CHAP. vi. J FIGURES OF THE WICK CATCH. 279 



those of the first period ; and yet, with 3320 additional boats 

 carrying perhaps 200,000 more nets, larger, finer, and deeper 

 than in the first period, we took 195,609 barrels fewer fish 

 in the second than in the first thirteen years. During a late 

 Wick fishing, a remarkable feature was the great disparity 

 in the catch by individual boats. Although the average per 

 boat over the whole fleet is set down as about eighty-three 

 crans, yet half the boats do not average forty crans. As a rule, 

 the boats that take the most fish are those with the longest, 

 finest, and deepest drifts. In fact, the whole argument just 

 amounts to this that if the fish are as plentiful as ever, then 

 double the quantity of netting ought to take double the quan- 

 tity of herrings. During a late Wick season (1863), the 

 entire fleet was only at sea twelve nights, and the average per 

 night to each boat was only three crans. The Northern 

 Ensign, a local journal, has over and over again asserted that 

 the fish are as numerous as ever ; but that, in consequence of 

 the crowd of boats, there is not room to capture them. In 

 answer to this I may note, that on six different evenings of 

 the season, when the boats out ranged from two to six 

 hundred, the take did not average half a cran per boat. It 

 may be likewise stated that 604 boats, in the year 1820, with 

 a greatly less amount of netting, took as many fish as have 

 been taken this season (1863) although the boats fishing- 

 were 480 above the season of 1820. The average capture 

 per boat in 1820, with the limited netting, was 148 crans, 

 whilst the average for 1863 was only 85 crans ! How is it 

 possible to reconcile such great differences ? 



I conclude this part of the herring question by one other 

 illustration. In 1862 the aggregate sailings i.e. number of 

 voyages of the Wick boats for the season was 28,755, and 

 the total catch 92,004 barrels ; while this season (1863) the 

 Wick boats have only taken 89,972 barrels in 32,630 voyages ; 

 and all over the country, so far as I know and I have made 



