ECONOMIC USE OF FIi,H. 95 



yet they are of very essential importance to the 

 Hebrides, and therefore merit notice. They bring 

 into these isles £200,000 a year, at an expense 

 perhaps of £120,000; that is, they yield a clear 

 profit, in money and sustenance, of £ 80,000 to the 

 natives. They occupy, together with the kelp, not 

 fewer than 2562 boats and vessels* of every descrip- 

 tion, and for some months in the year 10,500 sailors. 

 The fencihle men, being one-fourth of the population, 

 are 22,762, so that nearly a half of the effective 

 male population is connected with the fishery." 

 (Encyc. Brit. ix. 602. art. Fishery, by Mr. Barrow). 

 Again, as it regards the Isle of Man (for advantage 

 results from a survey of limited compass), Mr. 

 Frazer, in a letter to the Right Hon. Charles Abbot, 

 writes, " I had the honour to be appointed by the 

 Treasury to make inquiry into the state of the 

 revenue and fisheries of that island. I found that 

 at that period, without bounties on their boats or 

 the tonnage of their fishing smacks, having no other 

 premium than the free use of salt, they carried on 

 a most extensive fishery, which employed 2500 sea- 

 men. In the absence of herrings, the fishermen 

 supplied the consumption of the island in great 

 abundance with white fish; the agriculture was 

 greatly improved, and the population, consisting of 

 20,000 souls, nearly doubled within fifteen years. It 

 appears a few years afterwards, that their boats had 

 increased both in number and size ; that from a bur- 

 den of ten or twelve tons, they had now advanced to 

 between sixteen and twenty-two tons, of which the 



