of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



31 



steamers, by far the greater part of the herrings taken in Loch Fyne and 

 the Clyde generally being carried away directly from the boats on the 

 grounds by steamers which forward them to the Glasgow market. It 

 sometimes happens that corrections require to be made as to the quanti- 

 ties, which is generally done at the end of the month, or at the end of 

 the year, without the record for any particular week being altered. Ihe 

 totals for the districts, as given in the appended tables, do not, therefore, 

 always correspond with the totals in the annual reports, for the reason 

 just mentioned, and because the herrings landed in certain districts but 

 taken outside the Clyde area are deducted. 



The tables give the weekly catches of herrings in each of the 

 districts of the Clyde, as well as the number of boats fishing, and in 

 other tables a summary of this information is given under each month 

 of the year. These particulars are also represented in a series of 

 Plates snowing the monthly and annual quantities for the various districts 

 and for the whole Clyde. With regard to the number of boats fishing, it 

 is necessary to say that the number for any given week usually represents 

 the maximum number employed in the fishing on any one night in that 

 week ; it does not represent the number of " voyages " or " trips " for the 

 week — that information not being given in the reports ; and the number 

 for any month is the total for the weeks in it. The information regarding 

 the boats, therefore, while useful as showing in a general way the relation 

 between the extent of the fishing and the quantity of herrings taken, 

 cannot be made use of in a precise manner to show that relationship. 



Rothesay District. 



The limits of this district lie entirely within the area of the Clyde, 

 embracing the coast from Roseneath Point, in I >utnbartonshire, to Ard- 

 lamont Point, in Argyll. It thus includes the Kyles of Bute and a 

 number of lochs, as Loch Long, Loch Goil, Holy Loch, Loch Striven, 

 and Loch Riddon. It also includes the islands of Bute, Arran, the 

 Cumbraes, and Imhmarnock. In 1906 the number of fishing boats 

 pertaining to the district was 176, and the number of resident fishermen 

 and boys was 247. The herring fishing is pursued usually between 

 Bute, Arran, and Cantyre, in the Kyes of Bute, and Loch Fyne. 



The weekly records go back to the year 1854, and they will be found 

 detailed, as regards the quantity of herrings landed and the average 

 number of boats fishing, in Table XXII., p. 127, while the quantities of 

 herrings landed in each month of the various years, as far as they can be 

 ascertained from the books, are given in Table XL, p. 116, and the total 

 quantity for each year in Table XIII. 



The gross quantity of herrings landed in the district in the 53 years 

 1854-1906 amounted to 469,848 crans, or about 1,644,400 cwts. ; the 

 fluctuations in the annual quantities varied from 480 crans in 1854 to 

 38,436 crans in 1865, the annual mean or average for the whole period 

 being 8865 crans. In this district the quantity of herrings landed has, 

 on the whole, diminished. In the first twenty-six years, 1854-1879, the 

 annual average was 10,510 crans, while in the last twenty six years. 

 1881-1906, the annual average amounted to 7220 crans, an annual 

 average decrease of 3,290 crans. When the figures are grouped into ten- 

 yearly periods, the average annual quantities for each decade are as 

 follows : — 



1854-56 1857-66 1867-76 1877-86 1887-96 1897-1906 

 2,552 13,497 12,006 4,405 7,269 9,040 



