The debts of the seamen to the agents are often considerable in bad years, and the agents often lose a great deal by bad debts. The amount of the accounts after successful voyages may be seen from the abstracts given in by Messrs. Hay & Co. and Mr. Tulloch. Mr. Tulloch and Mr. Tait agree in saying that the men's average out-takes still amount to about one-fifth of their earnings; and Mr. Robertson estimates them at one-fourth. In the case of the 'Camperdown,' in 1865, under the old system, the men's earnings for both the seal and whale fishery amounted to £1537, 10s. 3d.; the amount of cash paid was £1120, 12s. 3d.; leaving £416, 18s. for goods sold. This case was selected by the witness. The accounts in the agent's ledger are settled when the men come to Lerwick for the purpose, many within a month or two after the men are landed, but in other cases, where the men live at a distance, not for several months. No doubt the men are in some measure to be blamed for this; but there can be no doubt that they would attend for payment at the proper time if the agents and shipmaster seriously insisted on their doing so. Before 1867 the men received the balance of wages due to them at the agent's office, the whole of the payments in cash and supplies of goods made in the course of the year to themselves or their families having been deducted. The account was balanced by payment of the sum remaining due after these deductions. Since 1867 the account in the agent's books is still in the same form, and is balanced exactly in the same way; but the seaman goes through the form of receiving at the Mercantile Marine Office the whole sum due to him, under deduction only of the advances, etc., allowed by the Merchant Shipping Act. His account is read over and made ready for settlement before he goes to the Mercantile Marine Office; and after he has got the lawful sum of money there, he returns to the agent's office, and either hands back what he owes for goods or cash advanced over and above the legitimate deductions already made, or he hands over the whole money he has got at the Custom-house to the agent, that he may pay himself, and settle the account in the regular Shetland fashion. The accounts due for former years to other agents are sometimes deducted from the balance due; and with this view, it was formerly the practice, not yet quite obsolete, that lists of indebted men should be handed from one agent to another, and that their old accounts should be found standing against them in the books of their new agent. Down to 1870 accounts were still 'squared' at the Custom-house in some cases, the agent handing over there only the exact sum due to the men.