FISHING STATIONS— SCOTLAND. 289 



served, there is now a laro;e number of fisliinc: boats 

 belonging to the port. Peterhead is, however, the im- 

 portant station on the part of the coast inchided within 

 the districts here given. In 1871 steam was utilized 

 by the Aberdeen men in a manner which we may hope 

 will be adopted at other places with the same success. 

 Tugs were engaged for the purpose of helpiug the drift- 

 boats to and from their fisliing grounds. There can be 

 no doubt that this is a move in the right direction, and 

 the Scotch Fishery Commissioners take a just view of 

 it when they say in their Report for 1871 : — "In the 

 absence of direct application of steam to fishing boats, 

 which it may be prognosticated will be introduced before 

 many years have passed, the employment of a steam-tug 

 by the fleet cannot be too much extended. As a resource 

 of modern times it overcomes the hindrances and diffi- 

 culties of a coast where the tides are rapid aud the 

 winds variable and often light ; indeed it is impossible 

 too strongly to recommend a force which so easily sur- 

 mounts these and other obstacles, and, by taking the 

 boats long distances, opens new fishing grounds." 



In places like Aberdeen, where there is a large 

 amount of shipping, there are greater facilities for pro- 

 curing tugs than there would be at the exclusively 

 fishing stations ; but as these vessels would only be 

 wanted at the latter stations for two or three months in 

 the year, the expense of chartering many of them for a 

 short season would be likely in many cases to interfere 

 with their profitable emplo^'ment. Still we may hope 

 to see the system extended, as we fear the present times 

 are not favourable to the direct application of steam to 

 the fishing boats themselves. Such a change as that 

 would, we believe, involve an entire alteration in the 

 size and build of the fishing boats, and great additional 



u 



