Irvine appears to have a different impression, that the obligation
it sought to impose was wide enough in its terms to include
the Faroe fishing, in which Messrs. Hay & Co. are engaged
very extensively. There is some evidence that constraint or
compulsion, or rather influence, such as a landlord can exercise
over his tenants, has been used in Burra and elsewhere, in order to
get [Page 8 rpt.] Faroe fishing-smacks well manned. But so far as
Burra is concerned, that influence seems not to have been applied
in late years, and it is not general elsewhere.

[W. Irvine, 3623, 3754 sqq.; Peter Smith, 1041; C. Sinclair, 1135,
1143; W. Irvine, 3920, W. Williamson, 923; Peter Smith, 1012,
1057; C. Sinclair, 1118; J.L. Pole, 9370.]

GOSSABURGH.

The tenants on the estate of Gossaburgh, in South Yell and
Northmaven, about 120 in number, are also bound to deliver their
fish, both in summer and winter, to Messrs. Hay & Co., as
tacksmen of the property, if they engage in the ling fishing. In the
Northmaven portion of the estate (North Roe), thirty-three out of
fifty-six tenants actually fished for the tacksmen last year; three
fished by sufferance to other curers, two were at Faroe, and two or
three were sailing south; others were employed by the lessees as
curers and tradesmen, and probably a few were unfit for fishing.
The average rent paid by the tenants on this part of the estate is £3,
3s. It seems that the profit of Messrs. Hay & Co. on their tack
consists, as it does in the case of Burra, almost entirely in the
power it gives them over the fishermen tenants.