Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/270

 2(50 FISH E K I K S [SCOTCH. and consequently me system might be quietly gut rid of by the curcrs ceasing to make use of it. The result has been precisely the reverse ; and the argument against the continuance of branding on the ground of the expenses in connexion with it has been consid erably weakened by the fact that the system is now to a large ex tent self-supporting. The following table shows the amount of fees collected in the years 1859-77, in accordance with the Act 21 and 22 Viet. cap. 69 (1858) : Year. Fees Collccrcit, Year. Fees Collected. Yenr. Fees Collected. 1859 2644 12 1866 4158 10 . 1873 7254 11 6 I860 3865 4 6 1867 5290 7 1874 8625 19 C 1861 4422 9 186S 3491 10 1875 8729 16 C 18IJ2 5578 10 8 1860 4075 7 6 1876 4216 6 1803 4614 13 6 1870 4989 13 10 IS 7 7 6629 18 4 1864 3623 4 1871 5777 4 6 1865 3613 1 8 1872 7045 10 West coast curim Clou time f&amp;lt; hen-ill On the west coast of Scotland the herring fishery is also of great importance, and, as we have previously mentioned, it begins earlier than that on the eastern side. There is a good deal of curing in the Stornoway district, but the brand is in little favour. It is alleged that the western iish, especially those caught early in the season, are more delicate than those taken on the cast coast, and will not bear the close packing requisite for ensuring the proper weight in each barrel if it is to receive the brand. The real explanation is doubtless that the curers are anxious to catch the market as soon as possible, and will not allow the number of days for the fish to be in pickle before sending them away that is necessary according to the branding regulations. These early cured fish are maties or fat her rings, and are chiefly sent to the Russian market. A very large quantity of the western fish caught later in the season is, however, sent to market in the fresh state ; they are sprinkled with salt and loosely packed in barrels, and quickly taken by special steamers tc Glasgow and to Liverpool. These fish are given under the head uf &quot;bulk&quot; in the published returns by the Fishery Board, and, being slightly salted, arc included among the &quot; cured fish,&quot; although not with those which have been gutted and have gone through the regular preparation for export. On arrival at the home markets they may be readily sold as fresh herrings, after the sprinkling of fait has been washed off. It is on the western coast that the question of a close time for hcr- r&amp;gt;r lings has been so much discussed, and unfortunately in 1860 an Act g-i. (23 and 24Vict. c. 92) was passed by which a close time was established there. The bill was brought in at the instance of some of the curcrs at Glasgow and other places, principally on the west coast. By this Act herring fishing was entirely prohibited from the 1st of January to the 31st of May on any part of the coast between Ardnamurehan Point and the Mull of Galloway on the south, and from the 1st of January to the 20th of May between Ardnamurehan and Cape Wrath on the North. Not a herring was allowed to be taken during the close season for the purpose of sale, or to be used as bait, or to Keep the fishermen from starvation; and it appears that this cruel pro hibition was to be enforced that the markets might not be supplied with fish which were not of the best quality, but yet were sufficiently good to command an easy sale, and therefore to lower the prices the curers would otherwise have obtained from the regular summer fishery. It was professed that the early fishing broke up the shoals before they entered the Minch, and therefore diminished the supply in June and July ; and it was said that many of the fish caught between January and May were unwholesome and unfit for food. But an inquiry into all the circumstances of the case clearly showed that the promoters of the Act for establishing close time were the curers alone, who held meetings of their own body, and, without consulting the fishermen, pressed forward a measure which sacrificed every one s interest to their own. It was one of the most unhappy episodes in the history of the Scotch fisheries ; but fortunately the effects of the close time were soon made known, and after a short experience it was found impossible to enforce a law which brought misery and starvation to the homes of a coast population, many&quot; of whom previously could only manage to obtain a bare subsistence by hard and unremitting toil. The law remained practically in abeyance for a time, and no prosecutions for infringing it were carried on pending the result of the report of the royal commission in 1862 on herring trawling. In 1864 this question of close time came also before the royal commission for inquiring into the condi tion of the sea fisheries generally; and such overwhelming evidence. of the evil effects of the close time was brought before the com missioners that, in anticipation of their complete report, they did not hesitate to bring the subject before the Government, with the view to some relief being given before the question could be finally disposed olF. This resulted in instructions being given not to en force the law ; ami in the following session of parliament a hill was passed by which close time was entirely abolished north of Ardnamurehan Point. This included all the inner and outer Heb rides, where the restriction h- .d been so jevcivlv felt. S-iv.th of that part of the coast close time war, continued as before, with the exception of