1883.] THE INDUSTRIES OF SHETLAND. 33 



Among interesting novelties sometimes caught in the seas of 

 Shetland are sharks and tlie king- fish, or opah : the former are fortu- 

 nately of small size ; the latter has been taken weighing 1^ cwt. 

 Three tons of ling are a Lig fishing, thirty hundredweight is an 

 average catch. A ling of 28 lbs. is a big fish : the average is 1 L lbs. ; 

 14 lbs. is a big tusk, the average being 4 lbs. Cod may weigh 28 lbs.; 

 they average about 10 lbs. These fish will keep, if the weather is 

 tolerably cool, from Saturday till Monday, but saith, or coal-fish, 

 (Gadiis carhonarius) must be put into pickle at once. 



Omitting all further details relating to the industry of fishing 

 carried out in Shetland, I shall only add that the Shetland management 

 at sea is probably almost perfect. Bat in all that follows and mucll 

 that precedes the catching and the drying of tlie fish, it is exceeding 

 defective. So long as the Shetlander is self-reliant, as he is always 

 at sea, his conduct is superb, but the moment he sets his foot on shore 

 he becomes the tool of- others, and, in hackneyed phrase, a hireling 

 and serf. It is stated in the report by Mr, Guthrie (Nov. 4th, 1875), 

 acting in Shetland as the Commissioneron Truck, that land proprietors 

 are either directly concerned in Truck, or they let their lands to 

 merchants who are either tacksmen, lessees, or middle men, having 

 tenants under them ; or lessees only of a fishing station, having a 

 retail shop or store for goods of all kinds. 



Tactors are employed by the merchants at the various curing 

 establishments near the haaf to receive and weigh the fish and enter 

 the weight in a fish book, and to furnish the fishermen with supplies, 

 such as meal, lines, and hooks. Each boat's crew delivers the whole 

 of its fish to a particular merchant ; that is, they fish for him as the 

 tenants did originally for their landlord as a condition of holding 

 their crofts. A boat is usually divided into six shares, each of the 

 crew having one, and the proceeds of the fish, after deducting the 

 price or hire of the boat and other expenses, for which the crew is 

 responsible to the merchant, are also divided into six shares. In the 

 balance-sheet, drawn up by the merchant at the end of the season, the 

 debit against each fisherman consists of goods supplied from the store, 

 •cash advanced to him, or for rent, taxes, and other payments on his 

 account, and is credited with the price of his fish at the current rate, 

 and the price of any cattle or ponies sold by him to the merchant. 

 His smaller farm produce, such as butter and eggs, are very often 

 sold to the same merchant, and are paid for in goods, rarely in cash 

 •over the counter. 



As the Commissioners observe in their Eeports, a tacksman may 

 appear liberal so far as the letter of the leases to the sub-tenants is 

 concerned, but he holds them in complete subjection, nevertheless, 

 by various unavowed modes of control. They mention, as an example 

 one of the islands where one half the laud is let to a company of 



