26 



Part III. — Twenty-fifth Annual Beport 



As the Commissioners pcinted out, and as the averages above quoted 

 show, the figures indicate a steady increase on the whole in the quantity 

 of herrings taken, with the fluctuations which always occur in fisheries of 

 this nature. 



In the report of a later Commission which enquired into the herring 

 fishery in Scotland, and which was published in 1878, will be found 

 statistics showing the actual catch of herrings in Loch Fyne, i.e., above 

 Skipn?ss Point, over a period of fifty years, from 1827 to 1876. The 

 table was prepared by the late Mr. George Reiach, then the Assistant 

 Inspector of Fisheries, from material whicli I have not been able to 

 discover or trace, but probably from the books of the districts, which do 

 not now exist. Unfortunately, the statistics are not given in detail for each 

 year of the period, but only the average catch, the minimum catch, and 

 the maximum catch, in decades. The Table is as follows: — 



* The total for 1846 does not agree with that in the other Table given above. 



The statistics showed that there was an increase in every succeeding 

 decade except the last, which included the years of least productiveness, 

 as described later. The Assistant Inspector also gave the catches for 

 each of the ten years of this decade, 1867-1876, in Loch Fyne, above 

 Skipness Point, as follows : — 



Besides the statistics relating to the quantity of herrings caught or 

 cured, another series of tables began to be published annually in the 

 Fishery Reports in 1825, which may be cited as indicating the prosperity 

 of the herring fishery in the districts of the Firth of Clyde. They refer 

 to the number of boats and fishermen employed in what were termed the 

 shore-curing herring and cod and ling fisheries, the number of fish-curers. 



