FOR GREA T BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 13 



Its immense superiority, says Mr. Young, over every other 

 seaport on the east coast of Scotland has been again and 

 again pointed out and demonstrated by Government Com- 

 missioners, by officers of the Navy and Mercantile Marine, 

 by civil engineers, and by other persons of skill and 

 experience. 



"The Commission of 1858-9 pointed out that as harbours 

 of refuge were not likely to be taken up as a commercial 

 speculation, Government should come forward and offer 

 inducements to harbour trustees and commissioners to 

 combine harbours of refuge with mercantile harbours. 

 The suggestion was carried out in the Act of 1861, known as 

 the " Harbour and Passing Tolls Act," which inaugurated 

 the lending of money at moderate rates of interest, for the 

 improvement of existing harbours, and through its operation 

 much good has been effected. Peterhead was one of the 

 places specially recommended by the Commission of 1858 

 for a harbour of refuge." 



The following extracts from a paper read before the 

 Herring Fishery Commissioners in 1877, by Mr. Boyd, agent 

 for the Harbour Trustees of Peterhead, are given us by Mr. 

 Young at page 79, ' Fish and Fisheries J : " The north- 

 eastern portion of the coast of Scotland, from the Firth of 

 Forth on the south, to the Firth of Cromarty on the north, 

 comprehending a sea-board of 160 miles, is throughout the 

 greater portion of its extent precipitous and rocky, and of 

 a bold and dangerous character." 



" It is exposed to frequent easterly gales of great violence, 

 but, although much frequented by shipping, and although 

 it comprehends within its limits the most important stations 

 for the prosecution of the fisheries in Scotland, it affords no 

 place of safety to which vessels and boats can at all times 

 run for refuge when overtaken by storms. For nearly 200 