January, which became free to the fishermen. By subsequent legislation (the Sea Fisheries Act, 1868) this close time has been done away with beyond the three mile limit, sc that at, the present time herring fishing is entirely free everywhere around the British Islands except within three miles of that part of the coast of Scotland which lies between Ardnamurehan Point and the Mull of Galloway ; and the difficulties of enforcing the law then; are so great that the close time has now only a nominal existence. Another commission which has been recently engaged in inquiiing into the state of the herring fisheries of Scotland has also reported against the utility of close time. The fisheries of the west coast of Scotland have unfortunately given rise to much bitter feeling among those who are interested in them, either as fishermen or curers, and nothing has caused so much social disturbance as the quarrels between the drift-fishermen and those who have been using the scan-net, or, as it is called in Scotland, th- &quot;trawl,&quot; for catching herrings. The localities in which these dis putes have specially taken place an; Loch Fyne and the Kyles of Bute, but more particularly in the former long famous waters. We have already described the general mode of working the scan, when speaking of the English fisheries, and we will only now repeat that this method of fishing consists in shooting a long sheet of netting in a semicircle, both ends of which are most commonly hauled on shore until the whole net with the inclosed fish is landed ; but sometimes a boat is r.ccd as the fixed point at which the ends of the net are made to meet, and into which the net is hauled as before. In the former case the net is used as a ground-scan, in the latter as a circle-net. Both are equally objected to by the drift fishermen, lio, until about the year 1838. had fished Loch Fyne according to tiie old established method. The trawl was then introduced, and on several occasions a gunboat has been required to keep order be tween the fishermen when both modes of fishing were being carried on. Loch Fyne, as we have said, wa.s the special scene of these dis putes, and one common complaint by the drift fishermen was that the trawls intercepted the fish at the entrance to the loch, and broke up the shoals, so that the herrings did not find their way to the upper water, where it was alleged there always used to be plenty of Iish at the proper season. There were complaints also that fish of all .sixes were caught by the trawl, those which were too small to be stopped by the drift nets and those too large to be meshed in them the &quot; mother fish,&quot; as some of the fishermen called them. Then it was .&quot;-aid that the trawlers sometimes made such enormous hauls that only a portion of the catch could be saved, and, besides other sins laid to their charge, it was finally stated as the crowning offence one that really explained the principal opposition to the trawlers that they lowered the price of herrings to a considerable extent by the large supplies they could with little expenditure of time and trouble sometimes throw into the market, and so prevented the drift- men from obtaining the better prices they had commonly got from their smaller catches. The result of these .several complaints was that in 1851 an Act (14 and 15 Viet. c. 26) was passed to put an end to trawling for herrings on the coast of Scotland; but that not proving effect ive, more stringent measures were brought to bear on the fishermen in 1860 (23 and 24 Viet. c. 92) and 1861 (24 and 25 Viet. c. 72 and fishing with the trawl was completely suppressed. So strong a feeling existed, however, among a large body of the fishermen and others that the complaints against trawling were unjust, and the prohibition injurious to the interests of the public as well as to the fishermen immediately affected by it, that in 1862 a royal commis sion was appointed especially to inquire into the subject: and in 186-i the question was independently considered by two of the members of the general Sea Fisheries Commission, the third commissioner being purposely absent from the second inquiry, as he bud taken part in the proceedings of the previous one. The conclusions arrived at by the two commissions, after hearing a great deal of evidence from both sets of fishermen, were decidedly adverse to ths opponents of trawl ing, and were to the effect that the herring fishery in Loch Fyr.c had suffered no diminution by that method of working ; on the contrary, it had really been progressive, when the periods of comparison were made sufficiently long to correct the annual fluctua tions, which were always considerable in this as in all other herring fisheries. They say l : &quot;The selected years of bad fishing, brought as proofs that trawling was destroying the fishery, have, when ex amined, no application to the question, as an equal number of years of quite as bad fishing arc found in every decennial period before the system of trawling had been discovered Trawling for her ring has been an important means of cheapening fish to the consumer, by the large and sudden takes, and has thrown into the market an abundant supply of wholesome fresh fish at prices which enable the poor to enjoy them wivhout having to come into com petition with the ctirer. It is this circumstance which, in our opinion, has produced the demand for repressive legislation, for the gains of the drift-net fishermen are much affected by the sudden and ing or for IKT- rinp.-i. Loch Fyne disputes.