SXTPEKIOEITT OF DECKED BOATS, 197 



are now coming greatly into use, and in time will entirely sup- 

 plant the old-fashioned open boats. Upon the east coast 

 particularly, nearly every new boat now built is bigger than the 

 one it displaces, and although the decked vessels cost much 

 more money than the open boats, the return which they yield is 

 commensurate with the cost. At some fishing places the gains 

 of those crews fishing with decked vessels ranged in 1872 from 

 £100 to £550 per boat, while the money taken by other crews 

 about the same place who fished with open boats did not exceed 

 £160, that being the highest amount reached, some crews only 

 realising £60 for their season's adventure. The decked boats 

 cost about £200 each, and it is thought by the builders that 

 there will not be less than 600 of this class of vessels at work 

 in the fishery of this year. Already at Buckie, on the Banfishire ■ 

 coast, there are 400 such vessels engaged in the fishing, and in 

 every important fishery district the boatbuilders are at work 

 adding to the fleet. "No fisherman would now," say the 

 Commissioners, " undertake fishing with boats and- nets of the 

 kind which were in use a century ago, and the increase in the 

 number of boats and fishermen during the last ten years yields 

 conclusive evidence of the steadily advancing prosperity of the 

 Scottish fisheries. We gather from the current report that the 

 number of fishing boats belonging to Scotland in 1862 was 

 12,545, and that, in the ten years which have elapsed since, that 

 number has increased at the rate of 260 boats per annum, and 

 the total number of Scottish boats now engaged in the fisheries 

 is 15,232. In 1862 the number of fishermen in Scotland was 

 41,008, but the number now is 46,178, being an increase in ten 

 years of 5170 fishermen, or an average of 500 per year. The 

 value of the boats and fishing gear was estimated in the year 1862 

 at £747,794, and in 1872 at £997,293, being an increase in ten 

 years of £249,499, equal to an annual average of about £25,000. 

 " In boats, and in the condition of the fishermen, the fisheries 

 of Scotland may therefore be regarded as thriving." 



As to the takes of herring at the different fishing districts, 

 the report of the fishery of 1872 records the usual fluctuations 

 — an increase in one district, a decline in another. At Fraser- 

 burgh and Peterhead the fishing of 1872 was remarkably 

 successful, as also at Aberdeen, where the fishery is only of 

 recent development. At these places larger quantities of herring 

 were cured last year than ever were cured before. Upon the 

 west coast the fishing was again deficient, the Lewes fishery • 



