On the AUeraf ion of Sea-Level, 4'07 
the Hebrides, being engaged in the erection of the light- 
house at Skerryvore, under the superintendence of the late 
Mr Alan Stevenson, civil engineer, I had opportunities of 
observing the mode of fishing for sillocks and other small 
fish, very abundant there at certain seasons. It is not the 
mode of fishing, so much as the appliances made use of by 
the natives for fishing, to which I wish to direct attention. 
On the south end of the island there is a rocky headland 
called Hynish Point, much resorted to by the natives for 
rod and hand-net fishing. The east face of this rock is 
naturally adapted for such exercise, in having several ranges 
of natural steps or stages upon which the fishers take up 
their position. Several of these stages, about half tide up 
and upwards, have circular holes, in the shape of a bowl, 
cut out of the hard gneiss rock, into which the fishers put 
shell-fish, which they bruise with a round stone till they 
are like pulp. Handfulls of this pulp are thrown into the 
sea, to decoy the fish close upon the rock, and then the fish 
are taken, either by the hook or net, in great quantities. 
When the tide has risen to the lowest stage, the fishers 
have recourse to the next stage higher up the face of the 
rock, and so on as the tide rises ; and on several of these 
places also holes are excavated for the shell-fish thus pre- 
pared. 
I have observed that considerably higher up the face of 
the rock there are stages with holes cut into them, similar 
to those below, but which are much too high to be of any 
service at the present day as fishing stances, as they are a 
great many feet beyond practicable reach of the sea. 
The fact of these holes in the upper parts of the rock being 
of the same shape, &c. as those at present in use, show^s 
that the mode of fishing is not only a very old one, but, in 
my opinion, it is also a strong proof of a change having 
taken place in the sea-level, and that this process may still 
be going on for aught w^e know to the contrary. 
