THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition 
 
 LONDON, 1883 
 
 THE 
 
 HERRING FISHERIES 
 
 SCOTLAND 
 
 BY 
 
 R. W. DUFF, M.P. 
 
 LONDON 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED 
 
 INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION 
 
 AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 
 1883 

 
 International Fisheries Exhibition, 
 
 LONDON, 1883. 
 
 CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 1883. 
 
 DR. LYON PLAYFAIR in the Chair. 
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES OF 
 SCOTLAND. 
 
 IN the paper I am about to read on the Herring Fisheries, 
 I do not propose to discuss the natural history of the 
 herring, as that is a subject which at these Conferences, 
 and elsewhere, has been amply dealt with by far more 
 competent authorities. 
 
 I propose to treat the Herring Fisheries from a practical 
 point of view, showing the progress of the industry, its 
 national importance, and the requirements for the mainten- 
 ance and further development of the most productive 
 Fishery of the United Kingdom. 
 
 A knowledge of the natural history and habits of the 
 herring is doubtless necessary for the proper treatment of 
 the subject, even from the point of view I am attempting 
 to deal with it, but scientific authorities differ in so 
 many important matters concerning the natural history 
 and migration of the herring, and so little is positively 
 known on the subject, that I think it prudent to avoid 
 controversial points of natural history, and to confine 
 myself to such practical matters as have come under my 
 
 notice in legislation connected with the Herring Fisheries 
 
 f*/1 ^("V 1 "' ' 
 [2] t>4: / / / f B 2
 
 and to such improvements for their development as a 
 nautical experience of twelve years in the Navy suggests. 
 
 Now the treatment of the subject from the point of 
 view I have indicated, necessitates a reference to statistics. 
 I regret to say that the only reliable figures I can find are 
 those relating to the Scotch Herring Fisheries, compiled by 
 the Fishery Board for Scotland, and I may here remark 
 that I think it is a matter of very great regret that no 
 attention has hitherto been paid to the recommendation of 
 the Sea Fisheries Commission of 1866, who say, "We think 
 it a matter of great importance that Fishery statistics 
 should be systematically collected. It is only by such 
 means that the constant recurrence of the panics to which 
 the Sea Fishery interests have hitherto been subjected can 
 be prevented, and that any trustworthy conclusion can be 
 arrived at regarding the effects of the modes of fishing 
 which are in use. It is probable that the existing Coast 
 Guard or Customs organisation may be utilised to collect 
 statistics, as is now to some extent the case in Ireland." 
 
 The necessity for fuller information than we possess 
 concerning our Sea Fisheries must, I feel sure, be im- 
 pressed on us by the able and interesting paper read on 
 Tuesday by Professor Brown Goode, as the result of the 
 application of improved modes of capture and transit of 
 fish in the United States could not have been established 
 without the elaborate statistics he was able to put before 
 us. 
 
 My general observations may be taken as applying to 
 the Herring Fisheries of the United Kingdom, but for the 
 reason I have mentioned they are made with particular 
 reference to what is undoubtedly our most important Herring 
 Fisheries, viz., those of Scotland. 
 
 Dealing, in the first instance, with the progress of the
 
 Scotch Herring Fisheries I shall only take you back to the 
 year 1810, when I find by the statistics of the Scotch 
 Fishery Board the number of herrings cured were as 
 follows ; 
 
 Barrels cured. Barrels exported; 
 
 1810 90,185 35,848 
 
 1830 326,557 181,654 
 
 1850 ..... 770,698 340,250 
 
 1880 1,473,600 1,009,811 
 
 I may here mention that a barrel contains 32 gallons 
 English Wine measure, and it is calculated that each barrel 
 contains from 800 to 900 herrings. A barrel of salted 
 herrings, taking the average of the different qualities, 
 represents herrings to the value of 25^. According to this 
 estimate the value of the herrings cured in Scotland in 
 1880 represents ; i, 842,000. It is calculated that 20 per 
 cent, of the herrings are sold fresh, assuming the fresh 
 herring to be only worth as much as the cured, although it 
 is probably more valuable, the total quantity taken off the 
 Coast of Scotland in 1880 would represent a money value 
 of ^2,210,460.* In the valuable paper prepared for this 
 Conference by the Duke of Edinburgh, His Royal Highness 
 estimates the money value of the fish taken off the Coast 
 of these Islands at 7,380,000. It will thus be seen that 
 the produce of the Scotch Herring Fisheries bears a large 
 proportion to the total value of the fish brought to our 
 shores. 
 
 The Herring Fishery of 1880 was the most productive 
 ever experienced in Scotland, and it was one which enabled 
 
 * Professor Brown Goode estimates the American Oyster Fisheries 
 as producing ^2,799,790 a year, ^589,330 more than the Scotch 
 Herring Fisheries, the latter being twice as valuable as any other 
 single American Fishery.
 
 the Scotch curer to export a greater quantity of cured 
 herrings to the Continent than either the Norwegians or 
 the Dutch, who have long been the. established and worthy 
 rivals of the Scotch in the Continental markets. I find, 
 from the statistics laid before the Herring Brand Committee 
 of 1 88 1, the relative quantity of herrings imported at Stettin 
 was : 
 
 Scotland. Norway. Holland. 
 
 1869 to 1874, average of 6 years 569,741 936,105 161,961 
 1875 1880 6 629,101 694,502 148,663 
 
 The Norwegian barrel is ^th less than the Scotch ; the 
 Dutch barrel is the same size. 
 
 These figures do not, of course, represent the total 
 export of each country. A quantity of Dutch herrings 
 are sent up the Rhine, and Holland, like Norway 
 and Scotland, has a considerable export trade in cured 
 herrings with most European countries. The Baltic ports, 
 however, take the large proportion of the Scotch and, I 
 believe, also of the Norwegian herrings ; a comparison, 
 therefore, of the imports at these ports may be taken as 
 indicating the relative prosperity of the herring trade of 
 the two countries. The demand for cured herrings in the 
 interior of Europe may be shown by a statement of Mr. 
 Reid, the British Vice-Consul at Stettin. Speaking of 
 Scotch herrings imported at Stettin, he said, before the 
 Committee of 1881 : "We send them all round, beginning 
 with Poland and Warsaw and the territory between Stettin 
 and Warsaw, the south of Russia, Gallicia, round by Vienna, 
 along to Bavaria, and then as far round until we get to 
 Magdeburg, when the imports of Hamburgh come in and 
 compete with our offers." 
 
 The progress of the Dutch Herring Fisheries is indicated 
 by the statistics in the Exhibition, showing that since 1857
 
 they have increased in value from 47,908 to 147,788 per 
 annum. 
 
 Returning to the Scotch Herring Fisheries, I should 
 mention that the herrings cured in 1881 (the last year for 
 which I have reliable statistics) showed a decrease as com- 
 pared with 1880, of 362,445 barrels, but an increase as com- 
 pared with the average of the last ten years of 2 1 per cent. 
 
 Besides producing the large revenue I have referred to 
 the Scotch Herring Fisheries give employment to 48,000 
 fishermen, 2,400 coopers, 18,854 salters and packers. There 
 are 14,800 boats employed, while the value of the boats, 
 nets, and lines is estimated at 1,5 00,000. 
 
 An industry conducted on so large a scale must be of 
 great value to any country. It is difficult to exaggerate 
 its importance to the North of Scotland, where the indus- 
 tries are few, and where the soil is frequently sterile and 
 unproductive. 
 
 Professor Huxley in his opening address referred to the 
 large proportion of food frequently taken from the sea as 
 compared with the land. This is well illustrated by the 
 relative products of our Northern Counties. 
 
 I once made a calculation, taking my figures from the 
 Domesday Book, that the annual rental of the nine 
 Northern Counties in Scotland, amounted to 1,299,704, 
 being half a million less than the value of the cured herrings 
 in Scotland, already referred to, in 1880, and the value of 
 herrings cured at three stations, in the same year, on the 
 Aberdeenshire Coast, viz. : Aberdeen, Peterhead, and 
 Frazerburgh, exceeded the rental of the County of Aber- 
 deen (the City of Aberdeen alone excepted) by 69,000. 
 
 The statistics I have given I think prove the national 
 importance of the Herring Fisheries, they also show that 
 the progress of the Scotch Fisheries, although subject to
 
 8 
 
 some slight fluctuations, has been rapid and continuous. I 
 will now consider the conditions under which they have 
 prospered and under which the trade in cured herrings has 
 so greatly increased. 
 
 The Herring Fisheries Commission of 1878 reports that 
 up to 1829 it had been the policy of the legislation to 
 encourage the Herring Fisheries by bounties, but the 
 bounties were discontinued, Mr. McCulloch expressing an 
 opinion that the fishermen often went to sea to catch the 
 bounties and not the fish. 
 
 From 1829 to 1851 the Fisheries were free from Govern- 
 ment sources of encouragement and were subject to no 
 restrictive regulations of importance. From '51 to '67 a 
 series of restrictive measures were passed to regulate the 
 Fishery and to prevent the capture of herrings at cer- 
 tain seasons and in certain ways. Since 1 867, again, when 
 the first of the liberating Acts were passed (due in a great 
 degree to the report of the Commission in '62, presided 
 over by my right hon. friend in the chair), the Fisheries 
 on the coast of Scotland have practically been free and 
 subject to no restrictive legislation whatever. 
 
 I find that from 
 
 Average number of barrels 
 cured annually. 
 
 1829-51, period of unrestricted fishing . . . 521,880 
 1851-68 restrictive legislation . . 657,160 
 1868-1881 unrestricted fishing . . . 827,580 
 
 These figures show that the average increase per annum 
 in 1 3' years of unrestricted legislation exceeded that of 17 
 years of restrictive legislation by 170,420 barrels. 
 
 The two systems were tried for sufficient periods to 
 justify the conclusion of the Commissioners of '78, viz. 
 " That legislation in past periods has had no appreciable 
 effect, and that nothing that man has yet done, and nothing
 
 man is likely to do, has diminished or is likely to diminish 
 the general stock of herrings in the sea." 
 
 If further evidence be needed in support of a policy of 
 unrestricted fishing, it appears to me to be supplied by a 
 consideration of the insignificant proportion of herrings 
 captured by man as compared with that effected by 
 agencies over which man has no control. I need say little 
 on this point, as it was amply dealt with by Professor 
 Huxley in his opening address, but in support of his view 
 I may quote a short extract from the Report of Messrs. 
 Buckland, Walpole and Young in '78. They say : " The 
 Scotch gannets must consume 37 per cent, more herrings 
 than all the Scotch fishermen catch in their nets." 
 
 The Commissioners add : "Whales, porpoises, seals, 
 coal fish, predaceous fish of every description are constantly 
 feeding on them (the herrings) from the moment of their 
 birth. The shoals of herrings in the ocean are always 
 accompanied by flocks of gulls and other sea birds, which 
 are continuously preying upon them, and it seems there- 
 fore no exaggeration to conclude that man does not 
 destroy one herring for every fifty destroyed by other 
 enemies." In quoting these opinions I am aware that I 
 am only repeating what has frequently been urged before 
 by those who have advocated unrestricted freedom of 
 fishing. My apology for repetition is that I am often being 
 told that " the sea is over-fished," and am frequently ap- 
 pealed to to use my influence in Parliament in support of 
 various restrictive measures for regulating our Sea Fisheries, 
 and the most effective reply to these statements and de- 
 mands appears to me to be the conclusions arrived at by 
 competent Commissioners, who have made exhaustive 
 inquiries into the subject. Only the other day I read a 
 most interesting book which I purchased in the Exhibition,
 
 IO 
 
 entitled "The Herring, and the Herring Fisheries," by Mr. 
 de Caux. Mr. de Caux is quite at one with me as to the 
 impracticability of establishing a close time, but he proposes 
 to re-enact the provision contained in the 48th of Geo. III., 
 Chap, no, regulating the size of the mesh of the herring 
 net. Now this question is very exhaustively dealt with by 
 the Commissioners of 1878. They point out that a law 
 regulating the mesh could not be enforced, except by an 
 International Convention, beyond three miles from the 
 shore. A new Convention has just been concluded with 
 Foreign Powers, and a Bill is now before Parliament to 
 give effect to it, but the Convention declined to entertain 
 the question of the mesh. 
 
 Another objection to reducing the size of the mesh is 
 that such a regulation would interfere with the sprat and 
 garvie fishing. I may here assume, without raising any 
 controversial point, that sprats and garvies are not young 
 herrings. Sprats and garvies supply a considerable amount 
 of wholesome food, and it would be unfair to prohibit these 
 fishings on the mere chance of increasing the number of 
 herrings. 
 
 A further objection is that the cotton nets, now in 
 universal use, are subject to shrinking at every fresh bark- 
 ing, and fishermen might thus unwittingly be led into an 
 infraction of the law. These difficulties to regulating the 
 size of the mesh, combined with the experience we have 
 had of legislative enactments in Scotland, cause me to 
 differ on this point with Mr. de Caux. 
 
 The Act which he desires to pass for the English 
 fisheries is still nominally in force in Scotland, but for the 
 reasons I have stated it has been found to be inoperative, 
 and the newly organized Scotch Fishery Board in their 
 first report, issued last month, recommend the repeal of the
 
 section that Mr. de Caux wishes to enforce. They say: 
 " In many cases a net below the standard size is in use ; 
 but the fishermen are finding that the small mesh is not 
 profitable, as only the nose of the larger fish gets into it, 
 and unless they get past the gills they are not effectually 
 caught. The matter does not seem to be one suitable for 
 public regulation, and had much better be left to the 
 fishermen themselves. We therefore recommend the repeal 
 of Sec. 12 of 48 Geo. III., Chap, no." 
 
 Legislators received some very wholesome advice from 
 Professor Huxley at the close of his opening address, 
 when he said : " I think that the man who has made the 
 unnecessary law deserves a heavier punishment than the 
 man who breaks it." Now, although some of the laws we 
 have passed to regulate our Herring Fisheries have been 
 harmless, except for bringing the law into contempt, yet 
 this cannot be said of all our restrictive legislation, as the 
 Sea Fisheries Commission of '66 describes the effect of the 
 close time established by Parliament on the West Coast of 
 Scotland, as "reducing the population of some of the 
 Western Islands to misery and starvation, while abundant 
 food was lying in front of their doors, by preventing them 
 taking herrings." Surely Parliament can be better em- 
 ployed than by mischievous legislation, producing such 
 vexatious results. 
 
