Fishery Board for Scotland. 
xxvii 
It will be seen from the above statement that although the total Comparison of 
quantity of white fish consumed fresh has considerably increased preceding five 
since these returns were first collected six years ago, there has not years, 
been a corresponding increase in the total value. The total weight 
of last year's catch, when compared with the average of the pre- 
ceding five years, shows an increase of 13'46 per cent., while the 
increase in value is only 4*23 per cent. The value of shell-fish 
landed last year, when compared with the average of the preceding 
five years, shows a decrease of 17*37 per cent., while the value of 
b.vth white and shell fish shows the small increase of 2"64 per cent. 
The prices of white fish sold for consumption fresh were fairly Prices, 
well maintained throughout the past year. The average was 7s. 6Jd. 
per cwt. — about the same rate as in 1888, — being the amount 
received by the fishermen for their catches. 
Since 1884, when returns of the above nature were first com- Causes of 
piled, there has been a decline in prices of about 2s. per cwt. This reductlonm 
• ii it • <» v» i ' <i " i • i i i i same. 
is partly due to the large quantity or hsh landed, and partly to the 
competition of foreign fish in some of the principal markets. 
Appendix C, No. III., gives some details, taken from the reports Details 
of the inspectors and fishery officers, of the total quantity and value £^fjS§^ 
of the different kinds of white and shell fish landed in Scotland 
last year. 
OYSTERS. 
The statistics for the past year show an improvement in the Supply failing 
supply of oysters compared with the previous year, but the quantity off ra P ldl y- 
is not one-half of what it was only a few years ago, — and 
altogether insignificant, when contrasted with the abundance of 
fine oysters for which the Firth of Forth and other Scottish waters 
were at one time famous. The following are returns for the last 
seven years, during which the present Board has been in existence : — 
Year Hundreds Value 
1883 . . . . 6456 .... ^3406 
1884 , . . . 5176 .... 2174 
1885 .... 2202 .... 809 
1886 . ' . . . 2956 .... 1295 
1887 .... 2130 .... 965 
1888 .... 1527 .... 742 
1889 .... 3119 .... 1453 
Of the above quantity nearly nine-tenths belong to the West 
Coast, where the chief seats of the industry now appear to be 
Inveraray and Ballantrae. On the East Coast, Leith is the only 
port where oysters are landed, and there the trade has dwindled 
down to 315 hundreds, — returned as of the value of £175, and 
which therefore must have cost the consumer over lis. a hundred. 
It is melancholy to think that a once considerable industry has 
fallen so low. About the beginning of the century the scalps of 
the Firth of Forth were so productive that 6000 oysters were 
frequently dragged by one boat in a single day, and after supplying 
the local demand at Is. 3d. a hundred, were shipped in great 
quantities to Newcastle, or carted to Glasgow. Sir John Sinclair, 
in his Statistical Account of Scotland, published about the year 1800, 
