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of fishing-gear used on board each class of boats is also shown, while the highest number of herringboats fishing from each district follows, as well as the number of seaworthy boats unlaunched during the year. Then follows the number of men employed on board fishing-vessels. The officer obtains these returns chiefly during the annual survey of his district—a duty which he performs at least once a year after obtaining sanction for incurring the expense involved; usually estimated from the head office. The expense varies according to the facilities for travelling. On arrival at a fishing-village the officer usually ascertains, by personal inspection, the actual condition of those local boats which are at home, and confers with the leading fishermen, and obtains from them the information he desires as to boats (and relative gear) which may be fishing in some other district at the time, and records it in a note-book. Any changes occurring between the period of his visit and the close of the year are reported by his local correspondent. He also takes the opportunity of obtaining as much information as possible on this subject from the masters of boats whose certificates of registry he has to endorse once a year. The information obtained during the survey is, on the officer's return to his station, embodied in a book entitled " Means-of-capture Book," which is drawn up in such a manner as to show the basis on which the total figures are arrived at. It would naturally be most difficult to give a mathematically accurate estimate of the area of nets, length of lines, and the value of the same used at each creek. In order to overcome this difficulty as far as possible, the officers fix on an average area for each net, an average length for each description of line, and an average value, reducing or increasing the latter each year after inspecting the general condition of the gear. The Inspectors pay periodical visits to each district, and confer with the officers as to any point of difficulty arising in connection with the statistical returns. At the close of each year every officer has to forward his " Means-of-capture Book," together with the annual return abstracted therefrom, to the head office for inspection, and the latter embodied in the annual report. (2.) Fish landed. —Information as to the fish landed in Scotland embraces quantities and values of twenty-six different varieties of fish (excluding shell-fish, of which six varieties are given) landed in each district by—(l) steam trawlers, (2) steam and sailing liners, and (3) steam and sailing herringdrifters. Returns of the total annual catch landed at each fishing creek or village are also shown, together with a general statement of the fishing-grounds on which taken. Such general statement is really the only essential in the majority of cases, as the local grounds are perfectly familiar to all those interested, but, as regards trawling-ports, from which steam fishing-vessels other than trawlers also usually fish, it is necessary to secure more detailed information, as the field of operations is more extended. Thus, in the case of Aberdeen, the principal trawling-port, the Board's fishery officers and clerks endeavour to secure details from each vessel of every catch landed, the place of fishing, the depth, and the number of hours actually fishing, while, in the case of trawlers, the number of hauls made are obtained, and in the case of liners, the number of lines used. For this information the officials are entirely dependent on the skippers of vessels, the only check available being the characteristics of the fish landed, long experience having enabled those in constant touch with the market to form some idea of the ground on which boats have been fishing by the character of the catch and the appearance and quality of the fish. The Aberdeen returns also classify haddocks into extra large, large, medium and small; cod into cod and codling; lemon sole into large and small; plaice into large, medium, and small; whitches, large and small; and megrims, large and small. In addition to the annual returns, the officers throughout the year furnish weekly reports on the fisheries of their respective districts, while during the progress of the summer herring-fishery a detailed weekly return (based on. information supplied by correspondents) is submitted of the number of boats fishing daily, the daily catch, prices, fishing-grounds, and the quantity cured, branded, and exported, this information being also embodied (more concisely) in a telegram addressed to the head office every Monday for communication to the Press. Officers are also authorized to exchange wires daily as to catch, fishing-grounds, and prices, and these wires are posted up at the mart for the information of fishermen, salesmen, and curers. Local correspondents, on their appointment, are supplied with a book in which to record the quantities and values of the different kinds of fish landed at the creek for which they are responsible. At the end of each month each correspondent furnishes a return of the total fish landed at his station to the officer, who checks the return, as far as possible, and embodies the figures in a monthly return to the Board, which is in its turn embodied at the head office in a return for transmission to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the newspapers. The Inspectors make periodical inspection of the correspondents' books to see that they are properly kept. At the close of the year the local officer forwards his book containing the returns of fish landed to the head office for inspection, together with an abstract therefrom for insertion in the annual report. It may be explained here that the large-sized kinds of fish are usually sold by number, and their weight is calculated on an average of so-many fish to the hundredweight. The smaller-sized fish, on the other hand, are usually placed in boxes which are estimated to contain 1 cwt. of fish. At Aberdeen, the clerks assisting the local officers are in close attendance at the fish-market, and they take a note of the details of the catch of each vessel, together with the amount realized; while at the other trawlingports the larger trawling companies are supplied by the officers with blank statutory forms in which they insert the figures for each month. (3.) Fish cured. —Statistics of cured fish are obtained from curing-firms on statutory forms. The procedure is as follows : A person desirous of engaging in the curing of cod, ling, or herrings must in the first place (in terms of the statutes) send a formal notice of his intention to the local officer, who immediately enters his name in a book kept for the purpose, and furnishes him with a blank form in which he enters the particulars of the cod, ling, or herring cured and the manner in which treated, whether gutted or ungutted. At the end of the herring, or cod-fishing season, the figures given in the