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You are here: Home / Images / An Account of the Present State of the Hebrides and Western Coasts of Scotland, 1785

An Account of the Present State of the Hebrides and Western Coasts of Scotland, 1785

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'An Account of the Present State of the Hebrides and Western Coasts of Scotland' by Dr James Anderson. Printed [by Mundell & Wilson] for G. Robinson, London, and C. Elliot, Edinburgh, 1785.

Appendix II, pp. 338-9. Thought to be the earliest mention in print of the ring-netting technique. Transcript below:

'14. An ingenious man, one Bruce of Aberdeen contrived a net to be employed in the herring-fishery, that promises to be of much use, on a principle different from either of the foregoing. A description of it was sent to Dr Anderson, which he showed to the principal fishermen on the coast, who unanimously agreed, that in many cases it could be employed with the greatest success, tho’ it could not apply in all cases. The net was proposed to be made of as great length and depth as could conveniently be managed; to be shot by one or two boats according to its size; to take a circular sweep, so as to close both ends at one point. The bottom was then to be drawn close by means of a line drawn through open holes made for that purpose, so as to form a kind of bag when close dawn, which would effectually confine all the fish that had been at first enclosed within it, which, when the shoals were thick, would be an immense quantity. These might be taken out at leisure, by small nets fixed to a handle, like those used by the Swedes'.

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Filed Under: Fish and fishing Tagged With: 1785, Hebrides, herring, James Anderson, museum objects, West Coast

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