855 
SCOT 
Number of boats employed 
- 
2,272 
Fishermen - - - - 
- 
10,435 
Coopers - - - 
- 
1,585 
Packers and labourers 
- 
10,041 
Seamen in coasting and export ships esti¬ 
mated at - - - 
13,500 
Total persons employed in 
1823 - 
35,561 
The value of the herring fishery of Scotland may amount 
to half a million annually ; but as it is the best nursery for 
hardy seamen, the fishery may be deemed a source of na¬ 
tional wealth in another point of view. 
The whale fishery is carried on in the seas of Greenland 
and Davis's Straits. As the ships employed in this fishery 
are large, and their equipment expensive, it can only be 
carried on by those who have a great command of capital. 
Government, however, has afforded considerable encourage¬ 
ment to the adventurers, by allowing large bounties. It 
produces about 200,000/. annually. 
The salmon fishery produces about 150,000/. per annum, 
but does not give employment to many persons. The rocky 
coasts of the Hebrides and Orkneys abound in shell-fish. 
Lobsters, crabs, &c., are annually caught to the value of 
50,000/. 
We have a few remarks to make on the Western High¬ 
lands and Islands, which we throw together here as con¬ 
nected slightly with the general estimates of Scottish wealth. 
The great manufacture of this district is kelp, though it has 
lately suffered considerably in consequence of the changes 
in the duty and price of foreign barilla. It is on the low and 
extensive Shetland shores that the sea-weeds which produce 
it chiefly grow, and thus a kelp estate is regulated by these 
circumstances. Hence Sky, surrounded with lofty cliffs, pro¬ 
duces little; while the Long Island, running into deep and 
sinuous indentations, furnishes as much as all the western 
coast united. It is from the deep sinuosities of North Uist 
in particular that arises the immense quantities of its pro¬ 
duce. In this island, the rent of the kelp is equal to that of 
the entire land, when the price was 10/. a ton, amounting 
to 7000/. per annum in the islands alone, excluding the 
coast, the total annual produce varies between 5000 and 
6000 tons, and consequently, at the price above named, the 
annual returns divided among the proprietors, vacillated 
between 50,000/. and 60,000/. a-year, of which one-half is 
expended in the various charges appertaining to the manu¬ 
facture and the trade. We may conceive, that about 
20 ,000/. per annum of this was divided among the manufac¬ 
turers ; and hence it is easy to conjecture the value of the 
kelp manufacture to the mere labourer, independently of all 
other considerations. It is to be remarked, however, that 
this was not paid in money but in land ; or putting it into 
the commonly apprehended form of servitude, the rent of 
a tenement was so much in money, and so much labour in 
kelp, or rather the production of a given quantity. That this 
is the most beneficial plan for all parties, can admit of no 
doubt. We shall only further remark on this commodity, 
that during the war, it rose as high as to 20/. and was for a 
considerable period as high as 15/. On an average of 23 
years, ending in 1822, the price was found to be 10/. 9s. 7c/. 
per ton; and as the total annual quantity made in Scotland 
is estimated at 20,000 tons in favourable seasons, the total 
value of the manufacture may be stated at 200,000/., giving 
employment to about 80,000 individuals, and about 200 
vessels. 
The next production of the Highlands and islands is fish, 
in the two distinct forms of white fish and herrings, which 
we have considered in the general subject of the fisheries. 
On the herring fishery of this entire coast we must remark, 
that it is now uncertain, and rarely of any value. In former 
times, in those of Charles I., Loch Maddy was the great ren¬ 
dezvous of the herrings, and the seat of a great establishment, 
but they have long deserted it. More lately, and from the be¬ 
ginning of the last century, Sky, and the north-western Lochs 
LAND. 
were the great fisheries; and hence arose those establish¬ 
ments ofTanera, Ullapool, and Loch Torridon, formerly 
of note, together with those of Steen in Sky, and Tober- 
morry in Mull. These were the result of the successes of 
the Dutch, and of the want of calculation and foresight in 
the projectors, who were formed into a company; and from 
the long continued desertion of the fish, chiefly to the 
eastern coast, nearly the whole capital embarked was lost. 
Occasionally, however, shoals still visit this coast; yet pre¬ 
cariously, and seldom furnishing a capture for commerce, 
though valuable as matter of domestic consumption. Within 
ten years or more, considerable captures have been made 
about Sky, and in the neighbouring lochs; but lately few 
have been taken to the north of Loch Fyne. 
The remaining products of this part of Scotland, are slates. 
The great seats of this are the islands on the coast of Nether 
Lorn, the property of Lord Breadalbane. Seil, Luing and 
Esdale, are the principal islands thus wrought; and the latter 
has been long established as the most active port. There is 
no limit here but the demand, as the quarries are inex¬ 
haustible, and the material of an excellent quality. Though 
pyritical, it does not decompose when in use. It is a manu¬ 
facture which maintains a large population, and which has 
also much improved the agriculture of these islands. The 
chief market is the western coast; and though rather 
belonging to a distinct geography, we may here mention a 
similar manufacture carried on in Bute and Inch Mar- 
noch. At the foot of Glenco there is also an extensive slate 
quarry, to which Loch Leven offers a convenient harbour and 
port. 
Though many parts of the western islands offer inex¬ 
haustible quarries of every imaginable stone, little or none 
has been wrought any where, except in Arran. Yet the 
convenience of the harbours, a ready navigation, and quarries 
so situated, that their produce might be craned from the 
rock into the vessel, may probably hereafter make this market 
valuable, at least to the western coast of England and Scot¬ 
land. Rassay, for instance, presents a range of the most 
beautiful white free-stone, extending for ten miles, and rising 
immediately from the sea. It is an entire quarry, and with 
scarcely the labour of working, might be loaded of any size 
from the rock into the ship. Here, were it necessary, 
columns might also be wrought of any length, and shipped. 
In granite Mull is particularly rich, while nothing can 
exceed the commodiousness of the situation for quarrying 
and shipping. This tract of rock lies at the mouth of Loch 
Seriden, on the Ross, which is formed of it; and this loch 
offers secure harbours in abundance. The quality resembles 
that of the Egyptian, being of a high red colour, and a large 
grain, and as it is disposed naturally in large blocks, and in 
thin and flat masses, it is easily split into the shapes required 
by architecture, and is of such dimensions and continuity, 
that it would afford shafts of columns fifty feet in length. 
It would be endless to point out all the various and commo¬ 
dious quarriesof granite. Jura, however, deserves notice,for 
the beauty of its white quartz rock. This stone is not only 
preferable to granite in point of durability, being absolutely 
indestructible, whether above water or below it, but excels 
the finest sandstone in beauty of colour and texture. At the 
same time, it is offered by nature in blocks which are often 
ready squared to the mason’s hand, or which might be ren¬ 
dered square by a few blows of the hammer. That such a 
material has been utterly neglected by architects is much to 
be regretted. 
Broadford, in Sky, possesses endless quarries of marble 
of various qualities, and of ornamental appearance, well 
adapted for interior architecture. Among these there are 
considerable rocks of pure white marble, the best and the 
most considerable yet discovered in the British dominions. 
The grain is extremely compact and fine, and well adapted 
to the smaller works of statuaries. The quarries have been 
opened, but no attempts were ever made towards a sale. In 
the Garveloch isles also there are inexhaustible quarries, and 
not less convenient. These are of still more various colours, 
being 
