of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



27 



and the total numter of persons employed. The figures for each of the 

 districts, and for the whole of the Clyde area, in each year from 1825 to 

 1906 are given in Table II., p. 104, and in the following Table the average 

 figures tor each decade are represented for the Inveraray district and 

 for the whole of the Clyde districts. 



In considering these statistics, however, it must be borne in mind that 

 the limits of the districts were not always the same throughout the whole 

 period, their extent in some cases being contracted or expanded 

 according to the requirements of the industry, and it appears that 

 such changes were not always explained in the earlier reports. In 1852, 

 for example, there is a distinct fall in the various items of the table for 

 the district of Inveraray, suggesting some re-arrangement of the limits, 

 but the names of the various districts in the tables are unaltered, and 

 no statement bearing upon the point is made in the report for the year in 

 question, so that the matter remains in doubt. But it is stated in the 

 report for 1840 that in that year the district of Fort- William and 

 Tobermory, lying entirely outside the Clyde area, was combined with the 

 district of Inveraray, an arrangement which seems to have lasted till 

 1869, in which year Fort-William appears as a separate district in the 

 returns. Then in 1850 the district of Campbeltown, which included 

 Islay, was combined with Inveraray district, from which it was again 

 separated in 1863. In the table given above the figures for the last three 

 decades represent the same limits throughout, and it will be seen that in 

 the period there was a gradual but considerable decline in the number of 

 boats and fishermen in the Inveraray district and in the Clyde as a 

 whole. Thus, in the years 1875-1884 the average number of fishermen per 

 annum was 1691, and the average number of boats 734 in the Inveraray 

 district, whereas in the decade 1895-1904 the average number of fishermen 

 was 874 and the average number of boats 317. For the whole of the 

 districts of the Clyde combined the average number of fishermen in the 

 former decade was 5436, while in the latter decade it was 3419, the 

 average number of boats falling from 2642 to 1692. The figures for 

 1906, both for the Inveraray district and for the whole of the districts, 

 are the lowest recorded. 



As explained below, the Inveraray district includes some parts of the 

 coast which are not within the limits of Loch Fyne, or indeed of the Clyde, 



