of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
183 
1843 to 1857 — an attempt was made to keep a record of herrings and cod 
and ling sold or consumed fresh — but a complete return of the quantities 
and values of the whole produce of the sea-fisheries was not begun until 
1883. If the quantities of cured fish bore always, throughout a long 
period, a fairly constant relation to the quantity caught, it might be 
possible to indicate with considerable accuracy the total yield annually. 
But it cannot be said that this is the case ; hence results obtained in this 
way would be misleading. There is no doubt that in the earlier part of 
the period under consideration the quantity of fish cured bore a consider- 
ably larger proportion to the total fish landed than is the case now. The 
extension of railways, the aggregation of population in centres with a 
well organised system of distribution, the increase of wealth, &c, have 
put a premium upon fresh fish. It might be worth while to make a com- 
parison here between the average catch of herrings and the netting in 
the periods for which returns are given — but the alteration which took 
place by the substitution of cotton nets with smaller meshes, and the 
prevalence of 'surface fishing' since 1857, would affect the result very 
considerably : — taking only the number of barrels of herrings cured the 
results are as follows in relation to the quantity of netting used. 
TABLE VI. — Showing the Mean Annual Number of Barrels of Herrings 
Cured and the Area of Netting per Barrel since 1844. 
Period. 
Number of 
Barrels 
Cured. 
Number 
of Square 
Yards of 
Netting 
per Barrel 
Cured. 
Period. 
Number of 
Barrels 
Cured. 
Number of 
Square 
Yards of 
Netting 
per Barrel 
Cured. 
1844 
526,032 
98-8 
1845-49 
623,581 
116-6 
1870-74 
874,458 
165-9 
1850-54 
610,286 
124-6 
1875-79 
823,292 
193-4 
1855-59 
597,021 
139-1 
1880-84 
1,366,844 
137-4 
1860-64 
-095,878 
145-2 
1885-89 
1,340,996 
143-5 
1865-69 
686,415 
195-6 
1890-91 
1,215,337 
139-8 
For the reasons given, and for others not needful to detail, too much 
weight should not be given to these figures. It would be necessary to 
institute a comparison on subsidiary points, and I have found this at present 
too laborious. It may be pointed out, however, that during the first half of 
the period under review, when hemp nets of large mesh were employed, 
there was a gradual increase from period to period in the area of netting 
per barrel. In subsequent years, when the area of fishing was extended, 
immature fish or f matties \ began to be caught in large numbers by the 
cotton nets. In 1859 only 40 barrels of 'matties' were cured; in 1865 
the number of 'matties' branded was 770; in 1869 1,964, and in 1870 
36,839, from which time the number increased greatly, but not steadily, 
reaching 200,000 barrels in 1880. 
Of more importance is the study of the statistics relating to white fish, 
which are caught by lines and beam-trawls. Here also, however, they'are 
