THE recently published Annual Report of the Scottish Fishery Board is full of interesting and useful information on this very important part of the national industries and food supplies.

This Board, as at present constituted, dates only from 1882, but was in existence for many years before that. Its sphere of duties and usefulness is wide and comprehensive, including as it does, gathering 1 statistics, pursuing scientific researches into the habits offish, carrying out the acts of parliament for regulating the fisheries of the sea and river, giving character to each barrel of cured herrings by "branding" it according to its quality, arranging and superintending the construction of fishery harbours under public loans, and the loans to Crofter fishermen for buying and repairing boats and tackle as provided for under the Crofter Act of 1887.

To begin with the first subject, the Report shows that there were 49,221 men and boys employed in the fisheries during the year 1887,whose labours in catching and landing the fish gave employment during a part of the year to 50,973 persons in addition; this being principally in connection with the summer herring fishing.

The number of boats and vessels engaged in the fisheries was 15,135,of an estimated value, including nets, lines and other gear, of 1,712,3491. The value of the total catch of sea fish in the year was 1,915,602?. ; of this 1,128,480Z. was contributed by herrings alone, and 833,732Z. by haddocks.

It is depressing to read that the herring fishery, which comprises in value more than half the total, has resulted during the last few years in very great and at times ruinous losses to those engaged in it. Until 1885 it was the custom for each boat before beginning to fish, to agree with a curer to sell its whole catch for the season at so much per "cran," i.e., the customary measure, considerable advances being made by the purchaser to assist the boats in fitting out. For some years the trade had been prosperous, and this system had worked fairly well for all parties, but it must inevitably have partaken to some extent of the nature of a lottery, which the years 1884, 1885, and 1886 clearly demonstrated. The take of fish in 1884 was the largest ever known, but the fish were not of first rate quality, added to which an increase in the foreign import duties and other causes restricted the demand, with the usual result of glutted markets and a ruinous fall in prices. The same misfortunes to the curers attended the next two years' fishing.

This state of matters could not bat be eventually felt by the fishermen, as shown by the lower prices they realized for their fish, and the fact that in the last year over 900 boats, or nearly one-eighth of the whole number used in the herring fishing, did not fit out at all. The greater part of the herrings are packed in barrels, and exported to Germany, a small proportion going to Ireland, Russia, and other parts of the Continent.

The take of fish of all kinds has been steadily increasing year by year on the coast of Scotland, excepting that of shellfish, which has as steadily decreased. The oyster fisheries in Scotland may be almost said to be extinct, and as yet the measures recently taken for their improvement have given but slight results; perhaps there has not been sufficient time yet to show them.

The mussel is the next important shellfish to the Scotch fisherman, because it forms the staple bait for his hooks. This is folly recognized at several places on the east coast where they are successfully and profitably cultivated; but on the west coast which offers many excellent facilities for mussel beds, little or nothing has been done, and they are following (happily slowly) in the wake of the oyster beds on the road to extinction.

The scientific researches under the Board are varied, and carried out with the one object in view, of extending and increasing knowledge of the propagation, habits, migrations, resorts and food of the " food-fishes," as well as of the best means for maintaining and increasing the supply of them; also as to the best methods of curing them after being caught. To obtain this very necessary knowledge through the researches and exertions of science is generally acknowledged to be the right method of proceeding, and several other maritime countries have taken up the subject in the same way.

The United States of America stand well to the front, having established a Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, putting a well-known scientific naturalist at its head. ' A very practical proof of their earnestness in the subject is given by the fact that between then and 1883, they spent upwards of a quarter of a million sterling on this commission, besides considerable sums spent by different state governments. On the Continent of Europe, Germany, Holland, Norway, Italy, and Sweden are devoting special attention to the scientific study of the fisheries, either through government departments or associations more or less aided by the government.

The points studied in Scotland during the year under consideration, were the effect of trawling, including comparison between the destruction of small and immature fish by the trawl, and by the line fishermen; the result of dredging and trawling operations on various parts of the coast; the saltness and temperature of the water; the contents of the stomachs of herrings and haddocks, the various possible substitutes for mussels as bait, the appearance of certain peculiarities in home-cured fish and other cognate subjects.

