Mr. Stevenson was ever an intelligent and anxious observer of the habits and industry of the people of those remote and isolated parts of the country which he so often visited. He was specially interested in the fisheries from which they mainly derive their support, as testified by frequent allusions to them in his journals and notes. The following notice regarding the state of the Scottish fisheries, made in 1819, to the editor of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal,11 will be read with interest:— “Having been for many years conversant with the navigation 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, however, those industrious fishermen had not ventured to approach these shores; and they are now only beginning to reappear. “In the early part of August last, while sailing along the shores of Kincardineshire, about ten miles off Dunnottar Castle, the watch upon deck, at midnight, called out ‘Lights ahead.’ Upon a nearer approach these lights were found to belong to a small fleet of Dutch fishermen “In the Orkney and Shetland Islands one would naturally look for extensive fishing establishments, both in herrings, and what are termed white fish (cod, ling, and tusk); but it is a curious fact, that while the Dutch have long come from their own coast to these islands to fish herrings, it is only within a very few years that the people of Orkney, chiefly by the spirited and praiseworthy exertions of Samuel Laing, Esq., have given any attention to this important source of wealth. It has long been a practice with the great fishmongers of London to send “Hitherto the industry of the Orcadians has been chiefly directed to farming pursuits; while the Shetlanders have been almost exclusively occupied in the cod, ling, and tusk fishing. It is doubtful, indeed, if, up to this period, there be a single boat belonging to the Shetland Isles which is completely equipped for the herring fishery. But on reaching Shetland another fleet of Dutch doggers was seen collecting in numbers off these islands—a coast which is considered a rich harvest in Holland. “So systematically do the Dutch pursue the fishing business upon our coasts, that their fleet of busses is accompanied by an hospital ship. This vessel we now found at anchor in Lerwick roads, and were informed that she paid weekly visits to the fleet, to supply medicines, and to receive any of the people falling sick, or meeting with any accident. “Though Shetland is certainly not so much an agricultural country as Orkney, yet it may be hoped that the encouragement judiciously held out by the Highland Society, for the production of green crops in Shetland, may eventually have the effect of teaching these insular farmers the practicability of providing fodder for their cattle in the spring of the year. This has long been a great desideratum. The command of a month or six “It is well known, that, next to the Newfoundland Banks, those of Shetland are the most productive in ling, cod, tusk, and other white fish; and by the recent discovery of a bank, trending many leagues to the south-westward, the British merchants have made a vast accession to their fishing grounds. The fishermen who reside in the small picturesque bay of Scalloway, and in some of the other bays and voes on the western side of the mainland of Shetland, have pursued with much success the fishing upon this new bank, which I humbly presume to term the Regent Fishing Bank—a name at once calculated to mark the period of its discovery, and pay a proper compliment to the Prince. Here small sloops, of from fifteen to twenty-five tons burden, and manned with eight persons, have been employed. In the beginning of August they had this summer fished for twelve weeks, generally returning home with their fish once a week. On an average, these vessels had caught 1000 fine cod fish a week, of which about 600 in a dried state go to the ton, and these they would have gladly sold at about £15 per ton. So numerous are the fish upon the Regent Fishing Bank, that a French vessel, belonging, it is believed, to St. Malo, had sailed with her second cargo of fish this season; and though the fishermen did not mention this under any apprehension, as though there were danger of the fish becoming scarce, yet they seemed to regret the circumstance, on account of their market being thus preoccupied. “From the Orkney and Shetland Islands our course was directed to the westward. A considerable salmon fishing seems to be carried on in the mouths of the rivers of Lord Reay’s Country in Sutherlandshire: the fish are carried from this to Aberdeen, and thence in regular trading smacks to London. We heard little more of any kind of fishing till we reached the Harris Isles. There, and throughout the numerous lochs and fishing stations on the mainland, in the districts of Gairloch, Applecross, Lochalsh, Glenelg, Moidart, Knoidart, Ardnamurchan, 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 