Mr Stevenson on the State of the 
Here, and at Orkney, we had the pleasure to see many ships 
arriving from the whale-fishing, and parting with a certain pro- 
portion of their crews. To such an extent, indeed, are the 
crews of the whalers made up from these islands, that it is cal- 
culated that not less than L. 15,000 in cash are annually brought 
into the islands by this means. With propriety, therefore, may 
the whale-fishery be regarded as one of the most productive 
sources of national wealth connected with the British Fisheries. 
From the Orkney and Shetland islands our course was direc- 
ted to the westward. A considerable salmon-fishing seems to 
be carried on in the mouths of the rivers of Lord Reay’s Coun- 
try in Sutherlandshire : the fish are carried from this to Aber- 
deen, and from thence in regular trading smacks to London. 
We heard little more of any kind of fishing till we reached the 
Herris Isles. There, and throughout the numerous lochs and 
fishing stations on the Mainland, in the districts of Gairloch, 
Applecross, Lochalsh, Glenelg, Moidart, Knoidart, Ardnamur- 
chan. Mull, Lorn and Kintyre, we understood that there was a 
general lamentation for the disappearance of herrings, which 
in former times used to crowd into lochs which they seem now 
to have in some measure deserted. This the fishermen sup- 
pose to be owing to the Schools being broken and divid- 
ed about the Shetland and Orkney Islands ; and they remark, 
that, by some unaccountable change in the habits of the fish, 
the greatest number now take the east coast of Great Britain. 
This is the more to be regretted, that in Sky, the Lewis, Flarris, 
and Uist islands, the inhabitants have of late years turned 
their attention much to the fishing. Indeed this has followed 
as a matter of necessity, from the general practice of con- 
verting the numerous small arable farms, which were perhaps 
neither very useful to the tenants, nor profitable to the laird, 
into great sheep -wallcs ; so that the inhabitants are now more 
generally assembled upon the coast. The large sums expended 
in the construction of the Caledonian Canal, have either direct- 
ly or indirectly become a source of wealth to these people : they 
have been enabled to furnish themselves with boats and fishing 
tackle, and for one fishing-boat, which was formerly seen in the 
Hebrides only twenty years ago, it may be safely affirmed that 
ten are to be met with now. If the same spirit shall continue to 
