HERRING FISHERIES. 241 



vefiels bound for the Baltic, the Mediterranean, 

 America, Africa, the Eaft and Weft Indies, fail in 

 ilraight lines, and many of them with trade winds. 

 Having fet their fails, no funhcr feamanihip is re- 

 quifite, the men walk the deck, play at cards, and 

 go to fleep. 



But when a vefTel fails from the Clyde for the 

 north-weft Highlands, fhe embarks on a circuitous 

 voyage of unknown extent and duration. The mo- 

 ment fhe fpreads her fails, fhe launches into a laby- 

 rinth of difficulties, dangers and hair-breadth efcapes: 

 fhe muft navigate in every direction, and to every 

 point of the compafs; at all times through rapid 

 currents and jarring tides, and frequently amidft 

 hurricanes and ftorms. No fooner hath fhe doubled 

 one cape, than another appears, which the men, 

 already fatigued and worn out, muft alfo encounter, 

 and thus are kept in continual motion, terror, and 

 alarm. Thefe outward and homeward voyages, the 

 various cruizes from bay to bay, and from one ifland 

 to another, in fearch of the herrings, form the hardy, 

 experienced feamen, fo highly valued in the mer- 

 cantile lervice, and the royal navy. 



Other methods may be d^vifed whereby the fifh- 

 eries may be confiderably extended, and the natives 

 of the (bores and iflands beneficially employed j bur 

 no method can be put in competition with the wcftern 

 bufs fiibery, confidered as afource of commerce, and 

 a nurfery for feamen \ whoever therefore attempts to 

 undermine this bulwark, whether defignediy or in- 

 advertently, ads an injurious part to the general in- - 

 terdts of his country, and the itate. 



Of tie IFeJlern Boat Fifiery. 



It would feem as if fate had decreed againft the 

 weftern fiihery. The fame laws which were intended 

 as a ftimulus to exertion, contained among other re- 



frictions, 



