SCOTLAND. 



SutUtlci. men without capital, it is far more limited than it 

 illicit IK-. There ig also a great resort of this fith at 

 " ' Stl Killla wht ' re - if il were the fiwhion of tin- country, 

 l ' ie 8anu ' <|slHl 'y might be advantageously pursued. 

 All the islands nearly abound also in cod, and thene 

 are taken to a very limited extent from South Uist and 

 elsewhere ; but in the vicinity of Sky, Hum, and oth-r 

 places where they abound, they arc totally neglected. 

 The want here is neither want of fish nor of popula- 

 tion, nor of boats, nor of harbours ; it is chiefly that 

 of industry, and in some measure of capital. 



In the Long Island, Stornaway possesses a moderate 

 commerce, and chiefly in fish and kelp ; and two 

 weekly posts, one to that town and the other to Loch 

 Maddy in North Uist, maintain all the foreign com- 

 munication which is necessary. On the coast of the 

 main land, there is a fishery and manufacture of salt 

 cod at Gare Loch, Loch Torridon, and Ullapool ; but 

 even here it is on a contracted scale, and pursued with- 

 out activity. Nor is any attempt made to supply the 

 London smacks with this fish, so that they are obliged 

 to fish themselves at great demurrage and risk, when 

 their cargoes might be completed in a day or two, to 

 the mutual benefit of all parties. In a similar way, no 

 attempt is made to supply them with lobsters, though 

 all these coasts, and those of the islands abound in 

 them ; and here the natives forfeit an advantage from 

 which so large a profit is made by the fishermen of 

 Orkney and Caithness. 



On the herring fishery of this entire coast we must 

 remark, that it is now uncertain, and rarely of any va- 

 lue. In former times, in those of Charles I. Loch 

 Maddy was the great rendezvous of the herring, and 

 the seat of a great establishment, but they have long 

 deserted it. More lately, and from the beginning of 

 the last century, Sky, and the north-western Lochs 

 were the great fisheries ; and hence arose those esta- 

 blishments of Tanera, Ullapool, and Loch Torridon, 

 formerly noticed, together with those of Steen in Sky, 

 and Tobermorry in Mull. These were the result of 

 the successes of the Dutch, and of the want of calcu- 

 lation and foresight in the projectors, who were form- 

 ed into a company ; and from the long continued de. 

 sertion of the fish, chiefly to the eastern coast, nearly 

 the whole capital embarked was lost. Occasionally, 

 however, shoals still visit this coast ; yet precariously, 

 and seldom furnishing a capture for commerce, though 

 valuable as matter of domestic consumption. Within 

 ten years or more, considerable captures have been made 

 about Sky, and in the neighbouring lochs : but lately 

 few have been taken to the north of Loch Fyne. 



It is here and in the Clyde chiefly that the western 

 fishery is now carried on ; and the chief seat of this 

 commerce and occupation in the Highlands is Camp- 

 belltown. It is a pursuit now almost solely confined 

 to the smaller boats, and rarely followed by larger ves 

 sels or busses, who find it more expedient to attend the 

 fisheries wherever they may be, and to purchase from 

 the captors, salting their commodity either on board or 

 on shore as convenience may dictate. It is in more 

 senses than one, a misfortune that the fish should have 

 quitted the westeni coast, as they are of a far superior 

 quality to those taken on the eastern and northern 

 shores. 



With respect to this fishery, as far as it relates to 

 domestic consumption, it is to be regretted that the 

 activity displayed by the natives in it is not more wide- 

 ly extended ; as they might with more industry in this 

 branch, not only maintain a much larger population, 



VOL. XYII. PABT II. 



but live much better, and command a lufficiently re- 

 gular nupply of animal food, from which they are near- 

 ly <lt! . M.<! It is the coal fitb almost alone which 

 they pursue for this purpose, a fish which swarms in 

 these teas ; but the examples of the Harra men, and of 

 those of the Butt of the Lewis, prove that it requires 

 only for the other islanders to imitate them, to derive 

 ten tiroes the advantage from their situations which 

 they now do. We think alto that, as to this branch, 

 it is to be regretted that the Mesh regulation was ever 

 established, or that at least it was not extended as to 

 the size. To destroy the fish by taking it half grown 

 is visionary ; and it would be as easy to prevent the 

 sale as it would be the interest of the buyers for ex- 

 portation, not to purchase fish under size, while a great 

 quantity might be gained for the domestic consump- 

 tion. The often regretted bait regulations are a much 

 minor evil. 



It was a mistake in the founders of the fishing towns 

 that they made the allotments of land for the settlers toe 

 large. Hence the fishery was checked at the outset ; 

 and the people, following their ancient habits, sat down 

 contented on their lots, to pursue a system of starving 

 cultivation. Hereafter, perhaps, the gradual crowding 

 of the population of the sea-shores by the independent 

 crofters, and the consequent inevitable subdivision of 

 land, will generate that system of purer or less mixed 

 fishing which was in vain attempted by force ; and it 

 is not improbable that, as on the east coast of Suther- 

 land and Caithness, fishing will become a trade at- 

 tracting capital, and thus effecting an object so long 

 sought by a wrong road. 



There remains little now to be remarked on the 

 commerce and manufactures of this part of Scotland, 

 excepting that of slates, limited to a very few spots. 

 The great seats of this are the islands on the coast of 

 Nether Lorn, the property of Lord Breadalbane, and 

 these are the seats of a sufficiently active manufacture 

 and commerce. Seil, Luing, and Esdale, are the prin- 

 cipal islands thus wrought; and the latter has been 

 long established as the most active port. There is no 

 limit here but the demand, as the quarries are inex- 

 haustible, and "the material of an excellent quality. 

 Though pyritical, it does not decompose when in use. 

 It is a manufacture which maintains a large popula- 

 tion, and which has also much improved the agricul- 

 ture of these islands. The chief market is the western 

 coast ; and though rather belonging to a distinct geo- 

 graphy, we may here mention a similar manufacture 

 carried on in Bute and Inch Marnoch. At the foot of 

 Glenco there is also an extensive slate quarry, to which 

 Loch Leven offers a convenient harbour and port. 



Though many parts of the western islands offer in- 

 exhaustible quarries of every imaginable stone, little 

 or none has been wrought any where, except in Ar- 

 ran. Yet the convenience of the harbours, a ready 

 navigation, and quarries so situated, that their produce 

 might be craned from the rock into the vessel, may 

 probably hereafter make this market valuable, at least 

 to the western coast of England and Scotland. Hi- 

 therto the quarries of freestone, even in Arran, have 

 alone been wrought ; their produce having been ex- 

 ported to the Isle of Man and elsewhere. We shall 

 here point out the places which appear to produce the 

 most valuable qualities of stone ; as the information 

 may possibly prove of use hereafter, and is not yet 

 before the world. 



Rasay, which we formerly noticed, presents a range 

 of the most beautiful white free-stone, extending tor 



