of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



xxiii 



From an examination of Table II. it will be seen that, except in 

 the case of the Banff District fleet, the operations of the steam vessels 

 brought under review were more remunerative in 1906 than in the 

 preceding year, the margins of net profit per vessel available for 

 distribution among the owners of the other district fleets showing 

 increases reaching a mean level of £443, and ranging in amount 

 from a minimum of £310 to a maximum of £619. It will also be 

 found that this greater measure of financial success is not entirely 

 accounted for by increases in the average earnings — which were 

 due, in a large degree, to the high prices received for the herrings 

 captured — but, to a certain extent, to reductions — in some 

 instances, of considerable amount — in the percentages of those 

 earnings which were absorbed in working and other expenses. 



The annual report for Anstruthcr District contains (vide Experiment 

 Appendix M, p. 237) a reference to an experiment of much interest ^ th .^ e urbme 

 to fishermen, more especially to those of them who, although 

 desirous of acquiring steam drifters, are naturally unwilling to 

 dispose of the expensive sailing boats at present owned by them at 

 merely nominal prices. During the year a turbine engine was 

 fitted into a sailing boat with the double object of ascertaining the 

 rate of speed at which it was capable of driving the craft during 

 calm weather and the access of speed which would accrue from 

 its use in supplement to that of the sails during light winds. As 

 a result of several trials it was found that, under the first condition, 

 a speed of 6J knots per hour was attainable, while, under the second, 

 a speed of 5 knots yielded by the employment of the sails was 

 doubled by the supplementary use of the engine. As the season 

 was far advanced before the completion of the installation the 

 utility of the engine was not further tested by the employment of 

 the boat in the prosecution of the fishing. 



The movements in the annual values of drift netting and great Annual Values 

 lines on the East Coast which are traced in an accompanying chart Lines. tS an 

 serve to show, on the one hand, the decline in line fishing by means of 

 sailing boats, and, on the other hand, the increase in the employ- 

 ment of steam vessels in fishing with lines and drift nets. 



Subject to an exception in the case of 1895, there was a 

 continuous decline during the period covered by the chart in the 

 annual values of great lines employed on board of sailing boats, 

 representing an aggregate fall of 44 per cent. — from £36,137 to 

 £20,116. 



Although the advances in the annual values of drift netting used 

 on board of steam vessels were uninterrupted, they were of 

 unequal extent, ranging from £1763 in 1905, when only five 

 vessels were added to the fleet, to £23,223 in the following year, 

 when the fleet was augmented to the extent of 65 vessels. 



III. Beam and Otter Trawl Vessels. 



Compared with the figures of 1905 the returns relative to beam Further 

 and otter trawlers show increases of 10 in the number of vessels ^j^J^^f. 111 

 comprising the Scottish fleet, 756 tons in their tonnage, £56,575 in m " Ub ry ' 

 their value (including the value of their fishing gear), and 295 in 

 the number of men employed in working them. Those increases 



