Buffer statistics may be obtained with:

        mit2-gw.near.net>sh buffers
        Buffer elements:
             433 in free list (500 max allowed)
             82320311 hits, 0 misses, 0 created
        Small buffers, 104 bytes (total 202, permanent 120):
             185 in free list (20 min, 250 max allowed)
             34289219 hits, 4297 misses, 1307 trims, 1389 created
        Middle buffers, 600 bytes (total 104, permanent 90):
             102 in free list (10 min, 200 max allowed)
             6829533 hits, 1432 misses, 483 trims, 497 created
        Big buffers, 1524 bytes (total 90, permanent 90):
             90 in free list (5 min, 300 max allowed)
             3403884 hits, 56 misses, 1 trims, 1 created
        Large buffers, 5024 bytes (total 5, permanent 5):
             5 in free list (0 min, 30 max allowed)
             49984 hits, 13 misses, 20 trims, 20 created
        Huge buffers, 18024 bytes (total 0, permanent 0):
             0 in free list (0 min, 4 max allowed)
             0 hits, 0 misses, 0 trims, 0 created
        
        5683 failures (0 no memory)

You can interpret them:

Total   Number of buffers of that size that exist. 

Free    Number of free buffers.

Max     Maximum size that the free list can grow to before we start
        throwing them away.

Hit     Buffer got used.

Miss    Someone requested a buffer and we had to go carve it up out of
        free memory.  If we couldn't because we were at interrupt
        level, it's also an allocation failure.  If we couldn't
        because we were out of memory, then it's also a ``no memory''
        failure.

Trim    There are more free buffers on the free list than there need
        to be and we threw some away.

Create  Number of buffers we created after a miss.