138 HISTORY OF THE 



4. Preventing emigration. 



5. Giving employment to the induftrious, particu- 

 larly in the Highlands. 



6. Diffufmg amongft that people a competency of 

 the necefTaries of life. 



7. Bringing forward a valuable colony within our 

 own ifland, who, befides defending our fhores, and 

 fighting our battles, would extend the fcale of 

 manufactures and commerce in both kingdoms, 

 by means of their encreafing opulence. 



8. Increafe of fhip-building, Slipping, exports, and 

 freights. 



9. Raifing the value of barren lands, and natural 

 woods. 



10. Bringing into the line of inland trade, various 

 fpecies of fifh which abound on the weftern fhores, 

 at prefent of little or no value, as fundry fpecies 

 of the whale ; the grampus, fharks, feals, and dog 

 iifh, for oil. Alfo various kinds of fifh, for food, 

 which, from the want of ready markets in the 

 Highlands, bring no price, as turbot, ikate, mack- 

 arel, * oyfters, and lobfters. 



Thefe are among the numerous benefits which in-> 

 dividuals and the flate would derive from an exten- 

 five and well-eftablifhed bufs fifhery. The wealth 

 of this coaft is boundlefs, prefenting to our view 

 an inexhauftible treafure, rifing in its importance, 

 and opening new fields to induftry, to commerce, 

 and to a comfortable fubfiftance. On the other 

 hand, by neglecting this mode of carrying on the 



* When the fifhers find mackarel on their lines infteadof white 

 fifh, they generally throw them back into the fea with dildain, 

 unlefs when neceflary for bait. 



Oyfters, in fome parts, are chiefly ufed for manuring the ground. 

 They are brought in bafkets to the lime kiln and burnt without 

 being opened. Thefe and other fifties that abound amongft the 

 Hebrides, exclufive of the herring and white filh, would find a 

 ready market at Greenock if the voyage was (hortened by mean* 

 of the propofed canal at Crinan. It is alfo probable that the Gree- 

 nock people would cure a part of them for foreign markets. 



fifhery, 



