats ostensibly engaged in the capture of herring, mackerel, 

 lythe, and cuddies, and sold at an underprice through the town. Mr Baird, 

 the lessee of the sea fishings in the neighbourhood, on my asking him why, 

 seeing he had an interest in doing so, he did not interfere and put a stop to 

 the practice, told me if he did so, it was at the risk of having his bag-nets cut 

 and destroyed — the class of fishermen who carried on this system of poaching 

 being both numerous as a body and lawless in their habits. As regards the 

 sea-trout in the Argyllshire rivers, a great falling off in their numbers has of 

 late years been observed, attributable, in a great measure, there can be no 

 question, to this method of scouring their marine haunts. 



' When I visited Oban in the course of last summer, I found no dimi- 

 nution in the practice of scringing ; and I was informed that there are at 

 Oban and in the neighbourhood eight crews of scringers, averaging four 

 men each. August is, in general, the best month for the scringers. I 

 was told that the boats have often from 50 to 200 sea-trout each. 

 Proprietors of salmon fisheries in the neighbourhood of Oban should be 

 careful of letting any of their fishings to the scringers, or to any persons 

 connected with them ; because, if they do, all the fish illegally caught 

 by scringing outside the limits of the regular fishing will be put down 

 to the credit of that fishing, and it will be impossible to touch the 

 poachers under the 25th section of the Act of 1868. 



*A11 the answers I received last j'ear to the printed queries, as to 

 increase or diminution in the take of fish on this part of the coast, agree 

 that a material diminution has taken place, and impute that diminution, 

 in a great measure, to the depredations of the scringers. One answer is, 

 *' Takes of fish greatly diminished during last 1 0 years. I attribute it to 

 " illegal fishing, both on coast and rivers; " a second is, "Diminished owing 

 " to scringing ; " and a third, from a considerable proprietor both of lands 

 and fishings in the neighbourhood of Oban, " Very much diminished, 

 "which I attribute to scringing and killing fish on the spawning beds." 

 The remedies suggested are to resuscitate Boards by authority of Sheriff 



