Totals, 1903. Greenock, Totals, 1904. 789 3,207 90,603 83,009 353 1,064 8,062 9,758 49 147 1,65 23 78 435 504 631 2,709 75,353 82,891 261 824 6,382 7,057 37 105 : ::ལྦ|ལྔ 93 24 2 Totals, 85 34 47 486 2,047 26,934 39,205 177 551 2,482 4,331 17 2,283 2,177 60 180 2,275 2,757 сл Totals, 1906. 504 75 225 4,479 4,938 1,328 1,189 18 54 410 426 690 2,733 38,814 42,969 310 973 11,466 15,211 55 165 58 4 2, THE FLUCTUATIONS FROM YEAR TO YEAR. The statistics relating to the herring fishery in the Clyde which are available are of two kinds-those which have been printed in the published Annual Reports, and those derived from the books of the Fishery Officers of the various districts. The former go back for a long period, nearly a century, to the year 1809, when the Board of British White Herring Fishery was established. They would, therefore, on this account be very valuable for the purpose of this enquiry if they had contained the information required. Unfortunately, those relating to the quantity of herrings taken or landed deal only with the cured fish, no note having been made until comparatively recent years of the quantity used in a fresh state. In the earlier part of the period it is probable that the proportion of herrings made use of in the non-salted condition, unless quite locally, was small; but in the later part of the period there is no doubt that it was very large, and included the greater portion of the catches. These statistics for each year from 1809 to 1906, and for each district as well as for the whole Clyde area, are given in Table I., p. 100, which shows the number of barrels of herrings cured on board vessels and landed in the district, the number of vessels on which the fish were cured, the number of barrels cured on shore, and the total number cured from both sources. During the period some changes took place as regards the limits of the various districts, as indicated in the Table, and one or two of them include parts of the West Coast not within the Firth of Clyde. Thus, the fishing at Islay from the year 1821 on wards was included in the Campbeltown district, while from 1850 to 1862 the whole of the returns referring to this district were included in the Inveraray district. Another example is the Stranraer district, which from 1821 on includes Dumfries, while in the period 1850-1862 the returns were included in the Greenock district, whereas after 1863 a new district of Ballantrae was formed which corresponded to the previous Stranraer district. It is also to be noted in regard to the barrels of herrings cured on board vessels that the statistics refer only to those which were landed in a district, and do not give any clue to the locality where the herrings were caught. In point of fact, the greater part of such herrings were taken outside the limits of the Firth of Clyde, and especially in the lochs of the West Coast further to the north. Still, with all these limitations the figures are instructive as showing in a broad way the progress of the herring fishery in the Clyde during the greater part of last century. When the figures are arranged in decennial periods and the annual mean for each taken, the results are as shown in the following Table :— These figures show the gradual decline in the quantity cured on vessels and the increase of those cured on shore, but an examination of the Table giving the annual quantities indicates that after 1889 a change took place in the method of the returns, particularly in reference to the quantity given as cured on shore. Thus, in 1889 the quantity so cured was returned as 84,967 barrels, while in the following year it is given as 7,773 barrels. Before that date it seems that the herrings which were not cured were included in the totals-that is to say, the herrings which were sold fresh-but there is nothing to show for how many years previously this method was adopted. From another table (Table III., p. 108) which was published in the Annual Reports for the years 1843 to 1857, and which purported to show the total catch of herrings landed in each district, distinguishing those cured from those which were not cured, it appears that the latter were not included up to 1857, and the evidence of the detailed table indicates that the change was probably made in 1879, the herrings sold fresh being apparently included in the totals in that year and afterwards till 1889. There is, however, no certainty on the point. The fluctuations in the quantities from year to year are shown in the detailed table (Table I.), and the minimum and maximum numbers of barrels cured in each decade are as follows: The remark made above as to the inclusion of fish sold fresh among the cured herrings in some of the years applies also to this table; it is therefore uncertain how far the figures can be taken as showing the fluctuations in the yield of the fishery. For the district of Inveraray, which is the chief one to which attention must be directed, a similar summary has been made, showing the average annual number of barrels cured in each decade since 1809, with the maximum and the minimum quantity for each of these periods. The Table is as follows: [TABLE. Average Number of Barrels Cured. Minimum Quantity of Barrels Maximum Quantity of Barrels At some of the enquiries which were held in former years as to the prosperity of the herring fishery in the Clyde and Loch Fyne, various statistics were submitted on behalf of the Fishery Board showing the fluctuations in the quantities of herrings taken over considerable periods. Some of them are for different series of years than those referred to above, and as they appear to have been derived from more detailed information than is available in the published Annual Reports, they may be here given. In the report of the Royal Commission on "Trawling" for herrings, published in 1863, it is stated that the general annual average of herrings taken in Loch Fyne for each five years from the year 1834 to 1862 was as follows: : In a more detailed return for the year 1844 to 1862, published in the same report, and also referring to herrings caught in Loch Fyne, the quantity cured is distinguished from the quantity used fresh, and the total for each year is given, as follows: As the Commissioners peinted out, and as the averages above quoted show, the figures indicate a steady increase on the whole in the quantit of herrings taken, with the fluctuations which always occur in fisheries o this nature. In the report of a later Commission which enquired into the herrin fishery in Scotland, and which was published in 1878, will be foun statistics showing the actual catch of herrings in Loch Fyne, i.e., abov Skipness Point, over a period of fifty years, from 1827 to 1876. Th table was prepared by the late Mr. George Reiach, then the Assistan Inspector of Fisheries, from material which I have not been able t discover or trace, but probably from the books of the districts, which d not now exist. Unfortunately, the statistics are not given in detail for ead year of the period, but only the average catch, the minimum catch, an the maximum catch, in decades. The Table is as follows: *The total for 1846 does not agree with that in the other Table given above The statistics showed that there was an increase in every succeedi decade except the last, which included the years of least productivene as described later. The Assistant Inspector also gave the catches each of the ten years of this decade, 1867-1876, in Loch Fyne, abo Skipness Point, as follows: Besides the statistics relating to the quantity of herrings caught cured, another series of tables began to be published annually in Fishery Reports in 1825, which may be cited as indicating the prospe of the herring fishery in the districts of the Firth of Clyde. They r to the number of boats and fishermen employed in what were termed shore-curing herring and cod and ling fisheries, the number of fish-cu |
