of the Fishery Board jor Scotland. 



29 



On the east side of Lower Loch Fyne the decrease has aho been 

 pronounced. In 1855, as we have seen, there were 30 boats and 80 men 

 between Ardlamont Point and Kilfinan ; in 1832 there were 32 boats 

 and 58 men on the same stretch of coast; while in 1906, along the coast 

 from Ardlamout to Otter Spit, further north, therefore, than Kilfinan, 

 there were only two boats and three fishermen. 



Notwithstanding the decrease in the number of boats and fishermen 

 on the shores of Loch Fyne, the quantity of herrings lauded has on the 

 whole increased, as is explained below. 



The Detailed Statistics, 1854-1906. 



The second class of statistics to which reference was formerly made are 

 more detailed, though they do not go back so many years. They consist 

 of the weekly records of the fishings in the various districts compiled at 

 the time by the Fishery Officers in charge, the books containing them 

 having been put at my disposal. The information noted includes the 

 number of boats fishing, the number of crans of herrings landed, and 

 usually the quality of the fish, the prices current for them, the condition 

 of the weather, the chief locality or localities where the fish were caught, 

 and any other circumstances that the Officer thought worth, while 

 recording. 



Detailed information of this kind extending over a period of years is 

 obviously of value, and these statistics are undoubtedly of value for the 

 purposes of this enquiry. There are, however, some defects which impair 

 their utility. One of the most important is that it is rarely that the 

 weekly returns are recorded throughout the whole year, or over the whole 

 period when herrings are being taken or landed in the district. The 

 eutries usually begin with the commencement of the summer fishing, in 

 June or later, the catches for the preceding months being slumped 

 together as a " total for the year up to date." In many cases this 

 omission to specify the catches as they occur is of little importance, the 

 quantities being small. But in other instances the quantity slumped 

 bears a considerable proportion to the whole, and may even form the bulk 

 of the yield for the year. This happens often in the records for the 

 Ballantrae district, where the yield of the winter and spring fishings, as a 

 rule by far the must important, may be merely totalled at the beginning 

 of the summer fishing. The same method is often a marked defect in the 

 records for Campbeltown district, as much as 12,000 crans being slumped 

 in this way for the spring and early summer ; and it is in this district 

 that detailed information throughout the year, and particularly at the 

 period of the season in question, is most to be desired. In the Loch Fyne 

 district the influence of this process of slumping is not so great, but it is 

 sometimes noteworthy, as in the period 1855-1859, and after 1893 ; it 

 also exists in all the other districts. 



Another defect is that the place of capture or of landing is not always 

 given. Three of the districts include places outwith the Clyde area. 

 Thus Inveraray includes part of the western coast of Argyll ; Camp- 

 beltown includes Islay and Jura ; and Ballantrae includes the Scottish 

 coast of the Solway. The influence on the statistics of the inclusion of 

 the western part of Argyll in the Inveraray district would be small ; but 

 such as it is, it has been almost quite eliminated in the compilation of the 

 tables, the particulars necessary to do so being, as a rule, given in the 

 books. The figures may, therefore, be taken as substantially representing 

 the take of herrings in Loch Fyne. In some years Islay was a very im- 

 portant part of the Campbeltown district, large quantities of herrings 

 o 



