BOOK III. 



CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING 

 FISHERY. 



CHAPTER I. 



Among the savage nations of the present time we find 

 that fish generally forms part of their ordinary food, and 

 this even where the fruits of the earth are abundant ; we 

 may therefore conclude that, in the northern countries, 

 the natives on the sea-shores, in ancient times, must have 

 lived, to a great extent, on fish. Solinus, who wrote 

 about the year 240, says of the inhabitants of the Heb- 

 rides, " They do not know the cultivating of grain, and 

 live much on fish and milk."* 



The deep bays surrounded by lofty rocks, the numerous 

 arms of the sea, and the rivers sheltered from the storms, 

 must have afforded our savage ancestors their natural 

 food, and enabled them to supply themselves in com- 

 parative safety. That, in the most ancient times, our 

 forefathers were accustomed to navigate at least their own 

 rivers, is proved from the circumstance of many boats or 

 canoes having been dug up in various parts of this island, 

 and some such have been dug up on the banks of the 

 Clyde. Pinkerton tells us of a boat, 36 feet in length and 

 4| feet in breadth, having been found near the Carron in 



* " Hebrides quinqne numero, quarum incolre nesciunt fruges, piscibus 

 tantum et lacte vivunt." — Solm. Polyb., c. 25. Paris, 1503. 



I 



