SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
151 
seaward, and by the time the orb is in its fulness, they are 
as far scattered as the middle of the Sound. It is obvious, 
then, that the men who make this natural trait of the fish 
an object of particular study will be the most successful — 
and we are aware that not a few of these hardy, daring men 
are cognisant of the fact — and more than ( ne instance 
amongst them of the keeping of a diary of several years' 
duration on the important subject can be traced, a practice 
which, if adopted on board of each boat as a lo2f-book, 
would immensely repay the trouble. 
Formerly herring fishing in Loch Fyne was permitted 
by Act of Parliament to be carried on from about the end 
of June till the 1st of January, and strict enactments were 
in force prohibiting the trawling system of capturing the 
fish. Now, however, the trawl has the same liberty of 
action as the drift-net, and the period of operation is 
extended from the 1st of June to the 15th of March. In 
the regulation of this important industry, employing, as it 
does, some thousands of men, and supplies the wants of 
their families, much controversy has existed in the past. 
It could not be expected that the trawlers, who were at first 
almost exclusively confined to Tarbert, would look with 
complacency on laws they deemed unjust, and debarred 
them from prosecuting their favourite system, consequently 
the law was set at naught by them, even to the shedding 
of blood amongst them. 
Alluding to this matter, our old friend made bitter re- 
proaches against the conduct of the men of Her Majesty's 
ship "Jackal," which was in charge of the fishery at the time. 
"Ay," said he, "armed coward's they were, who could shoot 
down defenceless men, and come in the middle of the night, 
when we were all asleep, and steel away our boats and nets, 
and thereby," he added, with a sarcastic grin of contempt, 
