34 



tons of herrings were sent from that station, whilst the 

 total quantity sent on the whole Caledonian railway system, 

 including all the towns from Aberdeen to Montrose, was 

 only about 25,000 tons. He hoped, therefore, that some 

 account would be taken of this newly developed fishery 

 out in the Atlantic, by boats coming from Montrose, Fraser- 

 burgh, and all the north-eastern points to Stornoway. 

 There was no telegraphic communication of any kind, and 

 the people were put to a very great inconvenience in con- 

 sequence of having no facilities for sending their fish to 

 market, or getting salt or anything else when they had a 

 large supply of fish. 



Mr. JOHNSON (Montrose) said he was one of the jury to 

 examine the salmon nets and fixed nets, and whilst ex- 

 amining these nets he had been very much interested in 

 the exhibits from foreign countries. For many years they 

 had been fishing with the same nets with very little im- 

 provement except, as Mr. Duff had said, that they had sub- 

 stituted cotton for hemp, and had made, what they called 

 in Scotland " clipper nets." The first thing which the jury 

 discussed was the steamer on the Canadian lakes, which 

 had been already referred to. It was the first thing which 

 took his attention and had riveted it ever since, and he had 

 wondered whether it could be adapted for herring fishing. 

 It could be seen in the Canadian department, and was 

 shooting a net over the stern and was hauling one in at 

 the bow at the same time. He did not expect that that 

 would ever be carried out in the herring fishery, but he 

 thought it came nearest to anything he had ever seen for 

 doing what appeared very desirable, viz., having some me- 

 chanical means of reeling up the nets. The only difficulty 

 which he saw in the way was in reeling up the herring 

 nets to get clear of the buoys that buoyed it up. So 

 impressed was he with, the adaptability of that steamer 