 The statistics I have quoted indicate the general pros- 
 perity of the Scotch Herring Fisheries, but this general 
 conclusion must be accepted with some qualification. The 
 Commissioners of 1878 remark that the so-called prosperity 
 is almost entirely due to the extraordinary development of 
 the fisheries off the Aberdeenshire coast ; and if the takes 
 between Fraserburgh and Montrose be deducted, the con- 
 dition of the other fisheries will be found to be much less
 
 12 
 
 satisfactory. Commenting on this, the Commissioners 
 observe that the development of the fisheries on the Aber- 
 deenshire coast has led to the neglect of fisheries at other 
 places, the younger and more vigorous fishermen being 
 attracted to the most productive fishing ground. The de- 
 struction of the Wick Harbour has caused many of the 
 boats from that district to fish off the Aberdeenshire coast. 
 These causes have contributed to the falling off of the 
 fisheries elsewhere. But allowing for these considerations, 
 the Commissioners express an opinion that the vast amount 
 of netting now in use may have scared the fish from narrow 
 waters. They estimate the nets used by the Scotch herring 
 fishers to be sufficient to reach in a continuous line for 
 12,000 miles, to cover an area of 70 square miles, and to 
 be sufficient to go three times across the Atlantic from 
 Liverpool to New York. The substitution of cotton for 
 hemp nets may be said to have revolutionised the fishery. 
 A boat that used to carry 960 yards of netting, now carries 
 3,300 yards. The nets used to be 6 or 7 yards, they are 
 now 10 yards deep. They used to present a catching 
 surface of 3,000 square yards, they now present a catching 
 surface of 33,000 square yards ; without increasing the 
 weight of the nets to be worked, each boat has increased 
 its catching power fivefold. This vast extent of netting 
 certainly warrants the possibility assumed by the Commis- 
 sioners, that the nets may have scared the herrings from 
 narrow waters, but looking to the general results, they 
 decline to recommend any restrictive measures, entertaining 
 an opinion that the vast amount of netting has no effect in 
 diminishing the stock of herrings in the sea ; a conclusion 
 amply justified by the enormous take of herrings in 1880, 
 two years after the Commissioners' Report. Since then 
 herrings have also returned in greater number to some of
 
 13 
 
 our inshore fisheries. Referring to the west coast, the 
 Fishery Board Report for 1881 mentions that "The best 
 fishing was got in Loch Hourn, where an immense body of 
 herrings remained all the season." It is reasonable to 
 assume that the herrings returned on their own account, 
 and that their movements were made in "blissful igno- 
 rance" that the British Parliament had abolished the 
 measures for their special protection. 
 
 Another feature of the Scotch Herring Fisheries is the 
 large and continually increasing takes of late years off the 
 Shetland Islands. In 1879 the Shetlanders only cured 
 8,000 barrels ; in 1880 the number had increased to 48,000 ; 
 in 1 88 1 to 59,586, and in 1882 to 134,000 barrels. 
 
 In his opening address Professor Huxley remarked that 
 considering the antiquity and importance of the fishing 
 industry " it is singular that it can hardly be said to have 
 kept pace with the rapid improvement of almost every other 
 branch of industrial occupation in modern times. If we 
 contrast the progress of fishery with that of agriculture, 
 for example, the comparison is not favourable to fishery," 
 and he afterwards observed, "But we are still very far 
 behind scientific agriculture ; and as to the application of 
 machinery and of steam to fishery operations, it may be 
 said that in this country a commencement has been made, 
 but hardly more." 
 
 I am not going to question the general accuracy of Pro- 
 fessor Huxley's conclusions, yet I think that I have shown 
 that our Scotch Herring Fisheries have not been altogether 
 standing still. The increase in our take of herrings has 
 not been entirely due to the larger amount of capital in- 
 vested in the trade, nor to the enterprise of our fishermen 
 in going further to sea in pursuit of their calling ; though 
 no doubt these two causes have largely contributed in
 
 raising our fishery to its present importance. But of late 
 years the boats have been very much improved, and the 
 cotton nets, as I have already said, worked almost a revo- 
 lution in the Herring Fisheries. The effect of these combined 
 causes, better boats and better nets, will at once be appre- 
 ciated by a reference to a table compiled by Mr. Francis 
 Day (from the Scotch Fishery Board statistics), and pub- 
 lished in his notes, giving an account of his cruise in the 
 Triton last year. 
 
 Mr. Day gives the proportion of barrels of cured herrings 
 to the fishermen employed since 1825 : 
 
 Fishermen. Barrels. 
 
 5 years, 1825-30 i 8 
 
 5 1854-59 i 14 
 
 5 1876-81 I 22 
 
 One fisherman now produces nearly three times what he 
 did fifty years ago, and the result of his labour will bear 
 favourable comparison with the increased production of the 
 agricultural labourers during that period. I am, however, 
 quite at one with Professor Huxley in believing that our 
 sea fisheries are capable of far greater development, par- 
 ticularly by the application of steam power. On this point, 
 I may be permitted to quote some opinions I expressed in 
 a lecture I gave about two years ago, when I advocated 
 the application of steam power as a means of developing 
 our Herring Fisheries. 
 
 What I claim for steam is : 
 
 1. A saving of life by increasing the boat's chance of 
 
 making a port of safety in bad weather. 
 
 2. A certainty of reaching and returning from the 
 
 fishing ground in all ordinary weather, indepen- 
 dent of tides, calms, and head winds. 
 
 3. The comparative punctuality thus acquired by
 
 steam would enable arrangements to be made 
 by railways to run fish trains, and so enhance 
 the value of the cargo by the difference between 
 the price of fresh and cured fish. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks I have assumed that each boat 
 should be propelled by steam power an auxiliary screw 
 would be the most suitable. Steam might also be applied 
 to a winch, and would save a deal of manual labour in 
 hauling the nets. Steam tugs, to tow the boats, have been 
 tried with only a moderate degree of success. As a means of 
 saving life by getting the boats into harbour in a storm they 
 are not to be depended on, and at any time might miss the 
 boats during a fog or in a dark night. Steam carriers do 
 not appear to me to be adapted for the herring fisheries. 
 The transhipment of herrings from the present boats to 
 carriers, except in very smooth water, would be attended 
 with great difficulty. How steam can be best utilised in 
 developing our herring fisheries is a question I should be 
 very glad to hear discussed at this Conference. It is one 
 of great and growing importance. 
 
 Our first-class boats, annually in some parts of Scotland 
 going further to sea, are too heavy to be propelled by 
 oars ; consequently, in calms or when a tide has to be en- 
 countered, the cargo of herrings is frequently spoilt before 
 it reaches the shore. The regulations of the new Fishery 
 Board are framed to facilitate the curing of herrings at sea, 
 but our present boats are not large enough to carry barrels 
 and salt enough for this purpose. Off the coast ofMontrose, 
 where I believe our boats often go seventy to eighty miles 
 to sea, I am told that it is now the practice to carry salt 
 enough to sprinkle over the herrings, and thus save them 
 for four or five days ; and I understand that herrings 
 treated in this method, termed " salting in bulk," are but
 
 i6 
 
 slightly depreciated in the market ; but herrings so cured 
 would not be entitled to receive the Government " brand " 
 or mark, the regulation for this purpose requiring that the 
 fish should be cured within twenty-four hours of being 
 caught. 
 
 The Government brand, indicating a degree of quality, 
 was first established in 1808, but nothing was charged for 
 it till 1859, when the Government imposed a fee of ^d. a 
 barrel to defray the cost of the branding establishment. 
 The amount collected from the fees exceeds the cost of 
 branding by about 3,000 a year, and this surplus is now 
 paid to the Scotch Fishery Board for harbour improve- 
 ments and other objects to develop the fisheries. 
 
 The policy of a Government brand has been the subject 
 of frequent contention among the Scotch curers. The 
 matter was fully discussed so recently before a parliamen- 
 tary Committee, of which I had the honour to be chairman, 
 that I do not propose to detain you to-day by reopening 
 the question. 
 
 The Committee referred to reported in 1881 in favour of 
 the retention of the brand. It was contended by its oppo- 
 nents that the brand had lost its value, but the Committee 
 considered " the continental merchants would not continue 
 to demand branded herrings, and the home curer would 
 not voluntarily pay 4^. a barrel for a trade mark which 
 had ceased to be a guarantee of quality." I should mention 
 that the brand is not compulsory ; and if any of the Scotch 
 curers consider they can establish a superior trade mark 
 and some of them are of opinion that they can they are 
 at perfect liberty to do so. 
 
 The Dutch cure most of their herrings at sea, on board 
 much larger vessels than are generally used by our fisher- 
 men, but I should regret to see the adoption of a system
 
 here by which the fish offal was all lost, as it forms an ex- 
 cellent manure, which, by a process shown in the Exhi- 
 bition, might, I believe, be made still more valuable. The 
 result of the experience obtained at the Menhaden Fishery, 
 detailed by Professor Brown Goode, is instructive, as 
 showing the extent to which fish offal may be advan- 
 tageously utilised.* 
 
 The use of larger boats necessitates increased harbour 
 accommodation, and this is at present the great want of 
 fishermen all along our coast. How it is to be supplied is 
 too large a question for me fully to discuss in this Paper. 
 There can be no doubt, especially after the experience we 
 have had in this Exhibition, of the demand on the part of 
 the public for an abundant supply of cheap fresh fish ; I 
 am not, however, aware to what extent the community is 
 willing to be taxed for the construction of better harbours 
 to facilitate a supply of food so universally appreciated, but 
 without better harbours I believe it will be impossible for 
 
 1 "In 1878 the Menhaden Oil and Guano Industry employed capital 
 to the amount of 2,350,000 dollars, 3,337 men, 64 steamers, 279 sailing 
 vessels, and consumed 777,000,000 of fish. There were 56 factories, 
 which produced 1,392,644 gallons of oil, valued at 450,000 dollars, and 
 55,154 tons of crude guano, valued at 600,000 dollars ; this was a poor 
 year. In 1874, the number of gallons produced was 3,373,000; in 
 1875, 2,681,000 ; in 1876, 2,992,000 ; in 1877, 2,427,000. In 1878, the 
 total value of manufactured products was 1,050,000 dollars ; in 1874, 
 this was 1,809,000 dollars ; in 1875, 1,582,000 dollars ; in 1876, 
 1,671,000 dollars ; in 1877, 1,608,000 dollars ; it should be stated that 
 in these reports only four-fifths of the whole number of factories are 
 included. The refuse of the oil factory supplies a material of much 
 value for manures. As a base for nitrogen it enters largely into the 
 composition of most of the manufactured fertilisers. The amount of 
 nitrogen derived from this source in 1875 was estimated to be 
 equivalent to that contained in 60,000,000 Ibs. of Peruvian guano, the 
 gold value of which would not have been far from 1,920,000 dollars." 
 Professor Brown Cootie's Paper at International Fisheries Exhibition. 
 
 [2] C
 
 i8 
 
 the fishermen to meet the growing demands of an increasing 
 population. State aid towards harbour improvement has 
 hitherto been most successful, when given in the form of 
 grants to supplement local efforts, or by loan at a low rate 
 of interest. Under this system, which I should like to see 
 extended, such harbours, and they are miserably inade- 
 quate, as are available for our Herring Fisheries, have been 
 mainly constructed. In Scotland generally, the fishermen 
 have shown a commendable spirit of self-reliance by com- 
 bining together to raise funds for the improvement of their 
 harbours. I have often been astonished at the efforts they 
 have made to enable them to participate in the small grant 
 annually given to the Scotch Fishery Board. 
 
 I may mention one instance that lately came under my 
 notice. About two years ago I was visiting a small fishing 
 hamlet on the coast of Banffshire. I was told that the 
 fishermen were most anxious to raise a sum of 3,000, to 
 enable them, by the assistance of the Fishery Board, to 
 improve their harbour. I remarked to a friend who was 
 with me, that there seemed to be nobody but fishermen in 
 the place, and I expressed some doubt as to their ability 
 to raise the required sum. His reply entirely confirmed 
 my estimate of the inhabitants, for he said, " No one here 
 puts on a black coat on the Sabbath except the minister 
 and the general merchant." Yet the amount required, with 
 some assistance from the landlord, was duly raised, and by 
 the aid of the Fishery Board a harbour, which will be of 
 great advantage to the district, is now being constructed. 
 I mention this circumstance because I think the willingness 
 of the fishermen to pay, so far as in their power, for im- 
 proved harbours, is a consideration which should be taken 
 into account in any general scheme for harbour construc- 
 tion, and also because I think the spirit of self-reliance
 
 19 
 
 evinced by the fishermen entitles them to the sympathy and 
 to the support of the public. 
 
 I should like to say a word before concluding this Paper 
 on the distribution of the vast number of herrings taken off 
 the Scotch coast The Duke of Edinburgh estimates the 
 value of the fish taken by the trawlers off the coast of the 
 United Kingdom at .2,581,000, or about 300,000 more 
 than the value of the herrings taken off the Scotch coast. 
 Cured herrings, representing 1,006,462, were exported in 
 1 88 1, the value of the other fish exported that year from 
 all parts of the kingdom was only 398,048. It will thus 
 be seen that the distribution of the herrings is very dif- 
 ferent from that of other fish. I believe a far greater pro- 
 portion of the Scotch herrings, especially those caught on 
 the west coast, would be consumed as fresh fish at home, if 
 greater facilities were given by the railways for their con- 
 veyances.* 
 
 The evidence given before the Railway Committee last 
 year, fully exposes the high rates frequently imposed by 
 
 1 " Still more important has been the general adoption of scientific 
 methods of preparation and transportation. Great freezing houses 
 have been built on the Great Lakes, on the Pacific coast, and in the 
 cities of the East, and refrigerator cars are running upon all the trunk 
 lines of railway. Columbia salmon, lake white-fish, cod, bass, Spanish 
 mackerel, and other choice fishes are frozen stiff and packed up in 
 heaps like cordwood, and can be had at any season of the year. 
 Refrigerator cars cany unfrozen fish from sea and lake inland. Smelts 
 and trout, packed in snow in the north, are received in New York by 
 the cartload daily throughout the winter. Halibut are brought from 
 the distant oceanic banks in refrigerators built in the holds of the 
 vessels, and 12,000,000 to 14,000,000 pounds are distributed, packed in 
 ice, to the cities of the interior. Baltimore, from September to April, 
 sends special trains laden with oysters, daily, into the west, and 
 Chesapeake oysters are food for all, not luxuries, even beyond the 
 Mississippi." Professor Brown Goode. 
 
 [2] C2
 
 2C 
 
 the railway companies for the carriage of fresh fish. A 
 less grasping policy would, I believe, be more remunerative 
 to the railways and certainly more advantageous to the 
 public. But this is a subject which will be more fully 
 discussed in a subsequent Paper by his Excellency Mr. 
 Spencer Walpole. 
 
 The conclusion I arrive at is, that the requirements for 
 the further development of our herring fisheries are : 
 
 1. Better harbour accommodation. 
 
 2. The application of steam power. 
 
 3. Increased railway facilities, and lower railway 
 
 rates for the distribution of fresh fish. 
 
 As my right hon. friend Mr. Shaw-Lefevre, M.P., is to 
 read a Paper on the " Principles of Legislation in connection 
 with Sea Fisheries," I have not alluded to the laws re- 
 lating to trawling, and other matters for regulating our 
 sea fisheries ; I have only touched on a subject, which I am 
 sure will be more ably dealt with by my right hon. friend, 
 to such an .extent as I deemed necessary to make the con- 
 dition of our herring fisheries intelligible before an Inter- 
 national Conference. 
 
 Regarding the objects in the Exhibition calculated to 
 develope the herring fisheries, there are models of boats of 
 the most approved build propelled both by steam and sail, 
 nets of the most improved pattern, conspicuously among 
 them being the American purse-seine net, admirably 
 adapted, in the opinion of some competent practical men 
 with whom I inspected it, for the herring fisheries ; there 
 are refrigerating vans, and barrels made by steam ma- 
 chinery. 
 
