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In the year 1805, the number of vessels employed in the American fishery here amounted to about 1500, carrying about 10,000 men, and the quantity of fish caught by them to 800,000 or 900,000 quintals, while the whole produce of the British Newfoundland fishery of that year did not exceed 500,000 quintals; and the number of vessels and men we employed did not amount to one-half of that employed by the Americans! The demand for fish in our West India settle ments, upon an average of three years, ending 1807, was 456,221 cwt. 97,486 of which was furnished by the mother country, leaving 358,735 cwt. to be supplied from the American fisheries. Of this quantity, above half was supplied by the United States, using our salt and our fishing banks, and in the three years, only 170,610 cwt. from our Newfoundland fishery, found a market in the West Indies.

The causes assigned for this, in an able pamphlet on the subject of encouraging the Newfoundland fishery, are these:-'The New England fishery, in all its branches, is carried on by shares, each man having a proportion of his own catch, and few or none being hired as servants on wages. By this mode, the fisherman's interest being proportioned to his industry, he is actuated to labor by the most powerful incentive. The American fishermen are remarkable for their activity and enterprise, and not less so for their sobriety and frugality; and, in order to be as independent as possible on the owner of the vessel, each fisherman victuals himself, and the crew take it in turns to manage and cater for the rest. It is hardly necessary to add that men, provisions, and every other article of outfit, are procured upon much better terms in the United States than in Great Britain. But the English fishermen must not only lay in a large stock of provisions out and home at a dear rate, but must also carry out with them a number of persons to assist in the fishery, who, consequently, eat the bread of idleness on the passage out and home; for the laws by which the colony was held were such as almost to forbid residence, and those who did reside had no power of internal legislation; they were restrained from erecting the necessary dwellings for themselves and their servants; they were prohibited from enclosing and cultivating the land, beyond the planting of a few potatoes; and from the importation of provisions from the United States, except only on such conditions as were not calculated to afford the residents much relief. From a system,' says the author of the above pamphlet, the first object of which is to withhold that principle of internal legislation, which is acknowledged to be indispensable to the good government of every community, which restrains the building of comfortable dwellings in a climate exposed to the most inclement winter, which prohibits the cultivation of the soil for food, and restricts the importation of it from the only market to which the inhabitants have the power to go,-from such a system it is not sur

prising that the inhabitants of Newfoundland are not able to maintain a competition against the American fishermen.'

In 1812, France having been driven out of her fisheries in this neighbourhood, our ships and men employed here are said to have equalled those of America, amounting to about 1500 vessels carrying ten men each. At this time the Americans were permitted to cure and dry fish on any part of the shore of Newfoundland; but the abuses this gave rise to induced our government, at the conclusion of the late war, to circumscribe their fishery within certain limits, and only to allow them the privilege of curing and drying their fish at certain spots on the shore. That is, the fishermen of the United States are at liberty to take fish, in common with the subjects of his Britannic majesty, on that part of the southern coast of Newfoundland, which extends from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands, from Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks, from Mount Joly, on the southern coast of Labrador, to and through the strait of Belleisle, and thence northerly indefinitely along the coast; and they are at liberty also, to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland, and of the coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof, shall be settled, they are no longer at liberty to dry and cure fish at such portion, without a previous agreement with the inhabitants or proprietors; and, in consideration of these privileges, the United States renounce, on their part, any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by their subjects, to take, dry, or cure fish, on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of his Britannic majesty's dominions in America, not included within the above mentioned limits; but may be admitted to such bays and harbours, for the purpose of wooding, watering, or repairing damages only. From its distance from the shores of Newfoundland, the Great Bank is of course free to all the world; but the fishery can only be successfully carried on by a constant and uninterrupted communication with the shore.

During the war with America in 1813, our Newfoundland fishery increased largely the export of dried cod alone for that year amounted to 946,102 quintals, with a proportionate increase in oil, seal-skins, salmon, &c.; amounting in value to £1,500,000. Since peace has become universal, and the French and Americans have been readmitted, the former are said, by their bounties on all fish caught here, &c., to have taken in this fishery 300,000 quintals of cod in one year (1814). The nature and value of our own exports for this fishery, in that and the following year, will appear from the annexed Table.

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The price of cod-fish is here reckoned at per quintal, from 15s. to 25s.; of salmon, from 65s. to 80s. the tierce; of train oil, from £26 to £34 the ton, and seal oil generally about £36 the ton. In 1814 the number of passengers that went over from England, Ireland, and Jersey, amounted to 2800; in 1815 they were 6735. In 1815 the population of residents amounted to 55,284 in summer; in winter they are diminished about 10,000.

