of the Fisher// Board for Scotland. 
175 
* British herring fishery, and where vessels employed in the said fishery 
1 usually discharge their cargoes, and also at the ports of exportation.' 
Seven officers were appointed on the West Coast and three on the East 
Coast, an additional officer being placed at the port of Yarmouth. Three 
things must be kept in view from the outset : — (1), that the statistics 
were based upon the bounty system, then in force (from which, indeed, 
our fishery statistics have sprung), and not at all upon economic grounds; 
(2), that they related to England as well as to Scotland ; and (3), that 
they were for a long period confined to those points connected with cured 
herring. In 1820 bounties began to be given for cured cod and ling, and 
statistics were accordingly collected referring to this branch of the indus- 
try, and have been continued since. Statistical returns from England 
ceased at the end of 1849, and those from the Isle of Man at the end of 
1868, since which year the tables published in the Annual Reports refer 
to Scotland alone. I have, however, gone over all the returns up to 1868, 
and deducted therefrom everything that related to England or the Isle of 
Man, so that in the tables given below the figures refer exclusively to the 
Scottish fisheries. 
In the earlier reports the statistics, besides dealing with the herrings 
cured and exported, supply information as to the number and tonnage of 
busses or vessels fitted out, the number of men composing the crews, &c, 
and also the square area of netting carried and the quantity of fish 
landed. But inasmuch as these vessels — even those fishing on the bounty 
system — purchased their fish at various parts of the coast, no trustworthy 
comparison can be made between the apparatus of capture and the quan- 
tity of fish caught. At this time no information whatever was given as 
to the fisheries generally — the number of men, boats, &c, engaged — 
although fish caught by ' open boats ' are included in some of the returns. 
It was not until 1825 — five years prior to the extinction of the bounty 
system — that statistics were given showing the number of men and boats 
employed in the ' shore curing herring, and cod, and ling fisheries.' This 
was when Mr James Dunsmure was Secretary. In 1843-44 an 
important reform was made in the fishery statistics, Sir Thomas Dick- 
Lauder being then Secretary : the tonnage of the boats was now first 
given, and at this time the value of the boats and fishing gear was first 
included. The quantities of herring, and cod, and ling consumed fresh, 
' so far as could be ascertained,' were stated, and a special feature in these 
new statistics was that the extent of netting used in the herring fishery 
and the length, of lines used in the cod and ling fishery were also given. 
These statistics were published annually until 1857, when they were un- 
fortunately discontinued, owing apparently to the following observation 
in a Report to the Treasury by Messrs Bonamy Trice and Frederick St. 
John, who conducted an official inquiry into the duties of the Fishery 
Board in the previous year. They expressed the opinion that the statistics 
of the Board \ might be made less elaborate without detriment and the 
' officers thereby relieved from some arduous and unnecessary toil.' On 
inquiry, I learned that these statistics, although not published, had 
happily been continued with the greatest regularity by the Fishery 
officers, and the books in which they were contained were placed at my 
disposal for this investigation. These books also contained other relative 
information, such as the numbers of fishing boats from year to year 
belonging to the different classes — information first published in 1855, and 
withdrawn after 1857. The labour involved in transcribing the statistics 
from the various districts for the past thirty-six years, and in tabulating 
and analysing them, has been serious ; but I think the results justify the 
trouble taken, since they furnish an amount of statistical information in 
regard to the development of the Scottish sea fisheries, which cannot be 
