of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
179 
This table shows at a glance the gradually increasing capital embarked 
by the fishing population in their boats and gear. Forty-five years ago, 
each hundred fishermen possessed very nearly 26 boats of an aggregate 
tonnage of 170*8, and of the value of £523, 6s. ; the value of their nets 
was £700, 4s., and of their lines £102, 16s., the gross value of their boats 
and gear being £1,326, 8s., or £13, 5s. 3d. per head. In the period 
1885-89, each hundred fishermen owned 30*5 boats, of an aggregate 
tonnage of 254'4, and valued at £1,582, 6s. The value of their nets was 
£1,451, 16s., and of their lines £252, 10s., the total value of the boats and 
gear being £3,286, 14s., representing a sum of £32, 17s. 4d. per head. 
As in the previous table, the figures for recent years show a gradual 
decline in the number, tonnage, and value of boats, and in the value of 
nets per hundred men employed, and a gradual rise in the value of lines. 
In 1885 the average amount of capital invested by each fisherman in his 
boat and fishing gear was £33, 10s. 8d. ; from that time it has gradually 
fallen, and was £31, Is. lOd. in 1891. 
Passing to the consideration of the statistics relating to the extent of 
the machinery or apparatus of capture, we find that a correspondingly great 
increase has taken place. At the present day the fishermen possess 
not only more and better boats than they did previously, but they are 
provided with a much larger quantity of netting and longer lines. In 
Table III. are given the mean annual number of herring boats, the 
extent of netting in square yards, and of lines in fathoms, in each of the 
five-yearly periods since 1844. It shows at a glance the enormous in- 
crease which has occurred during the last fifty years in the apparatus for 
capturing fish. 
TABLE III. — Showing the Annual Mean Number of Boats employed 
in the Herring Fishery, together with the Extent of Netting and the 
Length of Lines belonging to the Fishermen since 1844. 
Period. 
Number of 
Herring 
Boats. 
Area of Netting 
in Square Yards. 
Length of Lines 
in Fathoms. 
1844 
1845-49 
1850-54 
1855-59 
1860-64 
1865-69 
1870-74 
1875-79 
1880-84 
1885-89 
1890-91 
6,617 
7,535 
8,092 
8,371 
7,893 
8,205 
7,702 
6,704 
51,995,003 
72,796,071 
76,062,366 
83,030,518 
101,038,950 
134,269,391 
145,059,263 
159,270,214 
187,848,524 
192,547,414 
169,917,885 
8,501,775 
13,576,449 
13,610,144 
17,198,492 
19,363,729 
23,601,765 
28,256,896 
30,327,611 | 
32,213,251 ' 
35,578,436 
35,618,978 
Thus, in 1844 the total area of the herring nets in Scotland was 
51,995,000 square yards, while in the period 1885-89 the area was 
192,547,000 square yards — very nearly a fourfold increase. The length 
of lines has advanced in even greater proportions — from 8,501,775 
fathoms in 1844 to 35,578,436 fathoms in 1885-89— an increase of 
27,076,661 fathoms or more than four-fold.* 
* The great extent of the nets and lines possessed by the Scottish fishermen may 
be made more obvious by a few comparisons. Thus, last year (1891), the length of 
