PISHING STATIONS— SCOTLAND. 335 



very large portion of the coast are practically those to 

 which the fishermen devote all their energies. On the 

 east coast the herring fishery attracts the attention 

 of almost everyone during the two or three months 

 through which it lasts in summer; and the particular 

 mode of cure to which a large proportion of the her- 

 rings is there subjected gives employment to thousands 

 of persons on shore who know nothing of, nor take any 

 part in the capture of the fish. In the northern islands 

 and on tlie west coast the line-fishing becomes more 

 prominent, although the herring fishery is also largely 

 worked in some places. With the exception of the 

 large cod-smacks, going almost entirely from Shetland 

 to the northern banks, the Scotch fishing boats are not 

 adapted for long-continued deep-sea working, and their 

 catches, whether of herrings or white fish, are as a rule 

 brought in every day. At the end of 1872 there were 

 16,765 fishing boats standing on the Scotch register; 

 they consisted of the following in the three classes : — 



1st Class. 2nd Class. 



3rd Class. 



Boats. Tonnage. 



2120 I 35,934 



Boats. I Boats. 



12,510 I 2135 ' 16,765 



The first-class boats, or those of 15 tons and upwards, 

 barely average 17 tons, although 66 large cod-smacks 

 are included among them ; and this low average is 

 almost entirely due to the absence in Scotland of deep- 

 sea trawlers, which make such a conspicuous figure on 

 the English register, and raise the average of the first- 

 class fishing boats of England and Wales so high as 

 36 tons. 



Of the Scotch fishermen we may say that as a body 

 they are enterprising and industrious, confident in 

 their own resources if not interfered with, but not more 



