52 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
season, they are brought to land daily in a fresh state, or are salted 
on board; and when, in the judgment of the crew, they have 
a sufficient quantity, they return to port for the purpose of turning 
them into money. 
At present the Herring Fishery may be considered to be prose- 
cuted all the year round at some part or other of the coast. 
The principal season, however, is during the summer months — 
May, June, July, and August in Scotland, and August, September, 
October, November, to part of December in England — though 
there is an important fishing going on on the east coast of 
England during March, April, and May, and sometimes in June ; 
whilst again in Scotland herrings are fished for in January and 
February. The great summer fishing in Scotland is prosecuted 
by no less than 7000 boats, and gives employment to 64,387 
persons. 
The west coast of Scotland fishing embraces nine districts — 
Stornoway, Loch Broom, Loch Carron and Skye, Fort William, 
Campbeltown, Inverary, Kothesay, Greenock, and Ballantrae — 
and had no less than 169,783 barrels cured in 1886 (in 1885, 
253,969), 2,989 boats being engaged. 
In the Orkney district, the Orkney Islands and Strona in the 
Pentland Firth, 168 boats were engaged. Fishing began July 
13th, and finished in August. 18,949 barrels were cured. 
Through the year previous 53,300 barrels were obtained. Stormy 
weather and low prices are the chief causes of the season's 
decrease, as it was not prosecuted with the usual perseverance at 
the beginning of the season. 
In the Shetland district there were 840 boats — 504 at Lerwick, 
and 336 in the Unst section. This fleet comprised 400 boats 
belonging to the district, and the remaining 440 were from the 
Isle of Man, and east coast of Scotland. 198,051 barrels were 
cured (370,238 in 1885), but an increase on the previous ten years 
of 78,468 barrels. In the history of the Herring Fishery of 
Scotland, nothing is so striking as the increase in Shetland in 
recent times; for in the year 1874, 1180 barrels were cured, 
whilst in 1885, as we see, no less than 370,238 were secured. 
The east coast fishing takes in the following districts — Eye- 
mouth, Leith, Anstruther, Montrose, Stonehaven, Aberdeen, 
Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff, Bucker, Findhorn, Cromarty, 
Helmsdate, Lybstcr, and Wick, and here 925,439 barrels were 
