Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

FISHERIES.
proprietors to the tenants of large sheep farms. The
Commissioners, under their powers for dealing with
arrears of rent, have cancelled about 80 per cent., the
amount which has been usually standing against the
small tenants being on the average three years' rent.
The Commissioners had certain powers under the Act
for dealing with extension of holdings, but very little
has been done under these clauses, the advocates of
the crofters maintaining that they are practically in-
operative. About 1884 a body which is now styled
the Highland Land League was originated, and it has
made itself particularly active in recent years in de-
manding greater powers for the enlargement of hold-
ings. After the extension of the franchise it secured
control of the parliamentary representation of the
crofter counties, and owing to the pressure which it
was able to bring to bear on the Government, Mr
Gladstone in 1892 appointed a Royal Commission,
popularly known as the Deer Forests Commission, of
which Sheriff Brand was also chairman. They visited
most of the large deer forests and sheep-farming areas
in the Highlands, and took evidence undei a remit as
to whether any, and if so what, land at present used
for grazing or sporting purposes is capable of being
profitably or advantageously occupied by crofters or
other small tenants. Their report was presented to
Parliament in April, 1895. It deals with all the
seven crofting counties, and schedules lands extending
to 1,782,785 acres. Of this vast area 794,750 acres
are set apart for new holdings; 439,188 acres for the
extension of existing holdings; and 548,847 acres for
moderately-sized farms. In Argyllshire 378,813 acres
are scheduled; in Inverness-shire, 549,598 acres; in
Ross and Cromarty, 323,233 acres; in Sutherland,
395,898 acres; in Caithness, 86,410 acres; in Orkney,
12,985 acres; and in Shetland, 40,848 acres. The
scheduled area in grazing farms is much larger than
in deer forests. Of the total of 1,782,785 acres, up-
wards of 61,000 acres are old arable land — that is,
land from which the people have been cleared. It
remains to be seen in what way Parliament will en-
deavour to give practical effect to the report of the
Commission.
When Secretary for Scotland, the Marquis of Lothian
made an official tour of the Highlands, the result of
which was the appointment in 1890 of a Commission
under Mr Spencer Walpole to deal with the question of
the possibility of fostering the fishing industry in the
West Highlands by means of improved piers and har-
bours. Another Commission, with the same object,
was appointed the following year, to inspect sundry
proposed new railway routes in the north-west, and
they made certain recommendations. Following upon
these inquiries, considerable grants were made for
piers and harbours on the west coast, particularly in
the Lews, and the Government have promised a guar-
antee for the extension of the West Highland Railway
to Mallaig, so as to increase the facilities for the
transmission of fish to the southern markets.
In connection with the Highland land question, it
may be mentioned that within the last twenty years
something approaching a revolution has taken place
in the position of the large sheep farmer in the north.
He at first found himself brought into competition
with the immense supplies of fine wool which were
imported from the Colonies, especially from Australia,
and more recently another element has been added by
the large importations of fresh mutton from abroad.
Farmers found that they were unable to continue to
pay the high rents which in the early days of the
sheep-growing industry they were quite able to meet,
and as leases ran out there was an extreme unwilling-
ness on their part to take their farms except at a very
great reduction of the old rents. Another cause of
the depression is due to the deterioration of Highland
grazings, which will not nearly carry the same number
of sheep as formerly. In some cases within the past
half-dozen years, farms in Skye have been let at a
reduction of something like 40 to 50 per cent. This
has undoubtedly led to the tendency which has been
recently shown by the proprietors, when these great
farms became vacant, to meet the demand on the part
of rich sporting tenants in the south, and in con-
sequence immense areas that were formerly under
sheep have been gradually turned into deer forests.
The outcry which arose in some districts against this ex-
tensive and continuous afforestment gave strength to
the representations that were made to the Government
to consider whether these lands should not be made
available for small tenants.
FISHERIES.
By James G. Bertram.
When it is stated that fish of the value of more than
£3,000,000 are annually captured in what may be
termed the seas and rivers of Scotland, or are obtained
by boats and crews sailing from Scottish ports to other
waters, the great importance of the Scottish fisheries at
once becomes apparent, not only because of its vast
contribution to the national commissariat, but also be-
cause of the money expended in the construction of
harbours, the building of boats, the manufacture of
sail-cloth, the weaving of nets, the making of barrels,
and the transmission of the fish caught to the vari-
ous centres of consumption. Scotland from an early
period in its history has made its mark on the
waters, and has during late years been foremost in
its endeavours to secure a large share of the ' harvest
of the sea.'
The Herring Fishery. — The chief food-yielding fishes
are plentifully found off the Scottish coasts, on many
points of which important fishery centres have long
been established; but the particular fish which from
time immemorial has been most eagerly sought for and
most plentifully found in Scottish water is the herring
— the capture of which throughout Scotland has during
many years been a well-organised industry, and is at
present yielding a sum of over £2,000,000 sterling per
annum to Scottish fishermen.
Although the natural history of the herring has at
all times attracted attention, it is only within the last
few years that definite knowledge has been obtained of
its growth and habits. It is a fish which breeds and
lives in our immediate seas in vast numbers, the her-
rings of different localities being easily distinguishable
from each other. Pennant's story of the annual migra-
tion of the herring to and from the Arctic seas has long
since been proved a myth, founded probably on the
speculations of ignorant fishermen. The herring is not
migratory further than that it approaches the land in
search of suitable spawning ground, and it is then that
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