After the banks of Newfoundland, those near Ireland, the coast of Norway, Orkney, and the Shetland Islands, abound most with cod-fish. Dr. Hibbert gives the following interesting account of the recent discovery of the new bank, mentioned by Mr. Stevenson, in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, January, 1820:

It is, I believe, about ten or twelve years since a few vessels, from six to thirty-five tons burden, and carrying from six to eight hands, first prosecuted a desultory and uncertain fishing for cod off the coasts of Shetland. They seldom went farther to look for fish than the immediate neighbourhood of Foula and Fair Isle; and their success in general was very limited. To some of the vessels thus employed the discovery of the bank is due. The first knowledge of its existence is contended for by three or more parties; but the great probability is, that it was simultaneous, since the same cause, which was the uncommonly fine spring of 1818, caused almost every vessel to seek for fish, at a more than usual distance from the coasts of Shetland, and finding a very abundant supply off the north of Orkney, in the vicinity of the place which attracted Mr. Neill's attention, they fell in with the track of the cod-bank.'

The cod-bank of Shetland is described by the fishermen as lying from twenty-five to thirty miles west of Foula. That its extent is very great, all who have fished upon it agree. The information politely given me by Mr. Sheriff

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Duncan of Lerwick, fully corroborates the previous statement I had made on the subject last year. The fishing vessels,' says this gentleman, spread themselves so widely over the bank, that it seldom happens that more than two or three are in sight of each other at the same time, yet they have never reached its utmost boundary." I shall, however, communicate what is known of its extent, from the experience of a former season. The bank appears to commence near the cluster of islands bearing the name of Orkney: it is said to lie into the land about sixteen miles. The fishermen refer to the west of Westray as its origin; and thence it is continued in a direction nearly north by west, having been variously entered upon in steering from the east, even as far distant as about twenty miles north-west of Shetland. If this information be correct, it would give to what is known of the extent of the bank, a distance of about 140 miles.

'Respecting the depth of water on the bank, I reported last year, that it was from twenty-eight to forty-seven fathoms: the information recently given me, assigns to it a depth of from forty to fifty fathoms. This discrepance of opinion, which is not of material consequence, probably arises from the difference of observations taken near the origin of the bank at Orkney, or to the west of Foula, where its form becomes more definite. Its breadth has been reported to me as varying from eighteen to forty-five miles; here also Ï have met with some little difference of opinion, which naturally arises from an indecision respecting the exact depth to which its boundaries or shelving sides may be referred, and which can only be rectified by extensive soundings. The surface of the bank is described as in some places rocky, and in others sandy, and as covered by buckies, mussels, and razor-fish.

It has been thought that this bank is continuous with a cod-bank near the Faroe Islands, not only from the general direction of the Shetland

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Bank, which bears towards that very northerly and remote group of islands, but also from a similarity of character in the fish caught at each place. The cod of both Shetland and Faroe have been described to me,' says Dr. H., by a gentleman familiar with the fish, as gray-backed, spotted with black, and tinged with a ring, which is of a brownish color, inclining to gray. This continuation, then, the existence of which is very problematical, may perhaps take place, rather by a series of distinct banks in a given direction, than by one that is uninterrupted.

In connexion with the history of the bank, it may not be uninteresting to enquire if it was really known to those nations who cannot be accused of a supineness in the prosecution of their fisheries, and my enquiries will be principally directed to the Dutch, who for nearly three centuries have been the principal fishers frequenting the coast of Shetland.

In order to understand the history of the Shetland fishery, we must distinguish between those nations who prosecuted it through the medium of the inhabitants of Shetland, and those who, avoiding such an intercourse, obtained the lucrative object of their visits by an equipment which rendered them independent of the people whose coasts they visited. The merchants who prosecuted the Shetland fishery, through the medium of the natives of the place, were from Hamburgh, Lubeck, Bremen, and Denmark. They occupied booths or shops in the country, and trafficked with the Shetlanders chiefly for ling. This fish is caught in deep water, at a distance of thirty miles from land. For this purpose light six-oared boats are at present employed, eighteen feet in keel, and six in beam, the adventurous crews of which carry each a stretch of lines amounting to 6000 fathoms, with 1200 attached hooks. The German and Danish merchants, who had almost exclusively conducted the Shetland ling-fisheries for nearly two centuries, left these shores in consequence of the bounties granted for the exportation of fish from Great Britain, agreeably to the acts of the years 1705 and 1714. To these visitors succeeded occasional companies of Scotch and English merchants, who were actuated by the bounty; but eventually the fishery devolved to the Shetland landholders, whose policy it was to parcel out occupations to a number of individuals, involving at the same time, in the conditions of their holdings, the obligation to supply them at a stipulated rate with all the ling they caught during the customary summer season. The fish, when dried, were chiefly exported to the shores of the Mediterranean, and to Ireland. "The second description of visitors to Shetland, for the purpose of prosecuting the fishery of the place, comprehended, as I stated, that people who, avoiding an intercourse with the natives of the shores which they rifled, obtained the lucrative object of their visits by an independent equipment: I here allude to the Dutch nation. An enquiry into the nature of their visits to Shetland will involve in it the question, whether the cod-bank, first generally made known to this country in the year 1818, was or was not previously resorted to by this reserved nation,

