fish. 677 



particular the poorer classes, to such a degree., that eighteen 

 barrels of fresh herrings were given for one of salt, and in 

 Skye heaps of fish were allowed to rot on the beach. The 

 fluctuations which the population of the Isle of Man has 

 suffered since 1765, when that island was annexed to the 

 crown, are likewise entirely to be ascribed to the restriction 

 and subsequent readmission of salt duty free, because upon 

 the price of that article the success of their fishery must ulti- 

 mately depend. 



Fiscal regulations were likewise the bane of the fisheries 

 in Scotland. Mr. Fraser, who greatly exerted himself in 

 1791 to ameliorate the system, declares, that the net pro- 

 duce annually accruing to the revenue from the duty on salt, 

 levied in the six Highland counties where the trade was 

 chiefly carried on, amounted, on an average of ten years, to 

 not more than 172. 6s. ! ! Yet this occurred in a vici- 

 nity where at certain seasons fish, and in particular herrings, 

 are so plentiful, that the fishermen often pick out of their nets 

 only as many as they want for the use of their families, and 

 throw the rest overboard ; where the gannets alone are esti- 

 mated to devour nearly one hundred millions in each season, 

 and whales follow the shoals, and bite into their closely 

 pressed banks so as to devour tons at a mouthful l . It is in 

 this direction also, that the whole extent and outline of the 

 soundings towards the north and west, which constitute in 



1 Mr. Buchanan says in substance, that " this is the most proper time 

 for harpooning the whale ; for having driven the shoals in shore, so that 

 they bank upon each other almost as close as if they were packed, the 

 whole attention of the monster is directed to his prey, and his enormous 

 strength is insufficient to force a passage among the herrings, who would 

 impede his fins, and prevent his rising to breathe ; he is then found in 

 their rear, feeding like a horse at a hay-rick, each gap he makes at a 

 mouthful being instantly replenished by the pressure of the mass of fish." 



