2o3 HISTORY OFTHE 



tiently their arrival. Therefore, inftead of limiting 

 the departure of the buffes to the firfl ofAuguft, it 

 would be expedient to fay, any time after the fir ft of 

 June y and totally to abolilh all diftin&ions ofafummer 

 and winter fifhery, leaving the buffes in full poffeffion 

 of the feas, and in the free liberty of following 

 the herrings from place to place $ of returning homey 

 going out a fecond time, and in all refpects a dif- 

 cretionary power to act as their refpe&ive views^ 

 and circumftances may dictate* 



Of the Places of Rendezvous. 



By the ftatute of 1750, the buffes, after being ex- 

 amined at the refpeclive ports from whence they 

 cleared out for the Hebride fifhery, were to rendez- 

 vous on or before a ftipulated day, at the port of 

 Campbeltown; a reftriction without an object, though 

 attended with inconveniencies, expence, and fre- 

 quently great delays in the outward-bound voyage, 

 by which the feafon was wafted or loft, the adven- 

 turers injured, and the Weft India veffels unnecef- 

 farily detained from profecuting their voyages. The 

 port of Gampbeltownj lies atthe diliance of fixty miles 

 ifrom Greenock, and though in the track of the buf- 

 fes to the Hebrides, no veffel would flop there un- 

 lefs driven thither by ftorms or contrary winds. 



After a fliip hath got her clearance, and is fairly 

 in the open fea, ihe fpreads and adjufts her fails to 

 the winds then blowing, and to all the variations 

 thereof, eagerly embracing every favourable gale, 

 and thus ftretches on towards the deftined port, 

 without the lofs of a day or even an hour, on the 

 part of the mariners. This fcrupulous regard to time, 

 is not always owing to the importance of an hour or 

 a day, which in fome voyages is of little confequence, 

 but to the hazards of unfavourable winds or weather^ 

 by which a veffel that goes into a port with a 

 view to turn out next morning, may be detained in 



fuch 



