198 QUANTITY OF NETTING EMPLOYED. 



being far less productive than in former seasons. At Campbel- 

 town the fishery was very prolific, the fishing of 1872 being the 

 most successful of any year of which there is a record, in the 

 district. The winter herring fishery of the Firth of Forth was 

 very deficient ia productiveness, but the sprat fishery proved 

 only too abundantly productive, . as the quantity of sprats 

 taken began to exceed the demand. At one time sprats were 

 selling as low as a Is. per barrel. 



The herring fishery of 1873 has been more than usually pro- 

 ductive, but no oflScial statistics regarding it wiU be procurable 

 till next year. At some of the stations the curers were unable 

 to operate -in consequence of an exhaustion of the materials of 

 cure. Boats so seldom reach an average of more than sixty crans 

 that, in seasons when that quantity is exceeded, the curer, 

 coimting on the average, is sure to be found unprepared^ — hence 

 large quantities of the fish are wasted, and a cry is circulated of 

 a proMc fishery, and men triumphantly point to the fact, and ask 

 What about " the fished-up " theory now ? But the answer is 

 not far to seek : the number of boats and extent of netting 

 ought to capture double — nay treble — the quantity of herring 

 they have taken this year, or any previous year in which the 

 take has been larger. Because the curers have run out of the 

 materials of cure the cry has arisen that we have had a great 

 fishery ! 



The quantity of netting now employed in the herring-fishery 

 is enormous, and is increasing from year to year. It has been 

 strongly represented by Mr. Oleghom, and others who hold his 

 views, that the herring-fishery is on the decline ; that if the 

 fish were as plentiful as in former years, the increased amount 

 of netting would capture an increased number of herrings. 

 It is certain that, with a growing population and an increasing 

 facility of transport, we are able to use a far larger quantity 

 of sea produce now than we could do fifty years ago, when we 

 were in the pre-Stephenson age. If, with our present facilities 

 for the transport of fish to inland towns, Great Britain had 

 been a Catholic instead of a Protestant country, having the 

 example of the French fisheries before us, I have no hesitation 

 in saying that by this time our fisheries would have been 

 completely exhausted — ^that is, supposing no remedial steps 

 had been taken to guard against such a contingency. Were we 

 compelled to observe Lent with Catholic rigidity, and had there 

 been numerous fasts or fish-days, as there used to be in Enerland 



