FISHING STATIONS— SCOTLAND. 281 



The total number of Scotch fishing boats of all classes, 

 and used for all kinds of fishing, as given in the Board 

 of Trade Returns, when compared with the number of 

 boats given by the Fishery Board as engaged in par- 

 ticular fisheries — those for herrings and white-fish — 

 shows a difference of only 1533 boats for the year 1872. 

 This difference should represent the number of boats not 

 engaged in the particular fisheries above mentioned, 

 which are the only ones which come under the notice 

 of the Fishery Board. But an analysis of the two 

 returns shows that they cannot both be right. A diffi- 

 culty in comparing the details of the two returns meets 

 one at the outset. The whole coast of Scotland is 

 divided by the Fishery Board into districts, varying in 

 extent according to the importance of the fishing 

 stations they include ; and the returns they give are for 

 each of those districts. This is an intelligible system ; 

 and as each district is superintended by a fishery officer, 

 part of whose duty it is to keep an accurate account of 

 the number of herring and white-fishing boats at work, 

 there should not be much room for error ; and from 

 what we know of the working of the system, we believe 

 it to be generall}^ trustworthy. The returns published 

 by the Board of Trade, on the other hand, are collected 

 by the Custom House authorities, and refer to the 

 number of boats registered under the Sea Fisheries Act, 

 1868, in each Customs district; but those districts vary 

 in size according to the commercial importance of the 

 towns along the coast, and have no relation to the 

 extent of the fisheries. It consequently happens, that 

 a considerable range of coast sometimes has to be 

 accounted for by the officers of a single port ; and the 

 returns from outlying villages cannot be obtained with 

 any great accuracy without, in many cases, considerable 



