A. D. 1764. 405 



important bufinefs of the herring fifliery. One of the members obferv- 

 cd, that ' Hitherto the greatefl: impediments to the progrefs of the Brit- 

 ' ifli fifheries carried on from Scotland have been the ill calculated laws, 

 ' reftridtions, and duties, laid upon fait ufed in curing of herrings. Let 

 ' not therefor infignificant fait duties be a flumbling-block with us. As 

 ' we have feen the abfurdity in others, let fuch provifion be made at 

 ' darting, as may prevent any fuch accident from blafling the firft pro- 

 * grefs of the Irifli fiflieries.' 



An immediate confeqiience of the parliamentary encouragement given 

 to the Irilh fiOiery was, that Ireland took from Britain only about 16,000 

 barrels of herrings on an average of feven years, inllead of about 23,000, 

 the average quantity for a number of years previous to 1764. It is true, 

 that the quantity imported by Ireland from the Eafl country increafed 

 after this year : but that is accounted for by the very low price the 

 Swedes were enabled to fell their herrings at by the wonderful plenty 

 upon their coafl, which made it an objed: for the Irifh to procure them 

 for re-fhipping to the Weft-Indies. 



The ille of Mann, by being independent of the Britilli revenue laws, 

 had become a great magazine of foreign merchandize, vaft quantities 

 of which ufed to be fmuggled into the three Britifli kingdoms, to all of 

 which it is almoft equally near. Therefor a number of fliips of war and 

 cutters were now ftationed around the coafts of it, in order to prevent 

 fo great an injury to the revenue and to the fair trader. 



The whale fifliery at Greenland proved very indifferent this feafon. 

 The Britifh Ihips got very few fifli, many of them none at all : and the 

 Dutch got only 117, lets than half of their ufual number. As fome 

 compenfation for their difappointraent in Greenland, they fell in, near 

 the ifland of Rona *, about 40 miles north-north-eaft from the ifland 

 of Lewis, with a fmalllpecics of whales, and caught thirty-two of them, 

 which were reckoned equal to five or fi.\ fizeable Greenland whales. 

 Thus have the Dutch difcovered another gold mine in our feas, which 

 our own people in the adjacent iflands unfortunately want the knowlcgc 

 and the means to avail themfelves of by going after the whales, and are 

 obliged to content themfelves with now and then making a prize ot a 

 • i])ole of them, when they in a manner call upon them to take them by 

 getting embayed in fmall inlets among the iflands f. 



• From Rona there ruos a bank towards Till- ' tliere run into a bay no Icfs than 1 14 at once.*' 



litad in Ireland, which Sir William Munlon [.Vii- [ //' j//<i«'x y-Avou/;/ of Orkney, p. 37. J Martin, in 



val Traill, B. iv] fays, alFords a great qii.inliiy of his Defiriplion of tlsi IVcftrn i/ltimls, trcqiicniiy no- 



tiie bell cod and ling : but he cgmplaina that it tices the plenty of whales among them. — I.i the 



had been ntgledcd for above a century. Other illand of Northmaven in Shetland },(iO whales were 



two centuries have fince claplcd, and, ^ure. Is it driven aihore in the year 174I1 about 100 in the 



nit Hill neglected? year 1791, and fmallcr numbeis aie ufual. [^Sir 



\ ' Spout whales and pcUacks run in great num- J^o/mi Situ/nir'j Stiiiylual account of ScclJaiui, V, xii, 



' bcr upon the Ihore, and are taken ; as ui ihe year f>. 362 ; and the accounts of Icvcral other infular 



•1691, near Kairllon in the Maiuland, [Orkney] parilhcs in the fame work agree in the frcqucut 



