The cod fishing was carried on until quite recently (about 1877) by means of long lines with baited hooks, the bait being mostly mussels. Since 1877 nets have to a great extent displaced the baited lines. The lines were entirely made by the people themselves, of horse-hair and hemp, until the early part of the present century. The hooks were also home-made, for Gairloch used to be self-contained. The hooks were made out of knitting needles, cut into proper lengths and then bent to the right shape, to effect which one end was fixed in a door key. The point was then sharpened on a stone, and the barb was raised by means of a knife. Ruaridh Ceard, the blacksmith at Second Coast (he was a tinker), used to make fish-hooks from backs of pocket-knives and odd bits of steel. At that time everybody in Gairloch grew a small plot of hemp. The women spun the flax with the distaff, and herring-nets and fishing-lines were made from it. Fish-hooks and lines, as well as herring-nets, were precious articles in those days. It was about the year 1823 that a large ship put into Ullapool and was there destroyed by fire. Among her cargo, which was partially saved, were casks of hooks, and these were the first manufactured hooks known in this district. The Gairloch cod fishery is now carried on by two firms, who have curing-houses or stations at Badachro, one on the Dry Island and the other on Eilean (or Isle) Horisdale. The fishery seems to be more productive now than even in the days of Sir Hector Mackenzie. It yields an average of about forty thousand cod per annum. The year 1884 was extraordinarily good. The number of cod cured and sent away fresh was about eighty thousand, besides about forty-four thousand saythe. These figures were about double the average. A few ling are also taken, but they are the same price as cod, and are counted among them. In 1884 about a third part of the fish were dried; the remainder were sent fresh to Glasgow and the English markets by steamer. The price paid to the fishermen in 1884 was 11d. for each cod and 4d. for each saythe. The number of boats employed was forty. Each boat had as a rule four men, so that there were in all one hundred and sixty fishermen employed besides about thirty workmen and ten women who worked at the stations. The cod were larger than in Pennant's day. The season of 1885 was not so productive, and the prices were lower, viz., 7d. for each cod and 3d. for each saythe; a few boats had 8d. for each cod. Some lines with baited hooks are still used instead of nets. Mr John Mackenzie, the manager of the Dry Island station, who has furnished much of this information about the fishery, is of opinion that the lines are far better than nets, and he says this was proved in 1885. Of course the use of the lines necessitates a certain loss of time in collecting bait.