 But more important to my mind than the modern ap- 
 pliances I have referred to for the capture and transit of 
 fish are the conclusions arrived at by the competent autho-
 
 21 
 
 rities who have addressed us at the Conference, viz., that 
 the stock of herrings in the sea, so far as man is concerned, 
 is practically inexhaustible. The opinion expressed by the 
 Playfair Commission in '62, by the Sea Fisheries Commis- 
 sion in '66, by the Herring Fisheries Commission in '78, is 
 confirmed by the exhaustive enquiries of the Duke of 
 Edinburgh, and by the ripe experience of Professor Huxley. 
 Although we cannot account for the mysterious movements 
 of the herring, causing the fluctuation which characterise 
 our fishery, it is at least some consolation to know on the 
 high authorities I have mentioned, that although advancing 
 civilisation may pollute our rivers and destroy our salmon, 
 we are still likely to enjoy our herring, as the inventive 
 genius of the age has failed to discover any means of de- 
 priving us of an ample supply of the most abundant and 
 nutritious food which the bounty of the ocean yields to the 
 labour of man. 
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN said his honourable friend had treated 
 the subject as he had expected he would from the in- 
 telligent action which he had taken in Parliament in 
 promoting regulating but not restrictive laws, with regard 
 to sea fisheries. The only reason he presumed why he 
 found himself in the Chair on this occasion was, that in 
 1862 he was Chairman of the Royal Commission for 
 examining into the herring-fisheries of the British coast. 
 Why he, a Chemical Professor, should be found in that 
 position, he could never fully understand, especially as 
 there was on the Commission a man of European eminence, 
 and of the greatest authority on fisheries : though they both
 
 were in the same galley, and he sat at the helm, it was the 
 vigorous power of his friend, Professor Huxley, who not 
 only impelled the bark, but also directed it. That Com- 
 mission established one or two facts which certainly had 
 been of the greatest importance to our great fisheries, viz., 
 that restrictive laws framed by man in ignorance of the laws 
 of Nature, were excessively destructive to the interests of 
 fishermen instead of being favourable to them. When 
 they first began to examine this subject, they found 
 different laws prevailing on the east coast of Scotland to 
 those which prevailed on the west. On the east coast 
 there were no restrictive laws, and fishermen were en- 
 couraged to catch fish, even full fish containing ova, in 
 order to be cured. Each of these fish had on an aver- 
 age 50,000 eggs, and the enormous number that were 
 taken in this state would seem to indicate a process of 
 extermination ; but the fisheries of the east coast, without 
 restrictive laws, increased, and did not diminish. When 
 they went to the west coast of Scotland, however, in the 
 inner waters of the Firth of Clyde, they found restrictive 
 laws prevailing. For several months no herrings were 
 allowed to be taken, there being a close time for herrings 
 for the purpose of protecting them. As they went further 
 into the open waters at the Firth of Forth and Clyde along 
 the islands up to near the Highlands, those restrictive laws 
 still prevailed ; but there was a relaxation as to the period 
 when the close time should end. A very curious result 
 was made apparent, and a most unexpected one. At the 
 periods of close time, the herrings came to the banks to 
 spawn, and were followed by their natural enemies in great 
 number, among which he might chiefly allude to the cod 
 and the ling, which consumed them in great numbers. 
 There were innumerable fish which lived upon the young
 
 23 
 
 fry and the full-grown herring ; the cod, ling, dog-fish, and 
 conger, fed on the full-grown herring ; while the flat-fish and 
 crabs eat the spawn, and there were innumerable other 
 fish which eat herring-fry. At the time when they found 
 them on their spawning banks, these fish had an appetite 
 for nothing else but herring, and this result followed, that 
 the fishermen of cod and ling could catch nothing, because 
 they would only take herring bait at the time, and the close 
 time prevented the fishermen getting any herring-bait for 
 catching this white fish. The consequence was, that the 
 laws invented for the protection of the herring became laws 
 for their destruction, because their natural enemies, which 
 could not be caught because of the want of bait, multiplied 
 exceedingly, and devoured the very herrings which the laws 
 intended to protect. This was so to an enormous extent, as 
 a little calculation would show. The Commission frequently 
 opened cod and ling and examined the contents of their 
 stomachs, in which they frequently found seven to ten 
 herrings, which they had not begun to digest ; but allowing 
 a diet of two herrings a day to a cod, and allowing him to 
 live seven months in one year, fifty cod would catch as 
 many herrings as one fisherman could catch in a year. 
 Now there was no census of how many cod and ling 
 existed, but there was a census of how many cod and 
 ling were caught ; there were caught and salted last year 
 on the coast of Scotland, 115,513 cwt. of cod and ling. 
 Now about thirty fish went to a hundredweight, and from a 
 little calculation it would follow, that if the cod and ling* 
 which were salted had lived in the sea, and had not been 
 taken, they would have caught as many herrings as 
 69,000 fishermen. Now that was more than 20,000 beyond 
 all the fishermen who existed on those coasts, and, 
 therefore, those laws which protected the enemies of
 
 24- 
 
 herrings, kept them in the sea, and produced this enor- 
 mous loss. That was one of the results of the Commis- 
 sion ; for the laws intended for the protection of herring 
 really multiplied the natural enemies of the herrings 
 enormously, and thus destroyed them infinitely more than 
 they were protected. The action of that was this, that 
 under the protection of these laws, the fish which preyed 
 on the herring increased and multiplied exceedingly, so that 
 they had a very good time ; but the poor fishermen of those 
 coasts had a very bad time, because they could not 
 catch the fish upon which their subsistence depended. 
 The consequence was, that they found these fishermen dis- 
 obeying the law, when it could not be enforced, or when 
 the law was obeyed, it led to starvation, and they were 
 obliged to emigrate. That was the result of interfering with 
 the laws of nature by an indiscreet law passed by Parlia- 
 ment. The lesson which might be drawn from the interest- 
 ing paper just read, was that though Parliament might 
 make laws for keeping order and safety amongst fisher- 
 men ; that the balance of nature which prevailed in the 
 sea should be left alone, because the balance of animal 
 life depended upon unknown factors. The herrings had 
 for their food small crustaceae, sometimes microscopic, but 
 at other times little shrimps and sand-eels. They en- 
 joyed that food, and when it existed on the coast, mul~ 
 tiplied largely ; but whilst they lived on these things, there 
 were other fish which were living on them, and which 
 had the greatest love for the herrings. They were the 
 conger, the dog-fish, the cod, and the ling, which slew their 
 millions, and there were birds, such as gulls and gannets, 
 which also destroyed multitudes, and then there were the 
 porpoises and grampuses, which ate up whole shoals of 
 herrings. This was the balance of life, one balancing the
 
 25 
 
 other, and the more it was interfered with, the more mis- 
 chief resulted. Sometimes there was a cry for protective 
 laws, because the herring fishery varied as any other industry 
 varied according to circumstances. They did not always 
 know why it varied. For instance, Mr. Duff spoke about 
 the varying character of the herring, and a very capricious 
 fish was the usual term fishermen applied to it. But the 
 term caprice was merely the mode of concealing our 
 ignorance of its habits. If we knew its habits, and those 
 of its enemies, it would probably be found there was no 
 caprice in the matter. Sometimes herrings came in shoals 
 to particular parts of the coast, and other times they aban- 
 doned them for many years. The reason of that was not 
 known. It might be, for instance, that something had 
 happened to the small crustaceae and the sand-eels on the 
 particular part of the coast, and the herrings did not find 
 their natural food ; it might be that the enemies of the her- 
 rings had multiplied very much, and devoured in too large 
 quantities their own subsistences. Then the herrings de- 
 creased, but ultimately they increased again, because their 
 enemies having fed too largely upon them, they decreased 
 in number, and then the herrings had their turn again, 
 and so there was a continual scarcity and plenty in the 
 markets, sometimes prosperity and sometimes a panic, and 
 the herring in its action assisted in producing these cases of 
 prosperity and panic, just as if they were Lancashire manu- 
 facturers. It was needless, therefore, to make laws to try 
 and prevent man, who was such a very small factor in the* 
 result, catching herrings when there were, all round the 
 herrings, enemies creating havoc infinitely greater. If any 
 lesson could be learnt from the interesting paper they had 
 listened to, it was that it would be much better to leave 
 these things to the laws of nature, which were far more
 
 26 
 
 wise in this respect than any laws which were likely to be 
 passed by Parliament. 
 
 Dr. FRANCIS DAY did not know whether it was worth 
 while making many remarks on the question if they were 
 told that all legislation was useless, and that whoever said 
 anything on the other side appeared to be one who did not 
 understand the subject upon which he was speaking ; but he 
 thought they were met for the purpose of discussion, to 
 hear both sides of the question, and not to jump to con- 
 clusions at the commencement before they had heard what 
 the other side had to say. Personally as yet he gave no 
 opinion on one side or the other, but he did think those 
 who had opinions to offer should be allowed to give them 
 without being told that those who made laws ought to 
 suffer from them themselves instead of the unfortunate fisher- 
 men to whom those laws would apply. He could not help 
 thinking that gentlemen who held those views, though they 
 might be very fit for Legislatures, were quite unfit to legis- 
 late on fishing matters. It was only necessary to look at 
 the fresh-water fisheries to see how they had been destroyed 
 for want of legislation, and what had been done by making 
 use of legislation. He would, however, pass on to the sub- 
 ject more immediately before them ; he had no intention of 
 making any remarks when he entered the hall, but he had 
 been at two or three conferences when no one had risen to 
 say anything, except the proposers and seconders of 
 resolutions, and he thought it was time that a few 
 observations should be made on the different sides of these 
 important questions. They must all feel exceedingly 
 obliged to Mr. Duff for the figures he had given, but when 
 he left out the natural history of the subject it appeared to 
 him that he left out the most important portion of the 
 question with regard to herring and other fisheries. There
 
 27 
 
 were three different classes of fish from the sea which were 
 mostly made use of by man. There were the herrings, the 
 gregarious form, which were mostly found near the surface, 
 and with them might be classed the mackerel and the 
 pilchard, and then there were the deep sea form of the cod 
 and ling which had been mentioned, the devourers of the 
 herring, and also the ground fishes, such as the turbot, sole, 
 &c. Some people talked about the balance of nature, and 
 said no law should be passed with reference to these 
 fisheries, but the question was whether by passing no laws 
 they were not destroying the balance of nature. They per- 
 mitted the cod and these voracious fishes to be captured in 
 large quantities, and these were the very fish which, as the 
 Chairman informed them, ate the herring. Might it not be 
 that if, as many fishermen told them (though it was denied 
 on some hands, as far as he had seen, it appeared to be 
 correct), the inshore fisheries were decreasing, the quantity 
 of cod was decreased, and so the fish were destroyed which 
 were catching the herring, and thus the herring might be 
 increasing in consequence of the destruction of the cod 
 fisheries. Then they were told that in consequence of the 
 legislation the poor fishermen suffered on one portion of 
 the coast of Scotland and not on the other, but if they 
 turned to the blue book issued by Messrs. Buckland and 
 Walpole it would be found that although these regulations 
 were in existence they were never carried out ; that no 
 regulations ever passed by man had ever had any effect 
 on the herring fisheries. Then they were told that the 
 herrings were inexhaustible. They found the herrings 
 migrating from place to place, and in so doing they dis- 
 appeared entirely from one country and appeared in 
 another. If the cod fisheries were destroyed and the 
 herrings migrated, where would the fisheries be ? He had
 
 28 
 
 seen the oil sardine on the western coast of India for years, 
 and all of a sudden it would entirely disappear and not 
 appear again for several seasons. With regard to the size 
 of the mesh he would not attempt to offer any opinion, 
 seeing there were so many gentlemen present more 
 competent to speak upon it. It appeared to him that if 
 the herrings were driven out from the inshore fisheries into 
 the open sea there was a necessity for larger boats, and if 
 this resulted, and there was not an increase of harbour 
 accommodation, what were the fishermen to do on the 
 eastern coast of Scotland ? They must be driven down to 
 the ports or beach their boats, which often caused loss of 
 life. He thought, instead of taking all the facts given in 
 these Royal Commissions for granted, they ought to have 
 them supplemented by further investigation. If investiga- 
 tions were carried on in the way in which they were in the 
 United States, so as to ascertain whether any class of 
 fish were increasing or decreasing, what they fed upon, 
 and what it was which caused their food to increase or 
 decrease, or to migrate, they would then be in a better 
 position to judge as to the necessity for legislation on this 
 subject. 
 
 Mr. BRADY (Inspector of Irish Fisheries) said he had 
 listened with great pleasure to the excellent address which 
 had been given, and it was certainly a question of very deep 
 interest whether, as we went on increasing our means of 
 capture, and increasing the amount of food brought up from 
 the ocean, we might not be considered to be killing the 
 goose which laid the golden eggs. He had had the honour 
 on two occasions of mentioning certain facts connected with 
 two bays in Ireland, from which he drew certain con- 
 clusions, which, of course, might be incorrect, but those 
 conclusions were that all restrictions on deep-sea fishing
 
 2 9 
 
 were mischievous, and tended to no good. If he understood 
 aright the observations of the last speaker, he said the 
 regulations in Scotland had no effect on the herring fishery. 
 There had been restrictions, and the Chairman had made 
 some very important observations with regard to them. 
 Dr. Day said they were not enforced, and, therefore, they 
 had no effect. Well, if they found the herring fisheries of 
 Scotland increased in the vast proportions that they had 
 done for so many years, it was the strongest argument that 
 the restrictions placed upon them by the Legislature were 
 of no avail, and did no good. How far, if they had been 
 enforced, they might have done any good, of course no one 
 could say. It was most important that science should be 
 brought to bear on this question, and should be aided by 
 practical experience. When they had arrived at the time 
 when scientific men could say that certain restrictions should 
 be placed on deep-sea fishing, then it would be time for the 
 Legislature to step in, but until that day came it would 
 be only mischievous to cripple the industry of a country by 
 imposing such restrictions in the absence of that knowledge 
 which they all admitted they were deficient in. The great 
 deficiency of statistics had been referred to especially with 
 regard to Ireland, and he regretted very much to say that 
 the statistics of fisheries in Ireland were miserably defective. 
 It was very important that those statistics should be col- 
 lected, so that they might ascertain whether the improved 
 modes of capture and the greater distance to which the 
 boats went were injurious to the fisheries. Nothing was 
 more interesting to him than something which he had seen 
 in the Exhibition, which might develop the fisheries to an 
 enormous extent. He alluded to a mode adopted on the 
 great lakes in Canada, by which a steamer, while moving 
 on, kept paying out one net, and at the same time hauled
 
 30 
 
 in another. If that could be brought into operation in our 
 sea fisheries it would lead to very important changes. 
 
