XX 



Part I. — Twenty -fifth Annual Report 



fleet at the end of 1907 to twenty. This number would have been 

 materially increased but for the fact of good sail boats — for which 

 there is now little or no demand — being owned by so many of the 

 fishermen, who are naturally disinclined to dispose of them for 

 merely nominal amounts. 



One of the disadvantages incidental to the employment of steam- 

 driven vessels, in substitution for sailing boats, arises from the 

 greater size of the former, the depth of water available in the har- 

 bours resorted to not being always sufficient to admit of their 

 ready entrance and exit ; and this fact supplies one of the princi- 

 pal reasons why the herring fishing is prosecuted from Shetland 

 by means of so many steam drifters. 



Year's Through the courtesy of the owners of the vessels, it has been 



Operations found possible to present, in the three following tables, the finan- 

 cial results per vessel of the operations of the majority of the 

 district fleets employed during the year. Of these, Table I, gives 

 the highest, lowest, and average earnings, the average expenses of 

 maintenance and other outlay, and the surpluses remaining ; Table 

 II. institutes a comparison between the results obtained in 1906 and 

 those of the preceding year ; while in Table III. will be found par- 

 ticulars of the earnings at the various fishings engaged in : — 



[Table, 



