124 THE SEA FISHERIES 



Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland and to Parliament. The 

 Admiralty were to appoint an officer of the Navy to be Superin- 

 tendent of the deep sea British White Herring Fishery. Officers 

 of the fishery were appointed by the Treasury, and these officers 

 " shall have exercised the trade of a cooper, and been employed in 

 the curing and packing of herrings, and shall be skilful therein." 

 In view of the modern controversy as to the mesh of the nets used 

 in trawling for herring it is interesting to recall that the Act of 1808 

 forbade the use " in any river or loch or at sea, in or on the coast of 

 Great Britain, of any herring net or any trauP net drag net or other 

 sea net for the taking of herrings, which hath a mesh of less than 

 I in. from knot to knot, or any false or double bottom cod or pouch, 

 or shall put any net, though of legal size, behind the others to 

 destroy the small fish." There are elaborate provisions, as in 

 previous Acts, for the fitting out of the busses with barrels of salt, 

 with nets and an adequate crew, though now the full number of 

 men are not required to be on board until arrival at the rendezvous. 

 Regulations are prescribed for the voyage to be made by the busses 

 to obtain the tonnage bounty, and for the fitting and clearing out 

 of busses at the port of outfit. The Commissioners were also allowed 

 to pay premiums or bounties, not to exceed £3000 per annum, for 

 fishing herrings in boats exceeding 15 tons in Scotland. 



The reports of the Commissioners of the British Fisheries, 

 Scotland, for the period 1810-29 should be consulted for the details 

 of the development of the Scottish herring fisheries under the 

 stimulus of the Act of 1808. The report for the last year in which 

 the bounties were paid (1829) summarises the effects which may 

 legitimately be ascribed to the bounty system. 



" At the commencement of this establishment (i.e. of the Com- 

 missioners) there was scarcely a barrel to be found of 32 gallons, 

 little attention was paid to the strength, breadth or thickness of 

 the staves, to the number of the hoops, or the manner in which 

 they were placed in the barrels, or the tightness of the cask at head 

 and bottom, so that the pickle, without which herrings cannot be 

 properly cured, cannot be retained ; the herrings were generally 

 cured ungutted, and often in bulk, without any attempt being made 

 to extract the blood or entrails, and when the operation of gutting 

 was performed, it was often so long delayed, and from being done 

 with the finger and thumb so imperfectly executed, as to be of 

 little use ; the herrings were often left exposed to the weather on 

 the bare ground, until it was found convenient to put them mto 

 casks ; no fixed quantity of fish was required to be m the barrels, 

 which were often in a great measure filled with salt mstead of 



1 Really a seine net, see p. 51, footnote. 