 Mr. McLELAN (Canada), said that some of the fishing 
 grounds on the great lakes in Canada, where the mode of 
 fishing just referred to was adopted, were 400 or 500 miles 
 long ; and the reports coming from fishermen were, that 
 unrestricted fishing diminished the number of fish even in 
 these large lakes. Application had been made to him 
 repeatedly to permit a smaller sized mesh of net to be used ; 
 but in consequence of the testimony which had come to 
 him from all fishermen, he had refused to allow it. He 
 considered it was a very important question whether sea 
 fisheries were exhaustible or not ; probably the most im- 
 portant question which could be discussed. Previous to 
 coming to England, all the testimony he had received from 
 the fishermen of Canada, both shore fishermen and sea 
 fishermen, was, that on the great lakes, fisheries that had 
 hitherto been very profitable, were being exhausted from 
 over-fishing, and from all he could hear from fishermen 
 all round the coast, he had come to the conclusion that 
 it was possible to exhaust the fisheries of the Dominion 
 of Canada. Mr. Duff had told them that with regard 
 to herrings they first had an open season, in which 
 an average of 500,000 barrels of fish were taken every 
 year ; then for some seventeen years they had a close 
 season, in which there was an average of 600,000 
 barrels, and then it was made open again, and the 
 average rose to 800,000 barrels. The inference from 
 all this was, that it was better to have free fishing ; 
 but at the same time the honourable gentleman stated 
 that the appliances for catching the herrings had been 
 multiplied fivefold, and it occurred to him that if that 
 were so, they ought to have had three million barrels
 
 of fish instead of 800,000, seeing the appliances had so 
 largely increased. Then the question arose, with these 
 multiplied appliances and the improved boats which had 
 been referred to, was it not the fact that they went further 
 to sea, and were sweeping over a larger area and not 
 getting a proportionate return of fish ? This was a point 
 on which the testimony of practical men was needed. 
 Science told them that fish produced so many eggs, and 
 multiplied very fast ; that one fish fed on another ; and 
 that the balance of nature ought to be preserved ; that 
 the little fish had larger fish to eat them ; the larger fish 
 had bigger ones to bite them, and so on ad infinitum ; 
 but they left out of sight a certain kind of fish which 
 preyed on the others, but were not fit for food and there- 
 fore were not caught. To keep up the balance of nature 
 they ought to fit out expeditions to destroy those fish 
 which preyed on the edible fish ; but if they left them to 
 multiply and prey on the others, and at the same time 
 man went in with his fivefold machines to catch the 
 herrings, the result would be, according to the testimony 
 of Canada, that the fishing grounds would be gradually 
 destroyed. It would simplify things on the other side of 
 the Atlantic very much if it could be settled, by the testi- 
 mony of fishermen and the investigations of science, that 
 the sea fisheries were inexhaustible ; then all they would 
 have to do would be to improve their appliances for catch- 
 ing. Mr. Duff had referred to the want of harbours round 
 the coast, and if he might be permitted to give the ex- 
 perience of a young country, he might say that they had 
 felt the same want in Canada ; but there the Government 
 took hold of the matter, considering it of great public 
 importance that the fisheries of the country should be 
 protected, and that suitable harbours should be provided. 
 Year by year large grants were made for the erection of
 
 3* 
 
 suitable breakwaters and harbours of refuge, with the 
 most beneficial results. He did not pretend to argue the 
 advisability of this system in a country where it was the 
 State policy for every industry to be left to its own re- 
 sources ; but in Canada, which might be considered more 
 protective of native industries, that course had been 
 pursued, and fishermen had been protected not only by 
 the providing of harbours, but by the distribution yearly 
 of a quarter of a million of dollars in the encouragement 
 of fisheries. 
 
 Mr. RONALD MACDONALD (Aberdeen), said the views 
 of gentlemen from England, Ireland, and Canada had 
 been heard, and as he came from Scotland, where the 
 herring fisheries were more important than in either 
 England or Ireland, he hoped he might be allowed to 
 make a few remarks. He knew a number of Mr. Duffs 
 constituents, who appreciated very much the great intelli- 
 gence and practical interest he had taken in the develop- 
 ment of fishing in Scotland, and he had listened with 
 great pleasure to the comprehensive paper which he had 
 read ; but it could not be expected that everything which 
 might be supposed to be even of essential importance to 
 the subject, could be compressed into so short a paper. 
 On one point there seemed to be a little want of unanimity, 
 namely, the uselessness or otherwise of legislation with 
 regard to fisheries. The views on this subject came from 
 two different quarters, and they differed according to the 
 quarter from which they came. Some years ago he had 
 the opportunity of being present when evidence was laid 
 before the Commission which had been referred to, when 
 Mr. Buckland, Mr. Walpole, and Mr. Young went round on 
 the east and west coasts of Scotland, and he found that all 
 those who were interested in the inshore fishing demanded 
 that there should be restrictions, while those who depended
 
 33 
 
 on the system of fishing which was now so successful, 
 namely, employing bigger boats, bigger nets, more of them, 
 and going out sixty, seventy, or a hundred miles to sea, 
 and catching the herrings before they came into the small 
 bays, these came to the conclusion that it was practically 
 useless, if not mischievous, to make such laws as those 
 who had little boats and depended on fishing in the 
 small inland lakes demanded. He was not prepared to 
 say that the gentlemen from Canada were wrong in saying 
 that it would be perhaps dangerous to do away with 
 restrictions there ; but it must be borne in mind, that large 
 as the Canadian lakes were, they were different from the 
 Atlantic ocean, and whilst restrictions in Canada might be 
 useful, it did not follow that such restrictions would be of 
 any use when dealing with such a large space of water as 
 the Atlantic. There was just one omission in Mr. Duffs com- 
 prehensive paper which he should like to bring under the 
 notice of the many eminent men whom he was glad to see 
 were taking a practical interest in this matter. Hardly any 
 reference was made to the fishing on the west, coast of 
 Scotland, a comparatively new enterprise, which was carried 
 on in the open sea. There had been for many years from 
 l,ooo to 2,000 boats engaged in that way, not in the Loch 
 Earne, not in the Firth of Clyde, but out from the outer 
 Hebrides into the Atlantic. They began to get fish there 
 on the 24th of May, and continued up to the present time, 
 and a very large quantity was caught there. The facilities 
 for sending it to market, however, were very bad indeed. 
 One fact would show the extent of that fishing industry. 
 In a Parliamentary paper submitted to the House of 
 Commons not long ago, it appeared that from the rail- 
 way station at Oban, three times as much fish was des- 
 patched as from any other station. Upwards of 12,000 
 
 [2] D
 
 34 
 
 tons of herrings were sent from that station, whilst the 
 total quantity sent on the whole Caledonian railway system, 
 including all the towns from Aberdeen to Montrose, was 
 only about 25,000 tons. He hoped, therefore, that some 
 account would be taken of this newly developed fishery 
 out in the Atlantic, by boats coming from Montrose, Fraser- 
 burgh, and all the north-eastern points to Stornoway. 
 There was no telegraphic communication of any kind, and 
 the people were put to a very great inconvenience in con- 
 sequence of having no facilities for sending their fish to 
 market, or getting salt or anything else when they had a 
 large supply of fish. 
 
 Mr. JOHNSON (Montrose) said he was one of the jury to 
 examine the salmon nets and fixed nets, and whilst ex- 
 amining these nets he had been very much interested in 
 the exhibits from foreign countries. For many years they 
 had been fishing with the same nets with very little im- 
 provement except, as Mr. Duff had said, that they had sub- 
 stituted cotton for hemp, and had made, what they called 
 in Scotland " clipper nets." The first thing which the jury 
 discussed was the steamer on the Canadian lakes, which 
 had been already referred to. It was the first thing which 
 took his attention and had riveted it ever since, and he had 
 wondered whether it could be adapted for herring fishing. 
 It could be seen in the Canadian department, and was 
 shooting a net over the stern and was hauling one in at 
 the bow at the same time. He did not expect that that 
 would ever be carried out in the herring fishery, but he 
 thought it came nearest to anything he had ever seen for 
 doing what appeared very desirable, viz., having some me- 
 chanical means of reeling up the nets. The only difficulty 
 which he saw in the way was in reeling up the herring 
 nets to get clear of the buoys that buoyed it up. So 
 impressed was he with, the adaptability of that steamer
 
 35 
 
 that he was quite prepared, with the sanction of the Execu- 
 tive Committee, on behalf of his firm in Montrose, to offer 
 a prize to any one who should adopt that system and make 
 it workable for the east coast herring fishery. The next 
 thing he noticed was the purse seine. He understood that 
 was largely used in America, and he thought if it were 
 brought into use in the herring fishery it would revolutionise 
 the trade to a large extent. If they could get these nets 
 to work on these large steamers they could soon bring 
 them into port. For some years past when the boats had 
 been going longer distances, instead of coming in in twenty- 
 four hours they were sometimes three days ; and he recol- 
 lected on one Sunday morning about ^"500 worth of herrings 
 had to be carted direct to the manure heap because they 
 had been three days in the boat instead of one. He should 
 also be glad to give a premium in connection with the 
 purse seine if it could be made available for herring fishing. 
 The only other matter he would speak about was a cod 
 net which was entirely new to him but which was exhibited 
 in the Norwegian, Swedish, and Canadian sections. The 
 nets of Norway and Sweden were what would be called 
 gill nets, or hung nets, sinking to the bottom. He had 
 never heard of a cod in Scotland or England being caught 
 in any net except the trawl. He should like, if possible, 
 to bring these three nets and the steamer before the fisher- 
 men of the United Kingdom, and would suggest that it would 
 be very valuable if some of the illustrated newspapers 
 would give drawings of the net and as much explanation 
 about them as their friends from those countries would be 
 willing to impart. 
 
 Mr. WlLMOT (Canadian Commissioner), having heard the 
 Canadian name mentioned conspicuously in regard to a 
 particular description of net, wished to say a word upon 
 it. He was not going to discuss the question of herring
 
 36 
 
 fisheries to any great extent, but merely to state, as he did 
 on a former occasion, that if herrings were caught in such 
 vast numbers as it was proposed to do by these machines 
 it must more or less affect all other fish inshore. The 
 herring was the principal food of a large class of fish, and 
 if they were destroyed to such an extent by these im- 
 proved machines and all the ingenuity which man could bring 
 to bear, not only would the herring be exterminated, but 
 it would very seriously affect the other fish which fed upon 
 them. He regretted very much to find that the system 
 pursued in Canada was now being taken hold of so readily 
 by gentlemen from Scotland for the destruction of these 
 poor innocent fish. These things were sent over merely to 
 illustrate the mode by which fish were sometimes caught 
 in Canada, and it was being taken hold of to exterminate, 
 to a greater extent than was now done, the class of fish 
 which in Canada they were desirous of protecting. The 
 herring of Canada was a different fish from the herring of 
 the sea ; it was a salmonoid very much superior to the herring 
 of the sea, and at one time existed in vast abundance in the 
 inland lakes of Canada. In some of those lakes there were 
 now no herrings left at all, and the consequence was there 
 were no salmon, no salmon trout, and none of the many 
 species of fish which feed on those herrings. If this could 
 be done in a short period of time in the great inland seas 
 of Canada, the same results would follow here if these de- 
 structive engines were adopted, and no protection given to 
 the fish. The food of the larger fish must not be destroyed 
 if they were to be retained. The Almighty had made all 
 things wisely ; He caused the herring to multiply beyond 
 almost any other fish, because it was fed upon more largely 
 than any other description, consequently the herring must 
 produce a greater number to keep up their kind, and if they 
 went on inventing engines, and using every effort to destroy
 
 37 
 
 the smaller fish simply because he was small, the result would 
 be to exterminate the larger ones. However he would not 
 speak at any length on this subject, because he anticipated 
 it would come up for discussion later. He rose to thank 
 his friends who had thought proper to draw attention to 
 the superior modes of fishing to a certain extent pursued 
 in Canada, and to warn them not to use it very largely, for 
 fear that if they did, they would destroy the vast supplies of 
 herrings in the sea, and as a consequence the larger 
 and better description of fish also. 
 
 Earl DuciE then proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Duff 
 for the paper he had read, which was very valuable, not 
 only in itself, but for having produced what one of the 
 speakers had called a want of unanimity, which he con- 
 sidered to be one of the most valuable features of the 
 discussion. Mr. Duff had treated of the history of the 
 herring during the present century, but he remembered in 
 the course of the discussion that he had read in Gibbon, 
 who, when treating of one of the early eruptions of the 
 barbarians in the early Christian ages, and describing the 
 effects that it had on Europe, told them that it had even 
 interfered with the herring trade on the coast of the North 
 Sea, and he would commend that remark to the investiga- 
 tion of anybody who proposed to write the history of the 
 herring. 
 
 Sir GEORGE CAMPBELL seconded the motion. He said 
 in these days of division of labour, however talented a v 
 man might be, he never was so effective as he might be, 
 unless he devoted himself specially to one subject. That 
 was what his friend Mr. Duff had done, and he had done 
 so with good effect. He showed, in his own person, that a 
 good sailor and a good fisherman was likely to make a 
 good member of Her Majesty's Government, and so he was 
 heartily welcomed in the function which he fulfilled in the
 
 38 
 
 House of Commons. He had not only given a deal of 
 useful information, but had given rise to a very interesting 
 discussion. These were days in which Radicals were found 
 attacking our oldest institutions ; next to the Bible, he 
 thought nothing was so firmly fixed on the Englishman as 
 the old proverb that there were as good fish in the sea as 
 ever came out of it, but even that had been questioned 
 to-day, and had led to a very lively discussion. He did 
 not pretend to say which side was right ; he would only 
 observe, as another speaker had done, that there might be 
 two sides to this question, as regarded the deep sea and 
 the inland waters. His attention was especially called to 
 that from the observation of Mr. Wilmot, from which it 
 appeared that the American herring was totally different 
 from our herrings ; but the discussion had been with regard 
 to the European herring, and he thought there was a great 
 deal of weight in the arguments and the facts stated by 
 Mr. Duff. 
 
 The motion having been passed unanimously, 
 Mr. DUFF, M.P., in reply, said he had been very glad to 
 have aroused such an interesting discussion. He would 
 not enter into the question at any length, but he might be 
 permitted to recall to the recollection of the audience a 
 distinction drawn by Professor Huxley in his opening 
 address. He said there were two kinds of fishing, fresh- 
 water fishing and salt-water fishing, and while it could be 
 shown that you could over-fish and destroy fish in fresh 
 water, there was nothing to prove that salt-water fish were 
 exhaustible. This had a bearing on the remarks made by 
 Mr. MacLelan and Mr. Wilmot, because both those gentle- 
 men's observations had reference to the fresh-water fishing 
 and the lake fishing. Dr. Day, who spoke of sea fisheries, 
 did not quite go the length of saying what they were to 
 do. He rather criticised his observations, without putting
 
 39 
 
 forward any alternative scheme. He did not think it was 
 possible for man to destroy the fish in the sea. That point 
 was very shortly and ably put in a lecture which Professor 
 Huxley gave at Norwich. He said there were a number 
 of enemies of the herring : the cod fish, birds, and everything 
 else we have heard of, and if man took so many herrings 
 out of the sea, it was a sort of co-operative society, those 
 others herring fisheries getting so much less ; but as for 
 any idea of destroying deep sea fisheries, from the know- 
 ledge we possessed he was diametrically opposed to the 
 opinion expressed by Dr. Day and some other gentlemen, 
 and he believed that more investigation would only show 
 that it was absolutely impossible. Still, he admitted it was 
 a subject which ought to be discussed, and he was glad to 
 hear their opinion upon it. He did not think it was pos- 
 sible to supply the markets now by simple inshore fishing, 
 and while he admitted that to some extent those fisheries 
 might be injured, much more harm was done to fisheries 
 in general by trying to protect them, than any good which 
 might be supposed to be effected by increasing the inshore 
 fisheries. It was true that restrictive legislation had not 
 been put in force in all cases, but both the chairman and 
 himself had alluded to the very great mischief which was 
 done on the west coast of Scotland, for the population of 
 the western islands were reduced almost to starvation by 
 laws which did absolutely no good to the fisheries. The 
 Executive Committee would pay every attention to the 
 suggestion made by Mr. Johnson with reference to bringing 
 the matters he mentioned more fully before the public. 
 In conclusion, he begged to propose a vote of thanks to 
 the Chairman, who, he was glad to think, as a scientific 
 authority, as well as a man of practical knowledge, entirely 
 agreed with him on the controverted question which had 
 been raised.
 
