HERRING FISHERIES. 213 



becomes, confequently, adverfe, after having doub- 

 led the cape, when the vefiels have to fteer in an 

 oppofite direction, and to encounter new toils and 

 hazards. 



Thus, the Hebride fifhery, though an object of 

 great importance, not only to that country, but to 

 the fupport of the fugar iflands, labours under every 

 poffible difficulty; and as all the hopes of the adventu- 

 rers, depend on a fpeedy fifhery, and a quick fale, 

 nothing can prove more difcouraging than the im- 

 pediments and uncertainty of this circumnavigation. 

 Was the weftern navigation fhortened, and thefe 

 dangers and delays cut off, the adventurers would 

 be enabled to bring their fifh to market in proper 

 time, which, from the above mentioned caufes, 

 cannot be accomplished at prefent with any degree 

 of certainty. Ships, it is well known, often wait 

 feveral weeks in the ports of the Clyde for the ar- 

 rival of the herrings, and are frequently obliged to 

 fail without them. Thus the adventurers lofe their 

 market for the feafon; the merchants lofe their 

 freights, the planters their fupply of provifions, and 

 the unhappy negroes their regular fupport. Soon 

 after the departure of thefe (hips, the bufles which 

 had been detained on the weft-fide of the cape by 

 unfavourable weather, arrive, not fingly, but in 

 fleets, which occafions a glut in the home market, 

 greatly to the prejudice of the adventurers in ge- 

 neral ; while fome are totally difabled from contU 

 nuing the bufmefs. 



Againft fuch a multiplicity of evils, nature hath 

 fortunately provided a remedy, in forming a fhort 

 jfthmus acrofs the peninfula of Cantire, which ad- 

 mits of an inland palfage, whereby this long an4 

 navigation may be avoided. 



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