Mr Stevenson on the Scottish Fisheries in August 1819. 1^9 
yond the reach of either ice or tides, where she would constitute 
as comfortable a dwelling as could be expected in such a country. 
The apparatus could even be applied where there was not a fall 
of tide equal to the depth of water drawn by the vessel, by the 
use of a small coffer-dam, sufficient only to stop out the tide at 
low water, until the railway should be adjusted so far down 
that at high water the vessel could float upon the frame while 
resting on the railway. Then the force of the ship’s company 
would be amply sufficient for drawing the vessel up on land 
Art. XXIII. — Notice regarding the State of the Scottish 
Fisheries in August 1 81 9. In a Letter to the Editors, from 
Robert Stevenson, Esq. F. R. S. E. Engineer to the Com- 
missioners for Northern Light-Houses. 
Having been for many years conversant with the naviga- s 
tion of the Scottish seas, I have, prior to the war with Holland, 
seen fleets of Dutch busses engaged in the herring-fishery off 
the northern parts of our coast. For a long time past, how- 
ever, these industrious fishermen had not ventured to approach 
these shores; and they are now only beginning to re-appear. 
In the early part of August last, while sailing along the 
shores of Kincardineshire, about ten miles off Dunottar Castle, 
the watch upon deck, at midnight, called out Lights a-head.” 
Upon a nearer approach, these lights were found to belong 
to a small fleet of Dutch fishermen employed in the deep- 
sea fishing, each vessel having a lantern at her mast-head. 
What success these plodding people had met with, our crew had 
no opportunity of inquiring ; but upon arriving the next morn- 
ing at Fraserburgh, the great fishing station on the coast of 
Aberdeen, we found that about 120 boats, containing five 
men each, had commenced the fishing- season here six weeks 
before, and had that night caught no less than about 1500 
barrels of herrings, which in a general way, when there is a 
demand for fish, -may be valued at L. 1 Sterling ^er barrel to 
the fishermen, and may be regarded as adding to the wealth of 
* Sooresby’s Account of the Arctic Regions^ vol. i. p. 32, now in the press. 
VOL. II. NO. 3. JANUARY 1820. 
I 