 40 
 
 Mr. BRUCE, M.P., seconded the motion. Having the 
 honour to represent in the House of Commons a number of 
 fishermen located on the shores of the Firth of Forth, he 
 had naturally listened with great interest to the discussion, 
 and he might say that was one of those places where the 
 herring fishing used to be prosecuted with greater success, 
 but which appeared to some extent to have been deserted 
 of late years by the herrings. The reasons for this were 
 not very well known, but he was glad to say that the 
 fishermen in that quarter had not given up fishing, but 
 had improved their boats and gone farther out to sea to 
 carry on their industry. Whatever else they might differ 
 about, all would agree that it was of the greatest import- 
 ance that a gentleman of such ability as Sir Lyon Playfair 
 should give his mind to the study of these subjects, and 
 that nothing but good could result from his investigations. 
 
 Mr. WlLMOT asked leave to add, in explanation, that 
 the salt-water herring fisheries were more extensive than 
 the whole of those on the shores of Great Britain, and that 
 whilst he spoke of the fresh-water lakes Mr. MacLelan had 
 spoken of the herrings of the sea. 
 
 The vote of thanks having been carried unanimously, 
 
 The CHAIRMAN, in responding, assured Dr. Day that 
 the last thing he desired was to stop discussion by speaking 
 ex catkedrd, but, as late Chairman of the' House of Com- 
 mons, he knew that having spoken then he could not speak 
 again, and so was obliged to say all he had to say ; but it 
 was with the desire of eliciting discussion, and not putting 
 an end to it He had been delighted to hear the different 
 opinions given by different speakers, and he was quite sure 
 the public would profit very much by the different views 
 put forward. 
 
 CHAKING CROSS.
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition, 
 
 LONDON, 1883. 
 
 SCOTCH EAST COAST, 
 ORKNEY AND SHETLAND, LEWIS AND BARRA 
 
 HERRING FISHING. 
 
 W. S. MILN. 
 
 [PRIZE ESSAY.} 
 
 LONDON: 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 1884.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING 
 FISHING. 
 
 FISHERMEN NUMBERS EMPLOYED HABITS AND 
 SOCIAL CONDITION QUALITIES AND CHARACTER- 
 ISTICSWEALTH. 
 
 THE number of fishermen actively employed in the herring 
 fishings during the seasons, from Northumberland to, and 
 including, Wick, and at Orkney and Shetland, and Lewis 
 and Barra in the Hebrides, can be safely estimated at over 
 45,000 men and boys. 
 
 The habits of fishermen are distinctly discernible as 
 pertaining to a broad sectarianism. Individually, their 
 idea of bodily comfort consists in having on a superabun- 
 dance of clothes. Even during the warm months of July 
 and August, whilst working hard in hoisting their catch to 
 the carts on the quay, it is ridiculous the amount of 
 clothing they have on them. The great beads of sweat 
 pouring down their faces and bodies, and the ofttimes 
 visible steaming therefrom, does not convince them that 
 they are overclad. 'Tis a pity they do not regulate their 
 dress in accordance with the weather, as it is obvious that 
 over-burdening one's self with clothing is unhealthy, and 
 weakening to the body, especially during warm weather. 
 What a contrast to the French fishermen ; they having a
 
 4 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 tendency to underclothe themselves, judging by their open- 
 breasted semmit, or shirt. Our fishermen are likewise very 
 much needing a thorough lecturing and training in the art 
 of making clean by a judicious and plentiful use of soap 
 and water, and an occasional total immersion. The fisher- 
 women might follow the example also with advantage. Of 
 course there are exceptions, and they deserve commenda- 
 tion for their cleanliness. Their homes are comfortable, 
 but are slightly overcrowded, generally clean, and the 
 furniture more ancient than modern. Fish is their great 
 sustenance, but when they are at the fishing centres the 
 beef they then use makes up for the scarcity whilst at 
 home during the winter. It is necessary to give a justly 
 merited warning and particularly required denunciation 
 regarding overcrowding at the large centres, such as 
 Fraserburgh, Peterhead, Wick, during the season. House 
 proprietors and lodging-house keepers are . more to blame 
 than the fishermen, as they should be made to provide 
 suitable accommodation if they are to be allowed to lodge 
 fishermen and their families. As for the fishermen, poor 
 simple people, they are only too glad to secure any shelter 
 during their temporary residence, no matter how filthy. 
 The accommodation being limited, overcrowding is general, 
 and the manner of their huddling together in outhouses, 
 stores, lofts, and even worse places, is a disgrace to civilisa- 
 tion. To know about, and to have seen the overcrowding 
 and filth, and to have inhaled the nauseous vapours when 
 passing these temporary abodes, gives one the feeling that 
 such living is not only disgusting, but degrading. Such 
 mode of living is not the fishermen's choice, but is forced 
 on them as a necessity. It is high time that a Parliamentary 
 Commission be appointed to examine and report upon the 
 accommodation available for the fisher people at the various
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 5 
 
 herring fishing stations. Let their visit take place during 
 the heat of a season, and the disclosures will show an 
 indecency and moral degradation of a most appalling 
 nature. One visit would certainly be sufficient, and would 
 be the means of raising the fishing community from a 
 backward and unwholesome living, to one more healthy 
 and modern. 
 
 The qualities and characteristics of fishermen may also 
 be said to be sectarian. Amongst the Highlanders 
 intemperance is the prevailing vice, but it is gratifying to 
 observe the wonderful alteration that is gradually making 
 itself visible in their sect, and which augurs well for the 
 hope that in the near future our fishermen will be known 
 as a temperate' race of men. Religion has also a consider- 
 able part of their attention. They are chiefly connected 
 with the Gaelic Church. The southern fishermen are pretty 
 well mixed up with all the denominations. Missionary 
 work receives good support, is beneficial, and has a 
 splendid ground to work upon. However, the fishermen, 
 notwithstanding their regular church attendance and 
 adhesiveness to their creeds seeming equal to fanaticism 
 are found, on a close observation of their daily life, to be 
 divided thus, one-third zealous, God-fearing, and good 
 living men, while the other two-thirds are not, and a great 
 part are (I am sorry to have to say it) in disposition 
 inclined to the opposite direction. I draw my conclusions 
 from close observance. Obstinacy in argument is a 
 prominent characteristic. There is also a deep vindictive- 
 ness and revengefulness in their natures against those 
 whom they may deem enemies. Without flattery, let us 
 glance at the good qualities of our fishermen. To their 
 employers they are respectful, and self-knowing, subser- 
 vient ; hard working and energetic in their occupation ;
 
 6 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 cautious (after a manner, ofttimes unnecessarily and 
 unfittingly so) ; bold and daring in presence of danger ; 
 affectionate to their wives and children ; ambitious to be 
 affluent, and desirous to keep on a level with the times ; 
 but withal, retaining a strict adhesion to their caste. 
 
 Wealth is pretty equally divided. Well-to-do fishermen 
 are sure to possess, first, a house and furniture ; second, boat 
 and gear, or perhaps shares of a large and a small boat ; 
 third, nets, lines, and other fishing materials. The heads 
 of families are generally tolerably comfortable as regards 
 means. A small proportion may, through unfortunate 
 circumstances, be poor for a time, but perseverance soon 
 overcomes the poverty. The various banks receive a 
 goodly amount of money on deposit from them ; and 
 when we consider that mostly all the houses in the fishing 
 villages which they inhabit belong to themselves for the 
 greater part, we must allow that as a class they are both 
 powerful and rich. Young fishermen, as they earn and 
 save money, invest it in their fathers' or relatives' boats, 
 thereby securing an interest in the boat, and therefore in 
 the industry. They earn and save more money than any 
 other class in Scotland, and as fortune and hard work seem 
 to go hand in hand, the energy and instinctive ambition 
 for supremacy entitles us to reasonably expect a continuous 
 and progressive prosperity in the future. 
 
 FISHINGMATERIAL BOATS AND GEAR NETS BASKETS 
 AND SPADES METHOD OF CATCH DELIVERY. 
 
 Fifteen years ago the fishing boats were principally 
 those which we know now under the name of the " skaffic," 
 a fast sailing, but unhandy and very much inferior boat 
 compared with the present new style. The cost of a
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 "skaffie" boat would then range from 175 to 210. The 
 " KY " i.e. Kirkcaldy style, is the most popular at present. 
 They are first-class built, and will carry with comfort a 
 catch of 70 to 100 crans of herrings, equal to 8 to 15 tons. 
 Their dimensions and "rig" make them suitable for a 
 further from shore fishing than the " skaffie." According 
 to the newest improvements and additional appliances, a 
 first-class " KY " style of boat would cost over 300. There 
 have been a good many highly superior boats launched 
 during the past two or three years, their shape slightly 
 differing from the " KY " style, but they are materially of 
 the same class, with the exception that they are better deck- 
 built and have the most modern appliances. They cost 
 20 to 50 more than the average " KY." Gear comprises 
 sails, ropes, anchors, chains, oars, &c., and their cost is in- 
 cluded in the price of the boat. The following table shows 
 the exact number of boats fishing at each station, from 
 Northumberland to Shetland, and including Lewis and 
 Barra, for the past five years. 
 
 Stations and Districts. 
 
 1878. 
 
 1879. 
 
 1880. 
 
 1881. 
 
 1882. 
 
 WICK to Keiss 
 
 170 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 Lybster and Clyth 
 
 3/V 
 
 132 
 
 141 
 
 147 
 
 140 
 
 Forse Station 
 
 14 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 Latheronwheel Station . . . 
 
 16 
 
 15 
 
 IS 
 
 15 
 
 13 
 
 Dunbeath Station 
 
 39 
 
 40 
 
 32 
 
 34 
 
 3i 
 
 Helmsdale Station 
 
 160 
 
 130 
 
 170 
 
 145 
 
 160 
 
 Portmahomack Station . . . 
 
 26 
 
 16 
 
 22 
 
 28 
 
 30 
 
 Burghead and Hopeman Station 
 
 34 
 
 17 
 
 47 
 
 45 
 
 So 
 
 Lossiemouth Station .... 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 42 
 
 47 
 
 42 
 
 Buckie District 
 
 3 2 
 
 26 
 
 7t 
 
 67 
 
 nc 
 
 
 
 
 / j 
 
 *-V 
 
 Vi) 
 
 Portsoy Station 
 
 7C 
 
 -0 
 
 __ 
 
 
 Aft 
 
 
 JJ 
 
 
 
 Oy 
 
 T 
 
 4 
 
 Whitehills Station ..... 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 IO 
 
 12
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 Stations and Districts. 
 
 1878. 
 
 1879- 
 
 1880. 
 
 1881. 
 
 .ss, 
 
 Banff Station 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 II 
 
 1C 
 
 Macduff Station 
 
 36 
 
 y 
 
 52 
 
 41 
 
 39 
 
 J 
 
 66 
 
 Gardenstown Station .... 
 
 25 
 
 49 
 
 36 
 
 53 
 
 4i 
 
 Fraserburgh District .... 
 
 879 
 
 1006 
 
 944 
 
 1007 
 
 900 
 
 Peterhead District 
 
 68 3 
 
 768 
 
 716 
 
 849 
 
 822 
 
 Aberdeen District 
 
 4QO 
 
 400 
 
 361 
 
 501 
 
 482 
 
 Stonehaven District .... 
 
 fyw 
 
 
 
 
 IOI 
 
 Montrose District 
 
 233 
 
 204 
 
 244 
 
 225 
 
 1 66 
 
 Anstruther District 
 
 35 
 
 36 
 
 70 
 
 36 
 
 20 
 
 Leith to D unbar 
 
 40 
 
 65 
 
 60 
 
 60 
 
 45 
 
 Eyemouth District 
 
 321 
 
 233 
 
 373 
 
 282 
 
 38i 
 
 Orkney Islands 
 
 102 
 
 181 
 
 1 7O 
 
 1 80 
 
 107 
 
 Shetland Islands 
 
 iy-& 
 120 
 
 1U *5 
 
 206 
 
 i/u 
 
 206 
 
 284 
 
 -// 
 
 372 
 
 Lewis and Barra 
 
 8 7 I 
 
 1084 
 
 1381 
 
 1285 
 
 1300 
 
 Taking the year 1882, we have 6131 boats, which, 
 calculated at an average cost of 275 per boat including 
 gear, gives the handsome capital of 1,686,025 sterling 
 invested solely by fishermen in these herring boats, al- 
 together exclusive of nets. It is pleasing to relate that 
 these boats are being covered against loss by Insurance. 
 
 There is now no regulation size of mesh or net The net 
 as bought from the manufacturer is 60 yards in length, 
 but when hung on the back rope is only equal to 40 yards 
 long. The depth is on average about 12 yards. The 
 cotton threads comprising the net are of 9, 12, 15, 18, and 
 2 1 ply. The -mesh is about I square inch, measured from 
 knot to knot, and commonly there are 32, 33, and 34 
 meshes in the yard. As the nets get older, through 
 shrinking, there are 34 to 38, and even 40 meshes to the 
 yard. During a fair fishing the new nets are regularly 
 " barked" once a fortnight. Old nets require " barking" only
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 9 
 
 once a month. " Barking " is the process of browning the 
 nets by boiling them in cutch. The " swing rope " is a rope 
 attached to the nets from the boat and is their safeguard, 
 so to speak. The price of a net is in the meantime 33^., 
 which, together with mounting 4^. 6d. + head rope 12s. 6d. 
 + buoy 4s. 6d. + floats 3^. + bark $s. gd. + fishermen's 
 labour estimated at Ss. gd. = 3 los. ; and therefore that 
 is the sum to be paid for a fair average quality net ready 
 for use. A boat carries from 25 to 50 nets, and that 
 quantity is termed a " fleet." Making the lowest possible 
 estimates appear by allowing only 25 nets to each boat, we 
 have in use 153,275 nets, which at 3 los. per net, gives 
 the value of 536,462 sterling. 
 
 The baskets for the measuring of the herrings are 
 supplied by the curer, and, sad to relate, in too many cases 
 are slightly larger than the regulation size. The remedy 
 lies with the fishermen, and they have themselves to blame 
 if they do not take advantage thereof. The regulation 
 measurement of the cran is 37^ gallons imperial standard 
 measurement. There are 4 baskets to the cran, and each 
 basket is exactly one-fourth of the aforementioned required 
 standard measurement. In shape they resemble a common 
 tub, but are wicker-worked, having in circumference two 
 or three inches more at top than bottom. The rim of the 
 basket is heavy worked and has two handles for fixing 
 the hoisting rope and lifting. There requires to be on 
 board the boat from two to four spades or scoops for 
 shovelling the herrings into the baskets. Formerly they 
 were entirely wooden, but now the heads are of zinc. The 
 fishermen supply these spades ; they cost from 2s. 6d. to 
 3-y. each. Baskets cost about 2s. each. Making a fair 
 allowance for each boat we find that these articles presently 
 in use would give a money value of 5000. 
 
