GADOIDS. 



may be from fourpence to sixpence, when the fish is 

 most plentiful and-in best condition ; and surely, if a 

 proper system were established, the same amount 

 might carry it halfway across the island. 



On the southern part of the east coast of Scotland, 

 and indeed as far to the northward as the Moray 

 Firth, cod can be regarded as affording no more than 

 a local supply, and that only to a short distance 

 inland, as is the case in the southern part of the 

 island. Cod is not indeed a very favourite fish on 

 that part of the coast. It is said to be of inferior 

 quality to that taken on the banks farther to the 

 south ; and, at all events, it is chiefly bought by the 

 poorer classes of the people, who get it cheaper on 

 the spot, in consequence of its being held in compara- 

 tively low estimation ; but. this circumstance greatly 

 lessens the inducement to fish for it, and, consequently, 

 the quantity taken. The haddock, another, and, 

 when taken on the proper ground and in prime con- 

 dition, a far more delicious species, is the favourite 

 white fish on the last-mentioned line of coast ; and so 

 much is it esteemed above every other production of 

 the sea, that even the sole and turbot fisheries, for 

 both of which there are understood to be good 

 grounds in many places, have never been able to 

 create such a demand as to induce the fishers to carry 

 them on expressly, and with a requisite degree of 

 knowledge, experience, and vigour. 



This preference may be said to extend nearly the 

 whole way to the north-eastern extremity of Scotland ; 

 for, though cod is caught in considerable abundance, 

 the greater part of it is, we believe, dried, with the 

 exception of what may be consumed in the fishing 

 villages and their immediate neighbourhood. And 

 here, as on the more southerly part of the east coast, 

 the haddock is still the favourite fish for local con- 

 sumption ; and when we come to notice the charac- 

 ters of that species, we shall probably be able to show 

 that this preference given to it is not a mere preju- 

 dice, but that it is really better there than on almost 

 any other part of the British shores. When we come 

 to the Pcnlland Firth, and to the various bays and 

 banks among the Orkney and Shetland Islands, we 

 have arrived at the grand rendezvous of the northern 

 members of the cod family ; and though the common 

 cod is not the most abundant, or probably the most 

 highly prized in those seas, it is taken in considerable 

 numbers, and exported, cured, or more properly 

 speaking, dried. The fishermen there, being of 

 northern extraction, or descended from the sea-kings of 

 old and their followers, are more adventurous and at 

 home upon the waters than in many other parts of 

 the country. But it is singular enough that they will 

 not bear transportation to other localities; for colonies 

 of them, which have been carried to the western islands 

 at considerable expense, for the express purpose of 

 establishing fisheries, and teaching and stimulating 

 the natives, have, in the course of a few years, sunk 

 into the same state of indolence and disregard of the 

 vast and almost constant harvest which the sea around 

 them affords. They have, after the lapse of a very 

 few years, lolled indolently on the land, contenting 

 themselves with daily meals of potatoes and salt, and 

 leaving the remains of the boat high and dry, to be 

 beaten and consumed by the wind and rain, while two 

 hours' use of that boat would have provisioned their 

 families for a week, and one good season, duly im- 

 proved, might have rendered them independent for 

 life. Nor is there any more unfortunate demonstra- 



tion of the truth, that men will not exert themselves 

 unless they are pinched, and also stand in some jeo- 

 pardy of degradation, than the fact that, in many places 

 where the sea is most rich in fish, and they are nearest 

 to the land, the fewest are taken out of it. 



As a proof of the advantage that might be derived 

 from those western isles' fishings for cod, we may 

 mention, that the late Sir Hector Mackenzie of Gair- 

 loch established at Gairloch, on the west coast of 

 Ross-shire, a fishing village, to which there belonged 

 twenty boats, each having about four hundred hooks 

 on the lines, and that this small fishery produced every 

 year twenty thousand cod fit for exportation, besides 

 an ample supply to the villagers and the neighbour- 

 hood from the under-sized cod, and the otker fish 

 accidentally taken on the cod-lines. The cod there 

 are rather small in size, averaging about five pounds 

 weight each when they are cleaned, have the heads 

 removed, and are ready for salting. They are, how- 

 ever, of very superior quality proportionally thicker, 

 firmer in the flesh, and more delicate in the flavour, 

 than Newfoundland cod. Whether this fishery is still 

 carried on, we are not informed ; but, as the adven- 

 ture was Sir Hector's own, and he was at that time 

 the only proprietor who had spirit enough for such 

 an enterprise, it is possible that even this may now be 

 abandoned. But, when it was in the condition we 

 have mentioned, it was generally understood that, 

 by an additional number of boats, the produce might 

 have been more than doubled ; and thus two hundred 

 thousand pounds weight of excellent fish might, from 

 this little spot alone, have been added to our annual 

 store, while many industrious men and their families 

 might have earned a comfortable living, by winning 

 this treasure from the deep, and adding it to the 

 wealth of the country. 



This is one very small and local proof of the great 

 advantage which might be derived from the countless 

 myriads of this species of fish which throng around 

 those remote shores of our island ; and we are within 

 the mark when we say, that the ground alluded to is 

 not anything like a tenth, or even a twentieth, of what 

 might be successfully fished, so that, from the Hebrides 

 alone, we might annually derive not less than two 

 millions of pounds of fish ; and as at those small 

 fisheries, for which salt could be procured at a 

 small expense from Liverpool, by the return of the 

 vessels, the quantity would be superior to that which 

 is obtained at Newfoundland, and would consequently 

 fetch a higher price in the market. 



Once, a good many years ago, we observed, on the 

 beach to the northward of the village in the Island of 

 lona, a pile of dried cod, which must have consisted 

 of many thousands ; but whether the fishing is still 

 carried on there, we have not heard, though we think 

 this rather doubtful, because it was described as being 

 in a languishing and expiring state at that period. 



It is true that the winds are both inconstant and 

 turbulent among those western isles, and thus there 

 might be both loss of lines and danger to boats ; but 

 the islanders are hardy boatmen enough, and show 

 no little skill in their craft, as they can guide a little 

 shallop dry through the waves, and so they would 

 not, if they had good craft, run any very imminent 

 hazard. Somehow or other, however, they do not 

 set much value upon the produce of the sea ; and that 

 more than any chance of loss or fear of danger, seems 

 to be the real reason why the fisheries there are not 

 turned to account. 



