142 LOCH FYNE HERRINGS. 



perpendicular by a number of bladders or cork floats, 

 balanced by a few slight weights of lead. A single boat 

 will often draw after it a " drift " a series of nets ex- 

 tending fully a mile in length. 



We now proceed to describe the different aspects of the 

 fishery, as carried on in different localities, premising that 

 the cargo of a herring-boat is measured by crans, each cran 

 containing forty-five gallons. 



The reputation enjoyed by the Yarmouth herrings in 

 England, belongs in Scotland to the fish caught in Loch 

 Fyne, a great arm of the sea which cuts into the west 

 coast between the Mull of Cantire and the Island of Bute, 

 striking inland as far as Inveraray, the chief town of the 

 territory of the Campbells. Loch Fyne herrings, how- 

 ever, are celebrated " furth of the kingdom." Sam Slick 

 panegyrizes them as " Glasgow bailies ;" a sobriquet allud- 

 ing to the circumstance that, of old, the finest specimens 

 were presented to the Bailie of the River Clyde, locally 

 known as the " Skate Bailie," by the vendors who dis- 

 posed of their wares on the Glasgow quay. As early as 

 836 the Dutch fishermen frequented Loch Fyne in order 

 to purchase its savoury fish ; and for centuries they traded 

 largely with the herring, curing such enormous quantities 

 that many a fortune was built up by its means even in 

 Amsterdam itself, which, according to the ancient pro- 

 verb, was erected on herring-bones. It has been pointed 

 out that this enrichment of the Dutch meant the spolia- 

 tion of the West Highlanders, who were foolish enough 

 to look upon the whale-fishery in Arctic seas as preferable 

 to the herring-fishery in their own waters. Not, says a 

 writer in Once a Week, that they altogether despised the 