 E. 23. c
 
 io THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 Method of catch is thus explained : the boat and crew 
 being ready to proceed to sea the crew get aboard 
 and commence to " red," i.e. fold the nets in methodical 
 succession, head-rope being to "stern," and foot-rope to 
 " bow." To counteract the weight and position of the nets 
 stones are used to balance. That finished, the boat is 
 pushed or rowed out of the harbour, sail is hoisted, and, 
 according to the state of wind and tide, is steered out to the 
 fishing grounds. Arrived there, sail is lowered, and the 
 nets " cast " or " shot " over the starboard side of the boat. 
 The " watch " is set. Shortly before sunrise, and with 
 the disappearance of the phosphoric light, the nets are 
 hauled aboard and the herrings are shaken, weather per- 
 mitting, from the nets into the " hold," and the nets folded 
 methodically. Should the sea be rough when the hauling 
 takes place, the nets cannot be shaken ; but that no time 
 may be lost, and to admit of the herrings being delivered 
 in best possible condition, the fishermen always endeavour 
 to have their nets shaken as they approach the harbour. 
 
 Delivery is here to be understood as from the boat to 
 the carts on the quay. The fishermen shovel the herrings 
 into the baskets and hoist them by means of ropes running 
 through a " pulley " attached to the top of the boat's mast. 
 When on a level with the quay, the carter, who has a rope 
 fixed to the basket rope, draws to him, and the contents 
 are emptied into his cart. A crew consists of five or six men 
 and a boy, and in delivering the herrings, half of them 
 attend to the filling of the baskets, and the other half to the 
 hoisting. All have hard work, and there is no stoppage 
 till every herring is delivered. The hoisting tells severely 
 on the hands, and is not improved by the curious use 
 of heavy worsted " mits " or gloves so often seen worn by 
 the " hoisters."
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. n 
 
 FISH-CURERS CURING YARDS PLANT COOPERS 
 ORAMEN GUTTERS KIPPERERS AND SMOKERS 
 CARTAGE STOCK. 
 
 There are about 500 firms engaged in the herring curing 
 trade on the East Coast, Orkney and Shetland, Lewis and 
 Barra. The capital invested would amount to from 720,000 
 to 1,000,000 sterling. Of all classes they are always the 
 most dependent, entirely relying on the sea's product ; 
 independent, meantime, by their position and standing ; 
 enterprising yet rash and speculative none more so. 
 They are industrious, and are deserving of the country's 
 best thanks for so carefully, laboriously, even expensively, 
 but not withal judiciously, conducting their business, the 
 methods and results of which are so highly gratifying as to 
 command the esteem of millions of people at home and 
 abroad. They have raised to a high pinnacle the fame 
 of the Scotch herring trade, and long may they preserve 
 the position and honour. 
 
 Presuming that a herring curer has fully made up his 
 mind as to the extent of his business, let us glance at 
 his requirements. In the first place it is necessary that 
 a suitable " stance " be procured, near or at the harbour, 
 whereon the yard is to be erected. Supplies of wood 
 (staves) and hoops are ordered, and suitable 'plant' is 
 bought. The coopers are engaged. Boat-engaging time 
 comes on, and the curer looks out for the good boats, and 
 endeavours to engage them. After fixing his boats, he 
 gives his orders for the salt required. If he is a practical 
 curer and cooper he assists in the cutting and making of 
 heads for the barrels, and otherwise superintends the 
 business.
 
 12 THE .SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 Curing yards are commonly square shaped. The 
 buildings constituting a yard differ very much, in fact 
 every locality has a different style. At Fraserburgh and 
 Peterhead some very fine yards have been built lately. 
 The frontages are of stone, and perhaps several stores are 
 also of stone, but generally there are one or more wooden 
 erections, stones, kilns, or coverings. At Pointlaw, Aber- 
 deen, there are thirty-five yards, which are all, without 
 exception, built of wood. This is owing to the short leases 
 obtainable from the Harbour Commissioners. Pointlaw 
 is part of the reclaimed ground at the Inches, and it is 
 specially set apart for fish-curing. 
 
 The portion fronting the street or lane is generally the 
 " gutting shed." Through a swing door or doors in the 
 front of this shed the herrings are tumbled promiscuously, 
 and fall into a large square box, or tank, called a " farlin," 
 i.e. a repository for the herrings, where they are " roused," 
 and await the process of gutting. Adjoining is the " cooper- 
 age." In front thereof, at a distance of a few yards, is the 
 " firing-plate and truss-hoops." Sufficient storage ac- 
 commodation is required for the barrels, salt, hoops and 
 staves. Of late I have noticed an improvement in 
 the gutting-sheds ; I refer to the laying of the floors with 
 concrete. It is worthy of mention that the fish-curers at 
 Shetland, while laying out capital on their yards, are likewise 
 under the necessity of providing "jetties," or landing slips 
 near their stations at their own expense. I sincerely trust 
 their enterprise will be rewarded. Shetland may be said 
 to have risen within the past two years from insignificance 
 to eminence. Whereas last year curing was carried on 
 under difficulty, the catch being rather too heavy to be 
 worked properly, the temporary curing yards seeming 
 swamps, shipment difficult, communication limited, and
 
 Xlr-23.
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 13 
 
 house accommodation more so, this year the curers will 
 have nearly all the advantages to be had at home. The 
 telegraph service is extended, as also steamer and land 
 communication. Several substantial "jetties" have been 
 built, and likewise good curing yards have been put up. 
 Even the remote parts of the islands have every prospect 
 of seeing a general merchant open business when the fishing 
 begins. Barra, on the west coast, is by Lady Gordon 
 Cathcart's assistance gradually rising from obscurity to 
 significance, and although last year was a failure, it is 
 to be hoped that the future fishings will prove a steady 
 increase compared to the former years. Stornoway has 
 now assumed the supremacy of the west coast, and has a 
 large trade. On account of the Barra failure last season, 
 Stornoway being extra-well fished, it is likely that there 
 will be a great increase of boats next season (1883). The 
 west coast fishing is for the greater part prosecuted by 
 east coast curers, and, with the exception of Stornoway, 
 all the yards are of a temporary character. 
 
 Plant consists of farlins (already described) ; small tubs 
 or baskets for the various selections ; large rousing tub ; 
 hoop-bending mill, costs about 11 to 15; head-boring 
 mill, costs about 4 or 5 ; grindstone for sharpening 
 tools ; firing-plate and truss-hoops ; crisset and fender ; 
 steep for soaking hoops ; head and side jointers ; head and 
 side planes, or pluckers ; adze for notching hoops ; trussing 
 hammer and drivers ; shore, croze, and flencher or chime- 
 howl ; crumb or champhering-knife, head-knife, draw- 
 knife ; compass for taking the circumference of the barrel- 
 heads ; head and crosscut saws ; two bits for boring the 
 bung and spile holes; and stave-moulding axe, saw stool, 
 head-cleaning board, dowl-dropper, and diagonal rod. 
 Where there are kilns there are also required steeps for 
 
 E. 23. D
 
 U THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 pickling the herrings, tenters or spits for hanging the 
 herrings while being smoked, together with other small 
 utensils which are hardly worth mentioning. Be it under- 
 stood that quantities of the above articles are required 
 according to the extent of the business. 
 
 The coopers steadily employed in the trade are about 
 3000 in number, including apprentices. During the herring 
 fishing the journeymen, on an average, receive 33^. to 35.$-. 
 per week. Foremen a few shillings more. During the 
 winter their wages are earned on the work done. The 
 principal employment then is barrel-making. A good man 
 can make by steady work 24 barrels a week. The price 
 for making a barrel is is., and therefore the cooper can earn 
 2^s. per week by steady work. He has a very responsible 
 position, and is in reality the practical fish-curer. First, 
 there is the necessity of making his barrels the exact 
 regulation size, and showing an apparent good workman- 
 ship, tight fitting and well hooped. Second, care and 
 punctiliousness in "rousing," i.e. salting to keep the 
 herrings in good condition, till convenient to be gutted, 
 and during the process of gutting. Third, the keeping 
 in good working order all plant, and especially the farlins, 
 tubs and gutting knives, and the superintending of 
 gutting, selection, laying, and packing. Fourth, he has to 
 devote particular attention to the pickling and filling up, 
 and presentation for the brand. Although not receiving a 
 remuneration equal in comparison to the amount of labour 
 and responsibility, still, greatly to their credit, they are a 
 contented, hardworking, thrifty, and energetic class of men, 
 and by their excellent service are the instruments in 
 making for the Scotch cure such a high fame as it has. 
 
 Oramen are only employed during the herring fishing 
 season ; 400 or 500 might be the estimate of the numbers
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 15 
 
 employed. Their wages are about 2os. per week, and they 
 are engaged to assist the coopers, and make themselves 
 generally useful in the yard. Many of them are engaged 
 as "cranners," that is, to attend to the delivery of the 
 herrings from the boats, keep correct count of the baskets 
 emptied into the carts, and in particular to see that the 
 baskets are properly filled, and otherwise look to the 
 interests of the fish-curer he is in service with. They are 
 mostly of the labouring class, or persons out of employment. 
 
 " Gutters " are those engaged to gut the herrings on 
 their arrival at the curing-yard. Women are employed as 
 gutters. The fish-curer engages a "crew" of women for 
 each boat. A crew consists of three persons. Two gut, and 
 the other one packs the herrings gutted by them. There 
 are over 20,000 women employed during the season. Their 
 wages are at the rate of %d. per barrel, gutting and packing, 
 per crew. Those who are fortunately with a curer having 
 a large average make a good sum of money for the season, 
 but there are also those unfortunately with a curer with a 
 poor average, and therefore their wages are comparatively 
 small. The "gutting of herrings is a laborious occupation. 
 It is common in a yard to hear women singing cheerily at 
 their work, they having commenced at mid-day and con- 
 tinued work in the same bent-figured attitude till the early 
 hours next morning. Once commenced, there is> no stoppage 
 till the finish. While the herrings are before them, money 
 is to be made. Work is no object. When the curer t 
 engages the gutting women, they are paid " arle " money of 
 from 35-r. to 55^. each woman, according to their known 
 qualifications as " gutters." 
 
 Kipperers and smokers have quite a different class of 
 work from the gutters. Kipperers, in the first place, have 
 to "split" the herrings, and afterwards have to pack them into 
 
 D 2
 
 1 6 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 the boxes. They are generally engaged for about 17 s. per 
 week, but sometimes we find them working for $d. per hour. 
 
 Smokers are the men employed to attend to the smoking, 
 hanging up, and taking down of the herrings. They get 
 about ' 2/j-. to $6s. per week, and considering the heavy 
 work they are not overpaid. They are continually 
 " heaping " the fires, and one can easily imagine the 
 unwholesome vapours and heat to be simply stifling. It 
 only requires an " anxious inquirer " to put his head in at 
 the door of a smoke-house to convince him that a smoker's 
 duties are onerous, most trying to the health, and exceed- 
 ingly dangerous. 
 
 For cartage of the herrings from the boats to the yard, 
 and when cured from the yard to ship's side for export, 
 contracts are entered into between the curer and carter. 
 The contract rates vary at all centres, but 2d. per cran 
 from the boat to the yard, and ^d. per barrel from the 
 yard to ship's side, may be given as the likeliest average. 
 The best style of bulk herring cart is a long, even-balanced 
 body-cart, and is specially adapted for the trade. A 
 temporary division in the middle of a common cart 
 prevents the herrings from slipping backwards, thereby 
 tending to overbalance the cart and spill the herrings. For 
 conveying barrels a " lorry " is the best. The income 
 derived from the cartage of herrings for the past few years 
 is not less than ; 15,000 per annum. 
 
 The principal articles of a herring curer's stock are 
 staves and heading, hoops and salt. The curer may 
 procure billet-wood and cut into staves by his own order ; 
 but generally the staves are delivered at the yard ready to 
 be worked. The various woods used for barrel-making in 
 the order of their value are larch, birch, ash, spruce, and 
 Scotch fir. Larch is the dearest wood, and undoubtedly
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 17 
 
 makes the finest barrels ; costs from 8os. to 90$-. per 1000 
 feet, and on account of its clearness is not so much used as 
 it deserves to be. Birch is the medium quality, and is the 
 most popular. Perhaps half of all the barrels made are of 
 birch. Our greatest supplies are from Norway ; Mandal 
 and Porsgrund shipping the best qualities. Our home 
 supplies are indeed very small, and there is nothing in 
 the quality of the home birch that particularly calls for 
 comment. The price is at present firm at 75^. per 1000 
 feet. Spruce and common fir have of late years come much 
 into use, and are appreciated on account of cheapness. 
 Likewise the curers can be supplied by the neighbouring 
 wood merchants at such times as they may require, and in 
 small quantities. The price is from 6cxr. to 6$s. per 1000 
 feet. These woods are very soft compared to larch or 
 birch ; and after the barrel has been filled with herrings 
 and lain for 2 or 3 months in store, it is found that the 
 pickle has become absorbed in the wood, the barrel has 
 expanded, and therefore the herrings present a slackened 
 appearance. J give it as my opinion that the less fir 
 barrels are used the better for the trade. The curers may 
 save a little in the price of the barrel, but they will 
 certainly lose more than the amount in the sale of the 
 barrels of herrings, for the simple reason that the German 
 herring dealers have a dislike to fir barrels. It takes about 
 1 6 to 20 staves to make one barrel. 1000 feet of staves 
 and 250 feet of heading will give about 70 barrels on an 
 average. The nett cost of a barrel is from $s. ^d. to ^s. 6cf. 
 according to the quality of the wood used. By these 
 figures I estimate that it costs over .125,000 every year to 
 prepare the stock of barrels for this herring fishing. 
 
 The hoops required for the barrel are in length 71 feet, 
 are about inch thick, and vary in breadth from to I inch.
 
 i8 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 They are of wood, and are principally either of ash, birch, 
 elm, willow, and hazel. The great supply of hoops are 
 bought through London merchants, and are collected by 
 them from all parts. The finest finished hoops come from 
 Surrey. The cash price of hoops is for whole barrel 34^., 
 and for half-barrel 25^. f.o.b. London. From 16 to 18 
 hoops are required for each barrel. The money value for 
 the total used during each year is not under 45,000. 
 
 The salt required by the curer is generally ordered about 
 or immediately after the new year, and for delivery a week 
 or two before the early fishing commences. The supply is 
 calculated at from 12 to 15 tons of salt to the boat for a 
 fair average fishing. Salt is in a great measure the re- 
 sponsible element in the cure, and it is therefore in the 
 best interests of the curer to procure the best salt suitable 
 for curing purposes. For " rousing," common salt is quite 
 good enough, but for " packing and filling up " a great 
 grained salt is required first quality is the proper 
 requisite. Lisbon and St. Ubes salt has found much 
 favour as a splendid salt for " packing," and on the west 
 coast is much appreciated. However, this salt is not so 
 much dealt in as its quality would warrant, but that is 
 probably on account of the risk, measurement instead of 
 weight, or a disinclination, from lack of sufficient profit, to 
 deal therewith by the seller on this side. German salt 
 has been tried at one or two stations, and its qualities proven 
 satisfactory. It is, however, still in its infancy, and from all 
 appearance may take some little time to get out of it on 
 account of prejudice. I have had the pleasure of myself 
 introducing it at Aberdeen, having contracted for 150 tons^ 
 for July delivery. This salt is exclusively for packing and 
 filling up. It is beautifully clear, great grained, and stands 
 an excellent analysis.
 
 PlateHr. 
 
 Fishermens Herring Shovel. 
 D? D Basket. 
 
 East 
 
 cvnd Head, shewijt formation
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 19 
 
 ENGAGEMENTS BETWEEN CURER AND FISHER 
 
 BOUNTY SYSTEM ARLES AND DATES OF 
 
 AGREEMENT. 
 