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who concealed from the rest of the world the fact of its existence, or whether the knowledge of it, if really acquired by us, scarcely became an object of remembrance, owing to our proverbial supineness in every thing relating to the advancement of the British fisheries? The independent system of the Hollanders, and their little communication with the natives of the country, the policy of which is obvious, is alluded to by Brand, in his Tour to Shetland, in the year 1712: 'The Dutch,' he remarks, cannot be said so properly to trade with the country, as to fish upon their coasts.' In fact they only purchased fresh victuals from the natives, and a few stockings.

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The Dutch fishery is first particularly noticed by captain Smith, who in 1633, by order of the earl of Pembroke, and the British Fishery Company of London, visited the islands of Shetland. He saw 1500 sail of busses, of eighty tons each, taking herrings on the coast of Shetland, with twenty rafters or ships of war, carrying twenty guns each, as convoys. But the confirmation which he adds to this narrative, relating to a distinct establishment which the Dutch possessed, for the purpose of prosecuting the codfishery, is so remarkable, and is so involved in the question of the importance of this new accession to our national resources, that I shall give captain Smith's account in his own words. Besides 1500 sail of herring busses and twenty wafters, there was also,' he adds, a small fleet of dogger-boats, which were of the burden of sixty ton, which did fish only with hooks and lines for ling and cod. Many of these boats and busses came into several havens or sounds, to fit and trim themselves. One thing was observable, that, within eight or ten days after the doggerboats went to sea, they came into the sound again so full laden .as they could swim. The certain number of dogger-boats I could not learn, but the general report was about 400.' Upon the narrative of captain Smith, I have certain remarks to make. The dogger-boats are stated in very general terms to fish for ling and cod; but which of those fish was the leading object of their pursuit, our early narrator does not on this occasion inform us. It is well known, that the mode of prosecuting the white fishery, inasmuch as it has for its leading object the taking of cod or ling, differs in certain essential points. The ling is sought for in deep water; the cod, on the contrary, is taken in the greatest quantity upon banks or on shoals. For the taking of ling, long lines, baited with many hundred hooks, are allowed to remain in deep water all night. Hence the intent of employing open boats, that may not be driven to a distance from their lines. Cod, on the contrary, is caught by hand-lines, baited with single hooks, which are dropped into the water from the sides and stern of decked vessels.

It is possible to conceive, that the Dutch, in prosecuting the ling-fishery, by means of their doggers, had recourse to the expedient of a drove sail, which, by restraining the motion of their vessels, prevented them from being driven far from the lines which they had laid. But it may be remarked that, whenever the Dutch fleet of doggers is described, with regard to its particular

object, it is distinctly stated to be intended for the cod-fishery. Thus in Sir Robert Sibbald's description of Shetland, bearing the date of 1711, the following passage occurs: But the greatest advantage Shetland hath is from the fishing of herring and cod, which abound so, that great fleets of the Hollanders come here, and begin to take herring upon St. John's day, with their busses. But,' the author adds, they at the same time employ hundreds of doggers for taking of cod.' From what has been advanced, I am disposed to believe, that the ancient importance of the Dutch cod-fishery of Shetland has been much underrated, and overlooked, by confounding it with a fishery of a different kind; that of ling being for the most part conducted through the medium of the natives of Shetland.

'The second remark which I have to make upon captain Smith's early narration, refers to the success of the Dutch doggers. It may be observed, that, previous to the cod-bank being found out in the year 1818, the fishery, which was conducted round every part of the Shetland coast, was highly desultory and uncertain; and it rarely happened that vessels of only ten to thirty tons, after being employed a week in fishing, returned to their several harbours, like the Dutch doggers described by Smith, so full laden as they could swim.' But captain Smith tells us, that vessels capable of holding a much greater quantity of fish, and amounting to even sixty tons, came into the harbours, after an eight days' cruise, full laden. For the reasons thus given, I am strongly inclined to suspect that the bank was, two centuries ago, well known to the Dutch, and that the knowledge of it was either carefully withheld from this nation in particular, or, which is more probable, regarded by us with such an indifference, that when the Dutch left our shores, owing to the interruption they experienced in our wars with them, it was soon forgotten that such a bank existed. In support of the latter opinion, a gentleman in Shetland last year informed me, that he had a distinct recollection of formerly seeing in an old, Dutch chart the notice of a bank to the west of Foula, corresponding to the observations made in the year 1818.

