SCOTTISH WHITE FISHERIES. 339 



V 



ton. The bounty on exportation, is 3!. per ton; 

 and 2S. per barrel, on cod cured in barrels, with 

 pickle called mudfifh. This fifhery is greatly im- 

 peded and injured by the fait regulations and duties. 



The conditions between the merchants and farm- 

 ers, with the fifhers and lower tenants, are thefe. 

 A tackfman or fanner, fubjefts his farm, or part of 

 it, at very little more than he pays himfdf, to feveral 

 fub-tenants, on condition of their fifhing for cod, 

 ling, &c. in his boats ; the fifh to be delivered to 

 him at certain prices, agreeable to the fize, and alfo 

 herrings at the current rates in the feafon. 



The tackfman, on receiving the white fifh, caufes 

 them to be faked and dried. He hath generally a 

 fervant in the boat, for whom and the boat he re- 

 ceives two-fevenths of the fifh taken. The other 

 five-fevenths belong to the crew, who, at the end of 

 the feafon, are thus enabled to fettle the account for 

 lines, hooks, hemp, meal, and other necefiaries ad- 

 vanced by the tackfman. 



But the fifhers from the town of Stronaway, being 

 immediate tenants of the proprietors,"procure boats 

 from the merchants or traders fettled there, and 

 allow them one-feventh of the fifh for the ufe thereof. 

 The merchants advance them fait, hooks, lines, 

 &c. and in return, they get all the fifh caught by 

 fuch boats, ready cured and dried, at a certain price 

 per cwt. or per dozen, but more generally by the 

 dozen, viz. For cod, 35. and for ling, from 

 6s. 6d. to ys. 



Befides thefe inland fifheries, as they may be 

 termed, there is a good fifhery off the north-weft 

 point or butt of the Lewis, facing the main ocean; 

 but the natives are not fufficiently (killed For 

 carrying it on to any confiderablc exten; ; fo 

 bountiful is nature to the fhores that bound this 

 noble channel on the eafl and weft. The fouthern 

 boundary is formed by the great Ifle of Sky, which 

 ftretches from the main land in a north-weft direc- 

 tion, almoft acrofs the channel to the Long Ifland, 



y a leaving 



