CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 189 



the country, and tlie want of legislative protection and 

 encouragement. The fishery seems to have, however, 

 recovered some years afterwards, for we learn that, in 

 1710 Anstrnther sent thirty boats to the fishery at Lewis 

 Island, and Crail had eighty boats, which went to the coast 

 fishing at the mouth of the Forth, and about two hundred 

 boats came to this fishing from other parts. In 1720 an 

 association was formed in Scotland for the purpose of 

 encouraging the fishery, and for carrying it on in busses. 

 This association consisted of upwards of two thousand of 

 the principal inhabitants of Scotland, and a considerable 

 sum was subscribed in £100 shares ; but a great part of 

 the funds was expended in building large vessels in imi- 

 tation of the Dutch busses ; and the people employed being 

 quite unaccustomed to, and ignorant of, this mode of 

 fishing, the attempt was, of course, unsuccessful, and in 

 a short time relinquished.* 



In 1727 an Act (1 Geo. I. cap. 26, 30) was passed for 

 the encouragement of the manufactures and fisheries in 

 Scotland ; and his Majesty, under this Act, by patent dated 

 12th July 1727, created " the Board of Trustees for Manu- 

 factures and Fisheries," consisting of twenty-one noble- 

 men and gentlemen of rank in Scotland, for the purpose 

 of promoting these national objects. They were empowered 

 to appoint ' proper and qualified persons to be ivrach (a 

 ' German word implying selecters) and cure-masters of 

 ' the herring-fishery, and riding ofScers to oversee and 

 ' superintend the same.' And the Board was also em- 

 powered to offer small premiums to be paid out to the 

 several fishermen, who, upon different parts of the 

 coasts, made the first discovery of herrings for the coast 



* Copartnery for carrying on the Fishing Trade ; Edinburgh, 1720. Let- 

 ter on the Fishing Company; Edinburgh, 1723. 