 The bounty system has been in force for a great length 
 of time. From 1720 (perhaps before that time) to 1830 
 there were bounties at irregular periods given by Govern- 
 ment to aid in the further development and extension of 
 the trade. For interesting examples, I quote the following. 
 In the year 1727 a Board of Trustees was appointed to 
 manage the sum of 20,000 per annum allowed by the 
 Government from Scotch Revenue (vide Act, 23 Geo. II.). 
 Great encouragements were given and assistance rendered 
 in floating the " Free British White Herring Company," 
 whose capital was 500,000. Bounty was then paid at 30^. 
 per ton on " busses " from 20 to 80 tons burthen. The year 
 1757 saw the bounty at 50^. per ton. We read of the 
 Scotch having earned bounty in 1767, amounting to 3 1,396, 
 but in 1781 only 9,674. In 1782 the bounty was reduced 
 to 30^., not on the tonnage now, but on the ton of fish 
 delivered. In 1808 we know of it having been paid in the 
 form of 2s. for every barrel qualified, presented, and receiv- 
 ing the Government brand. It was raised to 4^. in 18 1 5, and 
 altogether withdrawn in 1830. Such was the bounty system 
 of the olden times. Good in its way, and having its origin in 
 the best of intentions viz. to promote the development, and 
 by its monetary assistance to encourage the trade. 
 
 The modern system is quite different, and to my seeming 
 is a dangerous practice. It is a " bond," or " service," money 
 paid by the herring curer to the fishers owning the boat as 
 the part price of the contract. The following table shows 
 the average amount of bounty per boat paid during the
 
 20 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 past six years. Before then the bounties were compara- 
 tively small, even as low as 5. 
 
 Bounty paid 
 
 i8 77 . 
 20 
 
 i8 79 . 
 40 
 
 20 40 
 
 1882. 
 48 
 
 The fluctuations in bounty payments are entirely caused 
 by the preceding year's catch and prices. Therefore the 
 payments are purely speculative as to probable rise or fall 
 for the coming year. A glance at the prices here given 
 from the principal market Stettin will tend to prove this. 
 
 The quotations on 3 1 st December were as follows : 
 
 (Calculate 20^ mks. to i.) 
 
 In 
 
 1877. 1878. 
 
 1879. 
 
 1880. 
 
 1881. 
 
 1882. 
 
 
 M. 
 
 M. 
 
 M. 
 
 M. 
 
 M. 
 
 M. 
 
 Scotch Crownfulls . 
 
 44 
 
 38 
 
 52i-53 
 
 29-30 
 
 40|-4I 
 
 38i-39 
 
 Crown Matties 
 
 29 
 
 27-28 
 
 34-37 
 
 21-23 
 
 34-35 
 
 31-32 
 
 Mixed 
 
 27 
 
 25-26 
 
 35-37 
 
 22i-2 3 i 
 
 32i-34 
 
 3i 
 
 ,, Spents 
 
 26 
 
 25-26 
 
 371-38 
 
 22| 
 
 3'i 
 
 3i 
 
 The curers argue that to procure good boats good 
 bounties must be paid. If bounties of a necessity must 
 be given, then I agree with them. But why should 
 bounties be paid ? For example, take two boats both 
 getting the same amount of bounty. One takes 100 crans, 
 and the other 200 crans ; in which case it would appear 
 reasonable to expect that the catch of 100 crans should 
 only receive half the bounty of the other ; but it is not so. 
 They both have the same bounty, but the one boat's fish 
 is considerably dearer than the other ; this to show that 
 the bounty is not well or even-balanced. Again, if a curer 
 has engaged eleven boats this year, he has paid out of his 
 capital slightly more than 500 six or seven months before
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 21 
 
 the fishing commences. There is an obvious risk in this 
 speculative payment, and there is a chance of its being 
 entirely lost. For instance, the Barra fishing last year 
 (1882) was a complete failure. The bounty was 40 per 
 boat. The curer's loss was averaged at 55 per boat. 
 Had no bounty been paid, the loss would have only been 
 .15 per boat. 
 
 To the fishermen this payment of bounty is supposed to 
 assist them in passing through the winter, and to allow of 
 improvements to their boats. As presents to the fisher- 
 men, without conditions attached thereto, such payments 
 would be too highly commendable. But why not make 
 this payment, if necessarily required by the fishermen, 
 simply an advance to be repaid out of earnings ? In 
 some instances the bounty is misapplied, and it has been 
 known to encourage laziness amongst the crews, especially 
 in the early weeks of the fishing, when the cran is cheaper 
 than in the regular set time. Bounties will come to a 
 sudden stop the first year there is a backward and losing 
 fishing. At present a good year to the curer means a 
 greater speculative payment for the one that is to come, 
 and that without any augury as to an equivalent return. 
 
 Aries are usually paid by the curer to the fisher over and 
 above the bounty when the engagements are entered into. 
 The arles are this year i per boat. As the fisher owning 
 the boat has to " arle " his crew, I presume the i is given 
 for that purpose. 
 
 The average bounty, including arles, paid on the east 
 coast for the coming season, 1883, is about 48 per boat ; 
 inferior boats having 35 to 45 ; good boats 45 to 50 ; 
 and first-class boats 50 to 53. Many boats are this year 
 to commence fishing on the 1st July, but the engaged early 
 fishing is from the 8th or loth July till the i6th or i8th
 
 22 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 July. The prices at these dates are us. to 14^-. per cran. 
 The regular fishing commences on the i6th to i8th July, and 
 continues thereafter for eight weeks, or till the complement 
 of 200 crans is delivered. In the event of a boat making 
 its complement before the eight weeks are over, and exceeds 
 it, the herrings can be taken by the curer at a less rate 
 14^. or i$s. per cran, but the curer is not bound to take 
 them. The early fishing at Shetland commences this 
 year during the first week of June. The price is 14^. or 
 i$s. for the first 100 crans. The curers have it in their 
 option to take more herrings at that money, or not The 
 regular fishing commences on the ist July, and the price 
 is 2os. for the first 250 crans. It is again in the curer's 
 option to take more or not. The bounty and arles is 
 on average 32 per boat. The native Shetland boats 
 receive no bounty, and are engaged on the same terms as 
 the " strangers." Curers on the mainland must have two 
 stations (one on the west side, Scalloway, and one on the 
 east side, Lerwick). This is accounted for by the theory 
 that the herrings are only to be found on the west side 
 during the first half of the season, and on the east side 
 during the latter half. This theory may be correct or not, 
 but at all events the curers and fishermen believe in it, and 
 therefore the boats fish at two places, but under one 
 agreement. The extension of the herring fishery at the 
 North Isles only dates from last year. There are few 
 stations on the west side, but all the season herrings were 
 plentiful on the east side both early and late. The west 
 coast fishing commences in the beginning of May, but the 
 engagements generally run from the loth May, the. price 
 being l$s. per cran. The regular fishing is from the 2Oth 
 May till the end of June, and the price is 2os. per cran. 
 The average bounty at Stornoway is ^35 per boat, and
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 23 
 
 at Barra 45 per boat. According to qualifications the 
 prices are low or high. The inferior boats have as low 
 as 30, and first-class boats as high as 50. 
 
 COPY OF AGREEMENT GENERAL WITH FISH-CURERS 
 AND FISHERMEN. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " We, the undersigned crew of herring fisher- 
 men, having good boats and proper fleets of nets in our 
 possession, hereby agree diligently and faithfully to pro- 
 secute the herring fishing for you at and deliver 
 
 to you all herrings we catch as per agreement during 
 
 herring fishing season 188 commencing on the July 
 
 at shillings per cran, till July* an d from that date 
 
 until eight weeks, at the rate of shillings per cran for 
 
 two hundred crans, and shillings for all crans after- 
 wards. All the herrings to be delivered in good (fisher- 
 man's) workmanship order and condition, before P.M. 
 
 of the day after which we leave the harbour for the fishing 
 grounds. 
 
 " Besides the above rates per cran we receive as 
 
 bounty and earnest You supply net ground and cartage 
 of fish and nets. All herrings not up to terms of agreement 
 we will offer you at what they are worth."
 
 24 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 CURING FRESHING KIPPERING RED HERRINGS 
 TINNING FAMOUS PICKLE CURE A FEW REMARKS 
 AS TO THE UTILITY OF FISH OFFAL. 
 
 The trade in sending to the English markets, inland 
 towns, and the larger country villages, receives a good deal 
 of attention, and is very lucrative, unless there be a heavy 
 fishing, and therefore a probable glut. There are only a 
 few fish-curers who work this " fresh trade." It is principally 
 carried on by fresh-fish buyers, and they buy from the 
 boats or the curers their daily supplies at prices according 
 to the markets and prospects. Stornoway in particular 
 does a large " freshing " business. To explain the " freshing," 
 let us suppose a supply of herrings has been got. They 
 are " roused " and well laid with small grained salt ; 
 straw, and perhaps matting, is put over the top of the barrel 
 mouth and made firm. Boxes, barrels, or tubs will do, 
 although iron-hooped boxes are the correct thing and all 
 that is wanted is expeditious transmission to the consignee. 
 There are a good many curers engaged in making kippers. 
 A few of the many are long established, and therefore have 
 a fairly wide known popularity as to their cure and merits. 
 This coming season will see a great extension in kippering, 
 as at large stations, such as Montrose, Aberdeen, Peterhead, 
 Fraserburgh, Lerwick, and Stornoway, there are more 
 curers entering on this branch of the trade. " Kippers " are 
 at present a very popular edible, but there is only a limited 
 home consumption, and as they do not keep their condition 
 after two or three weeks, there is a danger In too fast 
 extension, which will without doubt bring down the prices, 
 and probably overstock the markets. It must be remem-
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 25 
 
 bered also that the English cure a large portion of their 
 catch in this style, and will prove dangerous competitors. 
 
 Red herrings are not cured so much for the home 
 markets as for foreign. The countries around the 
 Mediterranean are the largest consumers, and prices there- 
 from are good. The cure is thus described. The herrings 
 are soaked in salt and saltpetre till they are rigid. The 
 pickle is then removed. They are hung on the spits for a 
 few days, and afterwards smoked until they are of the 
 required colour. It takes eight or nine days to cure red 
 herrings properly. 
 
 The tinning of herrings for the greater part is confined to 
 Aberdeen, and Australia is the great market. Last year 
 (1882) there were close on 2^- millions of tins exported from 
 Aberdeen for the various warm countries. There are from 
 three to five herrings in a tin, and the tin and herrings 
 weigh i Ib. The process of curing and putting up is pretty 
 much kept secret, and in case of mistakes I had better not 
 endeavour to describe the method. 
 
 The famous Scotch pickle cure, the most important of 
 all methods, now deserves special reference. The " pickle 
 cure " was first practised as an article of trade in Holland 
 in the year 1307. Immediately on the herrings being 
 delivered by the carter at the yard, and deposited or 
 "tumbled" into the farlin, i.e. gutting-tub, the coopers 
 are careful to sprinkle them well with salt. This sprinkling 
 of salt called " rousing " preserves and revives the con- 
 dition of the herrings while they are being gutted. The 
 gutting women lose no time in commencing their work. 
 With their short knife in the right hand, and the herring in 
 their left, they, by a dexterous and experienced movement 
 withdraw the viscera and gills. All bloody matter is 
 included therewith, and its withdrawal prevents the fish
 
 26 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 from turning a sickly colour, they would otherwise turn if 
 the bloody matter remained. First-class cured fish keep 
 beautifully clear and free from smell for nine or twelve 
 months. After that time an unhealthy appearance makes 
 itself manifest. As the herrings are gutted they are 
 dropped into tubs according to their qualities. These tubs 
 are placed close to the large gutting-box or farlin, and 
 there is one for every selection. The gutters should be 
 most particular in selection. The small tubs are carried by 
 the " packers " to where the packing is taking place 
 generally in the centre, or open part of the yard and 
 emptied into a larger tub. Here they are again " roused." 
 Two or three turns over with the hands is sufficient. In 
 packing, the herrings are "laid" on their backs, and the packer 
 sees that a proper quantity of salt is sprinkled over every tier. 
 Attention is paid to pressing and refilling after the barrel 
 has stood for a few days. Whereas small grained salt is 
 the best for rousing, great grained salt is necessary for 
 laying and packing. The various selections of the pickle 
 cure on the east coast and Shetland are ist, Fulls, i.e. 
 full-sized, having roe or milt developed ; 2nd, Matties, i.e. 
 undersized, roe and milt immature ; 3rd, Spent, i.e. spawned 
 fish ; 4th, Tornbellies, i.e. fish either split in the side, 
 breast, or belly, while being gutted or torn in these parts 
 in being shaken from the nets. The curers at various 
 intervals commonly near the end of the season have 
 another selection, viz. Mixed, i.e. matties and spents in 
 equal quantities to be packed promiscuously in the same 
 barrel. This mixed cure finds much favour with the North 
 German and Russian dealers. I may also mention that 
 since 1880 the disputing year many curers are making 
 two selections of the " fulls," viz. large fulls and medium 
 fulls. This is praiseworthy of the curers, and in my opinion is
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 27 
 
 the only way to keep the Mattie selection entirely distinct. 
 Formerly, in a barrel of matties there was an equal or 
 very nearly so quantity of small fulls. Such should not 
 be. I say that immature fish " matties " should be kept 
 separate from mature fish, even though the mature fish be 
 small sized. 
 
 As the fish offal accumulates, it is carefully collected 
 and transferred to old barrels set apart for that purpose. 
 A barrel of herring offal realises from is. to is. 6d. per 
 barrel. In the beginning of the season the farmers contract 
 for a certain supply. Fish offal as a manure is now well 
 known and appreciated as a good crop-raising stimulant. 
 It is estimated that at the lowest possible over 75,000 
 barrels were taken delivery of by farmers on the east coast 
 of Scotland alone, and the money value thereof to be not 
 less than 5000 sterling. In its raw state the offal is, in 
 the event of its too heavy application to the soil, apt to 
 "burn." To prevent this burning it is apparent that it 
 must have a compost. Our fishing centres should not 
 be without manufactories for the drying and com- 
 pressing of offal with such composts as, say, peat-moss, 
 road sweepings, fine ashes and cinders from gasworks, or 
 even from the common ash-pits. The composts are easily 
 obtained, would make a capital all round manure, and for 
 cheapness hardly to be beaten. 
 
 THE BRANDING SYSTEM HISTORY THE BRAND 
 EXPLAINED STATISTICS QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 In the 36th clause of Act of Parliament, 1808, we first 
 hear of a brand on herrings. The presentment of a barrel 
 of herrings of sufficient merit to receive the branding 
 stamp thereon entitled the curer to the sum of 2s. In
 
 28 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 1815, that sum was raised to 4^., and thereat remained till 
 1830, at which date it was altogether withdrawn, but 
 branding under the old regulations still continued. In 
 1859, a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry reported 
 favourably on the brand, and gave it as their opinion that the 
 system of branding was beneficial in the interests of the 
 curers, was a great facilitator of business more especially 
 in the foreign export trade and was likewise a guarantee 
 for the contents of the barrel and also the quality of the 
 fish therein. A fee of ^d. per barrel branded was then 
 imposed, and remains in force at this present day. Only 
 lately has the brand received another vote of confidence, as 
 it were. I refer to the report of the Select Committee 
 appointed by the House of Commons in March 1881, to 
 enquire into the expediency of continuing the system of 
 branding herrings, &c. Their voting was as 12 against 3 
 that the brand was deserving of continuance. 
 