'For nearly a century and a half after captain Smith's visit, we find that the Dutch still continued to prosecute the cod-fishing on the coast of Shetland. In a MS. tour of the late Reverend George Low, in my possession, made through Shetland in the year 1778, it appears that this gentleman was present when Bressay Sound was filled with Dutch busses preparing to set out for the herring-fishery. After describing, in a very particular manner, the arrangements and economy of this fleet, he adds, 'Besides the herringbusses, the Dutch send out many doggers on the cod-fishing. These are going and coming from early spring through the whole summer. Each dogger has ten men and two boys, the half of whom sleep while the other are employed in fishing.'

'One boat alone,' says this writer afterwards, 'which fished nearly the whole season on the bank, or contiguously to it, took 11,000 fish, equal to thirty-nine ton of wet fish, or fifteen ton of dried fish. I was indeed informed, that upon

one occasion, a vessel with six hands took, in a single tide or day, 1200 fish. The general result of the fishery, however, of last year, could not fairly represent the productiveness of the bank; since the vessels which constantly resorted thither were comparatively few. Notwithstanding, thirteen vessels, from ten to thirty-five tons burden, and having from six to eight hands each, fished, upon an average of each, twelve tons of dried fish; when, in previous years, the average was three or four tons less. During this year, however, a fair trial of the bank was made. The fishing season commenced in May and terminated in August. The number of vessels on the bank was increased from thirteen to twenty-five, and were of various sizes, from ten to sixty tons burden, and manned with from six to twelve hands each, boys included. The average quantity of cod taken was much greater than that of previous years, being not less than fifteen tons of dried fish for each vessel, when, prior to the year 1818, a sloop often took only six or seven tons, and never at the utmost exceeded in this respect twelve tons. Some vessels, however, this year are understood to have obtained from twenty to twenty-five tons each.

'It is evident, with regard to dried cod,' he contends, that the fish prepared in Shetland will ever maintain its pre-eminence over the cod of other places. The Newfoundland fishermen are described as exposing their fish, after it has been salted, on standing flakes, made by a slight wattle, and supported by poles often twenty feet from the ground. But the humidity is not near so well extracted from the fish as when, according to the Shetland method, they are carefully laid out upon dry beaches, the stones of which have been, during winter, exposed to the abrading action of the ocean, and are thus cleared from vegetable and animal matter. I am informed that the fishing season for cod might be successfully prolonged. It regularly commences in May, and ends in August; but Mr. Duncan remarks, that stout vessels might be employed all the year round, as the cod is to be taken at all seasons.'

Sir Thomas Bernard says, 'I bear no personal enmity to the Newfoundland fisheries; but I am persuaded that one domestic fishery upon our own coasts, employing our own people, though only of half their magnitude, would do this country infinitely more real service than they can ever do. They can never provide employment for our own poor; and they are not, exclusively, nurseries for British seamen. So far indeed from their being exclusively so, it is more than doubtful whether their effects are not inimical and injurious to the interests of this country, whilst they are very favorable to those of the American States; especially if it should appear, that a considerable portion of the persons employed in those fisheries, are emigrants from our sister island;-young men in the prime and most valuable part of life; who, instead of supplying our army and navy with sailors and soldiers, fly to a distant quarter of the globe: leaving the helpless and the aged to be provided for at the cost, and by the labor of those who continue at home :-young men, who, at the expira

tion of their three years service, generally settle lowed for the encouragement of British advenfor life in America.'

SECT. II. OF THE HERRING FISHERY.