suppose to be owing to the Schools being broken and divided 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 Skye, the Lewis, Harris, and Uist Islands, the inhabitants have of late years turned their attention much to the fishing. Indeed, * * * * * The following history of the origin of the Shetland herring fishery, communicated to Blackwood’s Magazine in 1821, is, I think, worthy of being recorded:— “Few people, on examining the map of Scotland, would believe that the herring fishing has only within these few years been begun in Orkney, while the natives are almost strangers to the fishing of cod and ling. “The immediate management of this experimental fishery was undertaken in the most patriotic and disinterested manner by Mr. Duncan, the Sheriff-Substitute of Shetland. Having procured three boats, he afterwards visited Orkney, to ascertain the mode of conducting the business there, and having also got fishermen from the south, this little adventure commenced. Its nets were first wetted in the month of July, and it is believed its labours were concluded in the month of September, after obtaining what is considered pretty good success, having caught as follows, viz.:—
“The great object which the Shetland gentlemen have in view, in this infant establishment, is to give employment to their fishermen in the herring trade, after the cod and ling season is over, and by this means to enable them “The profit of the herring fishing at its commencement has, however, afforded more encouragement than could have been expected; for, besides paying the men a liberal allowance for their labour, a small sum has been applied towards defraying the expense of the boats and nets. But what is of far more consequence to this patriotic association is the spirit of enterprise which it is likely to create by bringing forward a number of additional boats in the way of private adventure, which must be attended with the best advantage to the Shetland Islands.” THE SYMPIESOMETER.Again, in 1820, Mr. Stevenson took occasion to express his solicitude for the welfare of the fishermen in the following note, suggesting the means whereby they might sometimes avoid a coming storm—a suggestion which is now to some extent carried out by the Board of Trade’s establishment of marine barometers at many of our fishing stations:— “Mr. Stevenson informs us,” says the editor of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal12 for 1820, “that having occasion, in the beginning of September last, to visit the Isle of Man, he beheld the interesting spectacle of about 300 large fishing boats, each from fifteen to twenty tons THE HABITS OF FISHES.The following notes as to the habits of fish may prove of interest to the naturalist:— “It has often been observed in the course of the Bell Rock operations, that during the cold weather of spring and autumn, and even at all seasons, in stormy weather, when the sea is much agitated by wind, the fishes disappear entirely from the vicinity of the rock, probably retreating into much deeper water, from which they do not seem to return until a change of weather has taken place; so much was this attended to by the seamen employed on this service, that they frequently prognosticated and judged of the weather from this habit of the fishes as well as from the appearance of the sky.” “It was a general remark at the Bell Rock that fish were never plenty in its neighbourhood, excepting in good weather. Indeed, the seamen used to speculate about the state of the weather from their success in fishing. When the fish disappeared at the rock, it was considered a sure indication that a gale was not far off, as the fish seemed to seek shelter in deeper water, from the roughness of the sea, during these changes of the On showing this extract to my friend Dr. P.D. Handyside, who has contributed some interesting papers to the Royal Society of Edinburgh on the Polyodon gladius, he writes:—“Biot and De La Roche found that the proportion of oxygen in the air bladder increases with the depth of the water in which the fish usually lives, from a small quantity up to 87 per cent. Biot found in the deep Mediterranean fishes 87 parts of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. Humboldt found in the electrical eel 96 parts of nitrogen and 4 only of oxygen. No hydrogen has ever been detected in this organ. In the air bladder of marine fishes oxygen predominates, and in that of fresh-water fishes nitrogen. No air sacs exist in rays, flounders, sole, turbot, and others which lie at the bottom.” Dr. Handyside adds: “The extract shows with what a I also communicated Mr. Stevenson’s papers on fishings to the Honble. B.F. Primrose, C.B. (Secretary to the Fishery Board: Scotland), who has kindly sent me a letter explaining why the progress of the fishings in the Shetland Islands is slow, from which I give a few extracts:—
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