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Part III. — Eighth Annual Report 
little mollusc to the Morecambe Bay fishermen cannot be less than 
£20,000 annually. 
The value of the Barra cockles, nevertheless, if due attention is 
paid to the farming of the beds, will considerably help a population 
where a few pounds to each family equal a much higher sum in 
wealthier parts of the country. In the Scotsman of 8th January 1886, 
it is stated that 10,000 bags (10,000 cwt.) were shipped within three 
months from these beds. If this quantity be taken at the price put 
by Messrs Buckland and Walpole on Morecambe Bay cockles, it would 
represent a value of .£2500 ; but unfortunately, after carriage is deducted, 
the natives of Barra don't realise so much per bag as this. The popu- 
lation of Barra in 1881 was 1887, or about 300 families. If an im- 
proved system of regulation takes the place of no regulation at all, 
with the increase of the productive value of the beds arising therefrom, 
a greater sum will be obtained for each family in the island. A com- 
petent authority, thoroughly acquainted with the cockle beds of Barra, 
estimates that they should yield .£4000. Dividing this among 300 
families, the earning of each family from the cockle beds alone will 
amount to £13 per annum. But as we may deduct at least one 
third off the number of families who will avail themselves of the Barra 
cockles as an additional source of revenue to the earnings of lobster, 
line and herring fishing, each family on this supposition should obtain 
£20 per annum from the sale of cockles. As the season for cockle 
gathering has hitherto extended from October to April, or about seven 
months, this would give fifty-seven shillings to each family per month. 
After lobsters and fish, the cockle is the most important of the 
fisheries of Barra. While the cod and ling fishery is yet successfully 
prosecuted, the herring fishery of Castlebay and Lochboisdale has decreased 
in value, and the lobster fishings are on the decline. The fishermen 
have to go further to sea to set their lobster creels, and they have been 
meeting with so little success that they have not prosecuted it during 
the earlier months of the year, most of the lobster fishermen having 
to betake themselves to line fishing. It is therefore more than ever 
necessary that the cockle beds of Barra should be so worked that they 
produce the greatest revenue possible to the fishermen and crofters. 
5. Conclusion. 
That the supply of cockles has decreased is known to those acquainted 
with the Barra cockle beds. In two years at the end of last century the 
Old Satistical Account tells us that 'no less than one hundred to two 
' hundred horse-loads of cockles were taken off the sands at low water every 
' day of the spring tides during the months of May, June, July, and August.' 
In 1845 scores of horse-loads might be taken up during a single tide. 
Formerly a plentiful supply of large-sized cockles could be obtained 
from the sands ; now the cockle-gatherers cannot collect as many half- 
sized specimens as they could once upon a time gather of the larger 
forms. The complaint is that the cockles are not allowed to remain 
till they attain a sufficient size, but that the sands are raked and re- 
raked, and as many half-sized ones as are turned up by the rakes are 
transferred by the gatherers to their bags. It is also alleged that, by 
constant raking, the small cockles are left on the surface of the sand, 
and are washed ashore during storms of east wind. This is no doubt 
partially true, but whether the great amount of damage that is alleged 
to be done in this way is actually done is open to doubt. The great 
