280 



THE AUGUST FISHERY. 



[CHAP. vi. 



extensive inquiries the tale is the same, a failure in -the 

 herring-fishery. Perhaps the best plan is at once to exhaust 

 the figures of the subject while we are discussing it. As to 

 the Wick July fishing, the following figures are illustrative of 

 two different periods of five years each : 



The figures of the greatest month of the fishery viz. 

 August are as follow : 



It will be seen from these figures that, even in the great 

 herring month of August, notwithstanding the large increase 

 of boats and nets, a decreased quantity has been taken 

 during the last two years. To understand this better, the 

 boats in the first period were 4345, and in the second period 

 5489, and in this last period the boats had vastly increased 

 their netting, as many as 55,775 more nets having been added. 

 Now, it stands to reason that if the herrings were as numerous 

 as ever in the second period, the take should have been, 

 through the mere increase of boats, not counting the addition 

 to the amount of netting, 417,916 barrels. 