The work of the staff of the Board, with their own marine station at St. Andrews, was supplemented by that of the Natural History Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.

The report, after giving the quantities of fish caught on the east and west coasts respectively, attributes the difference in great measure to the much better facilities offered by the railroads on the east coast, over those on the west coast, for distributing the fish through the country, and for supplying distant markets. This is no doubt one cause, but we think another is to be found in the fact that the country is much more thickly populated on the east than on the west. At the same time the chief want at present is means of transport to the great centres of population at such a rate as would admit of the tons and tons of good wholesome fish now used as manure, being sent to them, and sold at a moderate price. This would not only be an inestimable boon to the fishermen, but to the inhabitants of the towns also.

The arrangement for and construction of harbours of shelter for the fishing fleet is a very important part of the Board's duties, and one that must always enlist the sympathy of the ROYAL NATIONAL LIFE- BOAT INSTITUTION as eminently calculated to contribute materially towards its raison ff&re, viz., saving life from shipwreck.

It is not often realized by those who may be watching a fishing fleet putting out to sea in perfectly fine and apparently settled weather, how often, even in the summer, this may change suddenly, and, with but slight warning, torn to a gale, rendering it necessary for the boater to seek shelter from its force in the nearest harbour as soon as possible. During the year 1887,156' lives were lost from fishing-boats on the coast of Scotland; of these 112, were lost on the east coast, 23 in Shetland, and 17 only on the west coast. We do not know where to find a stronger illustration of the necessity for good accessible harbours to run to than in this return; for whilst on the east coast there is nothing but pier and bar harbours, many of them inaccessible at low water, excepting the Firths of Forth, Tay, with the dangerous outlying shoals stndding its approaches, and Cromarty, whilst, the west coast is studded with bays, islands and natural harbours, offering good shelter. At the same time it is true those do not account for the whole difference, because there are many more boats employed on the east coast than on the west, but not enough to account for this difference.

Unfortunately the Scotch returns of loss of life do not go into the details given in those for the coasts of the United Kingdom, therefore it is impossible to analyse them as we did the others in the last number of this journal; but it must surely be possible to reduce the loss of life in Scotch fishingboats below very nearly one-iMf of the total for the United Kingdom. One fruitful source of these casualties, we are satisfied, is the complete want of protection from falling overboard from the large decked fishing-boats there. Several proposals, some of them very practical, have, we believe, been made for doing so, but none has yet been really taken up.

Very great improvements have been introduced into the boats during the last thirty years, a work to which the LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION contributed in a very material degree by introducing in the most practical way the idea of decking the boats all over. This it did by building two, and lending them to selected men at Peterhead, and on very favourable terms, to fish with, and so prove their value, a plan which answered completely, for the gratifying reports received have been fully justified by the plan being universally adopted.

The Scotch fishermen, more particularly those on the east coast, are a remarkably fine body of men, above the average in physique, hardy, brave, intelligent, and, as abody, sober and trustworthy, and therefore constitute the best possible material from which to draw a large naval reserve; more particularly in these days when the required qualifications for efficiency in marine warfare do not include knowledge of and alacrity in handling spars and sails, what is wanted being gunners with " sea-legs." Here alone is a very forcible argument in favour of fostering and improving in every possible way the foundations of their calling, viz., the supply of fish, and the provision of boats and gear with which to work. This latter foundation has been greatly strengthened by a clause in the Crofter Act of 1886, empowering the government, through the Fishery Board, to advance money for purchasing boats and fishing gear on easy terms for repayment. If used with the discretion to be looked for from the Board, we could wish the power extended beyond the "Crofter" parishes detailed in the Act, and judging from the success that has attended the efforts of private exertions in the same direction at Baltimore, county Cork, there ought to be no fear of the result. It is true that a recent act of parliament has facilitated the creation of mortgages on fishing-boats, and it may be considered that using public money for the purpose would be competing with private interests, but it is only the extension of the present system of advancing it for making harbours and other purposes.