Our chief stations for this fishery are off the Shetland and Western Islands, and off the coast of Norfolk, in which the Dutch also share. See CLUPEA. There are two seasons for it; the first from June to the end of August, and the second in autumn, when the fogs become very favorable for this kind of fishing. The Dutch begin their herring fishing on the 24th of June, and employ a vast number of vessels in it, called busses, being between forty-five and sixty tons burden each, carrying three or four small guns. Before they go out, they are said to make a verbal agree ment respecting their conduct on the voyage, which is very honorably observed. The regulations of the admiralty of Holland are partly followed by most nations: as, that no fisher shall cast his net within 100 fathoms of another boat; that while the nets are cast, a light shall be kept on the hind part of the vessel: that when a boat is by any accident obliged to leave off fishing, the light shall be cast into the sea: that when the greater part of a fleet leaves off fishing, and casts anchor, the rest shall do the same, &c. Mr. Anderson, in his History of Commerce, attributes to the Scots a knowledge of great antiquity in the herring fishery. He says that the Netherlanders resorted to these coasts as early as A. D. 836, to purchase salted fish of the natives; but, imposing on strangers, they learned the art, and took up the trade, which has since proved of such immense emolument to the Dutch. Sir Walter Raleigh's observations on that head, extracted from the same author, are extremely worthy the attention of the curious, and excite reflections on the vast strength resulting from the wisdom of well-applied industry. In 1603, he remarks, the Dutch sold to different nations as many herrings as amounted to £1,759,000 sterling. In 1615 they at once sent out 2000 busses, and employed in them 37,000 fishermen. In 1618 they sent out 3000 ships, with 50,000 men, to take the herrings, and 9000 more ships to transport and sell the fish; which by sea and land employed 150,000 men, besides those first mentioned. All this wealth was gotten on our coasts; while our attention was taken up in a distant whalefishery. The Scottish monarchs for a long time seemed to direct all their attention to the preservation of the salmon-fishery; probably because their subjects were novices in sea affairs. At length James III. endeavoured to stimulate his great men to these patriotic undertakings; for, by an act of his third parliament, he compelled 'certain lords spiritual and temporal, and burghs, to make ships, busses, and boats, with nets and other pertinents for fishing. That the same should be made in each burgh; in number according to the substance of each burgh, and the least of them to be of twenty tons: and that all idle men be compelled by the sheriffs in the country to go on board the same.' Numerous indeed have been the attempts made at different periods to secure this treasure to ourselves, but with little success. In the reign of Geo. II. a very strong effort was made, and bounties al

turers: the first was of 30s. per ton to every buss of seventy tons and upwards. This bounty was afterwards raised to 50s. per ton, to be paid to such adventurers as were entitled to it by claiming it at the places of rendezvous. The busses are from twenty to ninety tons burden, but the best size is eighty. A vessel of eighty tons ought to take ten lasts, or 120 barrels of herrings, to clear expenses, the price of the fish to be admitted to be a guinea a barrel. A ship of this size ought to have eighteen men, and three boats; one of twenty tons should have six men; and every five tons above require an additional hand. To every ton are 280 yards of nets; so a vessel of eighty tons carries 20,000 square yards: each net is twelve yards long, and ten deep; and every boat takes out from twenty to thirty nets, and puts them together so as to form a long train; they are sunk at each end of the train by a stone, which weighs it down to the full extent: the top is supported by buoys, made of sheep's skin, with a hollow stick at the mouth, fastened tight; through this the skin is blown up, and then stopped with a peg, to prevent the escape of the air. Sometimes these buoys are placed at the top of the nets; at other times the nets are suffered to sink deeper, by lengthening the cords fastened to them, every cord being for that purpose ten or twelve fathoms long. But the best fisheries are generally in more shallow water.

Of the herring fishery in the Western Isles the following account is given by Mr. Pennant, in his Voyage to the Hebrides. The fishing is always performed in the night, unless by accident. The busses remain at anchor, and send out their boats a little before sun-set; which continue out, in winter and summer, till daylight; often taking up and emptying their nets, which they do ten or twelve times in a night, in case of good success. During winter it is a most dangerous and fatiguing employ, by reason of the greatness and frequency of the gales in these seas, and in such gales are the most successful captures: but, by the Providence of heaven, the fishers are seldom lost; and, what is wonderful, few are visited with illness. They go out well prepared, with a warm great coat, boots, and skin aprons, and a good provision of beef and spirits. The same good fortune attends the busses, which in the tempestuous season, and in the darkest nights, are continually shifting, in these narrow seas, from harbour to harbour. Sometimes eighty barrels of herrings are taken in a night by the boats of a single vessel. It once happened, in Loch Slappan, in Skye, that a buss of eighty tons might have taken 200 barrels in one night, with 10,000 square yards of net; but the master was obliged to desist, for want of a sufficient number of hands to preserve the capture. The herrings are preserved by salting, after the entrails are taken out. This last is an operation performed by the country people, who get three half-pence per barrel for their trouble; and sometimes, even in the winter, can gain fifteen pence a-day. This employs both women and children; but the salting is only entrusted to the crew of the busses. The fish are laid on their backs in the barrels, and layers of salt be

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