TRADE AND COMMERCE. 539 



ling began to frequent the coast. Mr. Walker attri- 

 butes the richness of the cod and ling fishing of the 

 Long Island to the great abundance of shellfish. Loch 

 Roag, on the west coast of Lewis, was, previous to 1765, 

 the chief seat of the winter fishing, and herrings were 

 caught in such abundance that they were sold at the rate 

 of is. per cran. At the middle of the nineteenth century, it 

 was the centre of an extensive lobster fishery. A London 

 company had an agent established there who distributed 

 ;3,ooo to ^4,000 per annum in wages. As many as 40,000 

 lobsters are said to have been sent in one week to London. 

 Loch Roag was also famous for the quality of its kelp. It 

 was the best in the Highlands, and fetched a guinea a ton 

 more than any other kelp. 



The merchants of Stornoway were a prosperous body in 

 the first quarter of the nineteenth century. They monopo- 

 lised the fishing trade by means of the truck system, but 

 after the failure of kelp, the proprietor assumed the super- 

 vision of the industry. Mr. Stewart-Mackenzie launched 

 the first cod smack ever owned in Lewis, and he was the 

 first to send a cargo of fresh fish from the island to the 

 London market. In the eighteenth century, an extensive 

 trade was carried on between Stornoway and the Baltic, 

 Norway, Sweden, Holland, France, and the North of 

 Ireland ; and in later times, the town flourished as a port 

 of call for vessels trading between Liverpool and Ireland, 

 and the Baltic. In 1827, the chief exports from Storno- 

 way were cattle and fish, the latter finding its way to 

 markets as distant as the Mediterranean. During the five 

 years ending July, 1808, 17,430 barrels of cured herrings, 

 and 719 tons of ling and cod, were exported, bringing 

 about 52,000 into the town ; while the oil exported was 

 1 valued at 10,000.* In 1753, the shipping of the port 

 ! consisted of about thirty vessels " great and small " ; in 

 ; 1786, there were twenty-three decked vessels, employed 



* In 1900, the value of herrings landed in Lewis and Harris was 83,547, 

 ! and of white fish 2 1,487. (Report on Lewis by the Crofters Commission, 

 i Appendix K, p. 34.) 



