ECONOMIC USE OF FISH. 95 



yet they are of very essential importance to the 

 Hebrides, and therefore merit notice. They bring 

 into these isles £200,000 a year, at an expense 

 perhaps of £120,000; that is, they yield a clear 

 profit, in money and sustenance, of £80,000 to the 

 natives. They occupy, together with the kelp, not 

 fewer than 2562 boats and vessels of every descrip- 

 tion, and for some months in the year 10,500 sailors. 

 lihe fencihle men, being one-fourth of the population^ 

 are 22,762, so that nearly a half of the eftective 

 male population is connected with the fishery." 

 {Encyc. Brit. ix. 602. art. Fishery, by Mr. Barrow). 

 Again, as it regards the Isle of Man (for advantage 

 results from a survey of limited compass), Mr. 

 Frazer, in a letter to the Right Hon. Charles Abbot, 

 writes, " I had the honour to be appointed by the 

 Treasury to make inquiry into the state of the 

 revenue and fisheries of that island. I found that 

 at that period, without bounties on their boats or 

 the tonnage of their fishing smacks, having no other 

 premium than the free use of salt, they carried on 

 a most extensive fishery, which employed 2500 sea- 

 men. In the absence of herrings, the fishermen 

 supplied the consumption of the island in great 

 abundance with white fish; the agriculture was 

 greatly improved, and the populatioia, consisting of 

 ^^.0,000 souls, nearly doubled within fifteen years. It 

 appears a few years afterwards, that their boats had 

 increased both in number and size ; that from a bur- 

 den of ten or twelve tons, they had now advanced to 

 between sixteen and twenty-two tons, of which the 