 The brand is a guarantee that the barrel is of the legal 
 standard measurement, and that the herrings, for quality, 
 selection, and packing, are up to the requirements of the 
 Scotch Fishery Board. The brand is given to only four 
 selections, viz. fulls, matties, spents, and mixed. There 
 are twenty-six districts, and the branding officers employed 
 throughout the whole, in 1882, numbered thirty-seven. As 
 branding is now extended to Shetland, whose rapid growth is 
 so visibly apparent, an increase in the branding staff must 
 necessarily take place. The herrings to be entitled to receive 
 the brand must be properly cured and packed, and have lain 
 in the barrel twelve* clear days from date of catch. The 
 curer signs a request note to the ofHcer stating the number of 
 
 * The Fishery Board stipulate that to receive the brand the 
 herrings must have lain ten clear days, exclusive of catch and packing. 
 I therefore feel justified in quoting twelve clear days from catch.
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 29 
 
 barrels he desires branded. This has the officer's due 
 attention. Previous to the examination of the "parcel," 
 the officer receives a declaration to the effect that the 
 herrings have been cured conformably to the regulations 
 set forth, and also gets payment of the branding fees. He 
 proceeds to examine the parcel, and to those entitled 
 applies the branding stamp. The curer has had a fire 
 prepared wherein to heat the officer's branding-iron, and 
 when the iron is red-hot it is applied to the barrel, leaving 
 an impression similar to the one here given. Every 
 selection has a different stamp. 
 
 The above is for Packed Matties, branded in 18-71, and 
 the J J is the branding officer's initials. There is no brand 
 given to the west coast herrings, nor is one required, as 
 the herrings are not selected further than the curers deem 
 expedient. Perhaps one-third may be selected, entitling 
 them to the name of " prime " or " choice," the other two- 
 thirds are packed promiscuously. 
 
 That the brand is highly appreciated, and yearly 
 gaining in appreciation, the following results will sufficiently 
 prove. 
 
 .23.
 
 30 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 
 
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 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 31 
 
 The brand is an excellent trade-mark, and as such 
 facilitates the buying and selling. This last year (1882) 
 the buying and shipping of herrings was commenced and 
 almost finished within a period of five months. The number 
 of barrels exported is given as 782,2901- =(500 to 600 
 cargoes, and a money value of over ; 1,000,000). These 
 figures give but a vague estimate of the immense business 
 effected in so short a time. Every barrel bearing the 
 " brand " may be bought and sold by local buyers to con- 
 tinental firms on the mere faith of the word " Crown- 
 branded," and that also without any examination whatever 
 as to the contents of the barrel and the quality of the fish. 
 It is therefore plainly to be seen that the brand makes 
 business transactions between the buyer and seller com- 
 paratively easy. As a contrast, I may state that the 
 unbranded herrings are never bought unless subject to 
 inspection before accepting delivery, or failing that, the 
 seller's guarantee as to quality. Opinions as to quality 
 may differ widely, and therefore contracts for unbrands are 
 not only dangerous but difficult in negotiation. Also, in- 
 spection means labour. Labour is money. There is also 
 time lost by seller and buyer. It is clear then that the 
 brand is much to be esteemed, a valuable adjunct, and 
 great facilitator of business, and it is to be hoped that the 
 prestige it has given to the trade may never decline. 
 
 For further and more explicit information concerning the 
 brand I would recommend a perusal of the essay on the 
 herring brand " Fish and Fisheries, 1882." 
 
 BENEFICIAL RESULTS LOCAL TRADE RAILWAYS 
 SHIPPING BANKS FOREIGN TRADE. 
 
 The benefits derived from the Scotch herring fisheries 
 are marvellous in extent and distribution grand in results, 
 
 E 2
 
 32 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 and invaluable in wealth. Indirectly the shopkeepers of 
 whatever nature in the herring districts are more or less 
 influenced by its prosperity and continuance. In turn the 
 merchants and manufacturers are benefited through the 
 shops. An extensive and extending business means 
 steady employment for manual labour, and by the necessity 
 of supply so does the labourage increase. Directly, we 
 have the fishermen and their families entirely dependent 
 on the results; and labourers, gutters, coopers, builders, 
 wood merchants, salt manufactures, railways, mercantile 
 marine, banking, and in fact every trade and profession is 
 receiving a support from this great industry. It is no 
 exaggeration to say that the herring fishing is the great 
 industry on whose success or decline the greater part of 
 the Scotch east coast, Shetland, and the Hebrides hang 
 their dependence. Any one acquainted with the Scotch 
 coasts cannot fail to appreciate the great value of the 
 herring fishing. 
 
 The basket and net manufacturers have a large field for 
 their output Every year there is a steady and heavy 
 demand for baskets and nets. There are also the wood 
 merchants at home and abroad being greatly benefited 
 through the trade in supplying them with the different 
 woods necessary for the making of barrels, as also the 
 erecting of sheds and stores. Even the wood shavings or 
 refuse find a good market with those curers who have kilns. 
 Multiply the various instruments described under " plant " 
 by 3000, and you will find that the instrument makers have 
 to be exceedingly thankful for the trade. We must not lose 
 sight of the great demand for wooden spades for the fisher- 
 men, salt scoops for the . gutting women, gutting knives, 
 hammers, nails, &c. Again, there is the tear and wear 
 in the boat, frequently requiring repairs or improvements
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 33 
 
 at the hands of a boat-builder, a replacing of worn-out 
 ropes and sails and all boats' gear. The wood-hoop mer- 
 chants find a profitable and extensive business. Builders 
 of fishing boats have been kept exceedingly busy during 
 the past ten years. We must take into consideration 
 the great number of people employed by the merchants 
 and manufacturers in the preparing of the articles requisite 
 by their necessary assistance to the carrying on of fishing 
 and fish curing, all of whom by the demand are enabled to 
 earn good wages. Last, but not least, let us glance at the 
 salt trade. The quantity of salt used yearly is about 
 100,000 tons, and to the salt manufacturers gives a money 
 value of from 5 5,000 to 60,000, nett, f.o.b., at places of 
 shipment. The principal manufactories are represented 
 at Runcorn or Liverpool, from whose docks the great 
 bulk is shipped. I give this example to show that 
 benefits are not confined locally, but here we have our 
 sister country reaping benefit from the trade. 
 
 Railway Companies are greatly benefited by the vast traffic 
 caused by the herring trade during the season. There is the 
 continual carrying of fresh herrings to the English markets ; 
 the occasional transfer of barrels, for export, from the 
 smaller fishing districts to Aberbeen or other large centres 
 for steamer shipment ; the carriage of supplies of wood from 
 our home merchants ; salt occasionally, hoops, plant, and, 
 above all, the great passenger traffic consequent on the 
 temporary but necessary removings of the fishermen and 
 families for the east coast traffic alone. I estimate that the 
 charges made by the railway companies for the carriage of 
 wood, staves, hoops, salt, plant, and of passengers and their 
 luggage and other necessaries, and of fresh and cured 
 herrings, would be at the lowest not less than 75,000. 
 
 Shipping has in the herring trade one of its greatest
 
 34 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING, 
 
 supports. Calculating that the average export for the past 
 ten years is 600,000 barrels yearly, that would give as 
 from 500 to 600 cargoes yearly. The average freights to 
 the five principal herring-receiving ports on the continent, 
 viz. Hamburg, is. 8d. ; Stettin, 2s. ; Danzig, 2s. 2d. ; 
 Konigsberg, 2s. $d. ; and Libau, is. lid. total average 2s. 
 per barrel. The total export for 1882 is given as 782,290^ 
 barrels, and therefore the gross freights would realise at 
 the 2s. freight, 78,229 is. A significant fact, showing the 
 great importance attached to the herring trade by those 
 interested in shipping, is to be found in the marvellous 
 rapidly increasing building of superior steamers especially 
 adapted for the carrying of herrings. Vessels of about 
 IOO tons register are those principally engaged in the 
 trade, and are most suitable. 
 
 The banks receive from the fishermen money on 
 deposit at a moderate rate of interest (under 2-f- per cent, 
 for the past few years), and through the great amount of 
 business arising from the trade, and their getting the bank 
 notes put into circulation, thereby receive a great assist- 
 ance, and derive a considerable profit. I calculate the 
 deposits by the Scotch fishermen to exceed 500,000. As 
 shown in a calculation made later on in this essay, the cir- 
 culation of notes would be over 1,000,000 yearly. The 
 fish-curers, although turning over a large amount yearly, 
 and thereby being instrumental in the banks' circulation, 
 yet are more generally debtors than creditors of the banks. 
 Their capital is soon absorbed in bounties and stock, and 
 in too many instances they are pretty deep on the wrong 
 side with the bank, but generally such is balanced by 
 heritable or personal security. When the boats are paid 
 off, heavy temporary overdrafts are required. The 
 fish-curer's reputation and character is sufficient to procure
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 35 
 
 that. For some time past the North of Scotland Bank, 
 Limited, has been fully alive to this important industry, 
 and to their credit they have been the means at various 
 centres notably Fraserburgh by their monetary assist- 
 ance to curers, of furthering the development, encouraging 
 its continuance, and of making by its extension a prosperity 
 so plainly discernable. A sufficient compensation is found 
 against the risk in the excellent interest charged by the 
 banks for their accommodations. 
 
 The foreign export trade has now assumed an astonishing 
 magnitude. It is not my intention to write regarding the 
 trade in tinned herrings with Australia, or in red herrings 
 with the Mediterranean countries, both of which are oi 
 considerable importance, but are comparatively insignifi- 
 cant as compared with the export of pickled herrings to 
 Germany and Russia, of which I endeavour to make a 
 few observations of interest. 
 
 In the early part of this century the demand for our 
 herrings in Germany was very limited indeed. For in- 
 stance, up till 1850 the Danzig market was sufficiently 
 supplied with a yearly import of about 10,000 barrels of 
 Scotch herrings. We must remember, however, that 
 Germany was the great emporium of Norwegian herrings, 
 and it was only on the Scotch cure and catch attaining 
 the supremacy over all other herring fisheries that the 
 demand in Germany increased. For, as the demand and 
 favour for Scotch herrings increased, the prices gradually 
 did the same, and to counterbalance which we have ample 
 evidence that the prices and favour for all other kinds 
 of herrings imported gradually decreased in a corresponding 
 ratio. 
 
 There are four great herring centres in Germany, viz. 
 Hamburg, on the Elbe ; Stettin, on the Oder; Danzig, on
 
 36 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 the Vistula ; and Konigsberg, on the Pregel ; and whose 
 imports for 1881 and 1882 are as under : 
 
 
 1881. 
 
 1882. ' 
 
 Stettin 
 
 . 248,336 
 
 > 267,107 
 
 Hamburg . 
 
 . H2,349 
 
 ,. 150,612 
 
 Danzig 
 
 ;, . ' . . 127,138 
 
 142,550 
 
 Konigsberg 
 
 . -..' . . 94,308 
 
 101,995 
 
 Total .. 582,131 662,264 
 
 These figures show that these four centres alone receive 
 about five-sixths of the total exports from Scotland, and 
 the exportation statistics are here given showing the 
 various quantities shipped from the several districts in the 
 respective years : 
 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Barrels. 
 
 Stornoway .... 
 
 25,038 
 
 32,073 
 
 Shetland .... 
 
 47, .5941 
 
 98,292 
 
 Orkney .... 
 
 5,990 
 
 10,658! 
 
 Wick . . 
 
 55,335 
 
 73,064 
 
 Lobster ... 
 
 . 17,183 .. 
 
 2,912 
 
 Helmsdale . 
 
 . 15,085 
 
 6,330! 
 
 Cromarty .... 
 
 746* .. 
 
 2,205! 
 
 Findhorn . - . * 
 
 . 7,660 .. 
 
 3,78l! 
 
 Buckie . . . ' .. 
 
 9,360! .. 
 
 9,266! 
 
 Banff 
 
 25,080 
 
 2 4, 131 
 
 Fraserburgh 
 
 . 165, 362^ .. 
 
 178,136! 
 
 Peterhead .... 
 
 . 158,155 
 
 156,026! 
 
 Aberdeen .... 
 
 . 83,206! '. . 
 
 82,407 
 
 Stonehaven . . , 
 
 13,723 
 
 7,359 
 
 Montrose ... 
 
 . 26,425! . . 
 
 27,662! 
 
 Leith . . .',.. 
 
 35,i38i .. 
 
 46,607 
 
 Eyemouth . . . 
 
 19,160! .. 
 
 2i,377! 
 
 Totals for the two years 
 
 .. 710,244! 
 
 782,290! 
 
 
 
 710,244! 
 
 Showing an increase for season 1882 of . . 72,046
 
 XI -23.
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 37 
 
 A few of the other German ports are Harburg, Bremen, 
 Liibeck, Pernau, and Memel, but they do not receive 
 regular supplies. There are also numerous inland towns 
 noted for their extensive transactions in herrings, the 
 principal being Magdeburg, Halle, Leipzig, Breslau, Berlin, 
 Frankfurt, Posen, and others of lesser note too numerous 
 to mention. Russia seems, to give a preference to 
 Norwegian and Swedish herrings, the duty on which is 
 much lighter than that on the Scotch. The duty on 
 Scotch herrings is by far too heavy. Nevertheless, Scotch 
 herrings to a limited extent command good prices through 
 such markets as Libau, Riga, and St. Petersburg. These 
 three Russian centres have a fair share of our west coast 
 herrings, but they only receive a stray cargo now and 
 then from the east coast West coast and east coast early 
 herrings, from their oily tendency, are in much demand at 
 medium prices, but between the excessive charges and 
 duty to be paid, the Russian people cannot afford to pay 
 high prices. If the duty could be reduced to about level 
 with the German, then an extended business would be the 
 result ; in the meantime the Russian prices and currency 
 are of so fluctuating a character, that our curers and buyers 
 must be cautious in the trade with Russia. However, 
 Libau is strengthening its connection with us, and proving a 
 great rival to its German neighbouring centre Konigsberg. 
 Odessa, in the Black Sea, has lately been doing a direct 
 business principally through London agents and it is 
 hoped that such business will rapidly extend itself in the 
 future. A glance at the accompanying map will show the 
 situations of the centres I have referred to, and how 
 admirably they command the interior business throughout 
 Germany, Austria, and Russia.
 
 38 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 CONCLUSION HISTORY AND LEGISLATURE STATISTICS 
 SHOWING PROSPERITY AND WEALTH MUCH REQUIRED 
 AND EXPECTED IMPROVEMENTS REFERRED TO. 
 
 There is very little authentic imformation to be had 
 regarding the Scotch herring fisheries before the sixteenth 
 century. Having gradually risen from obscurity by slow 
 but steady degrees, it was then in importance in close 
 rivalry with the Dutch. There is mention made of the 
 fishings as early as the I3th and I4th centuries, and as 
 in the I5th century it must have left its mark on some 
 of the jold records of that time, surely, by diligent search- 
 ing, some information might be got at once interesting and 
 valuable. 
 
 From 1630 to 1650 a further impetus was given to its 
 prosecution, was successful, and apparently every year 
 proved a steady increase. In 1676, a reaction set in, and 
 its downward career was swift. The companies then in 
 vogue were utterly quashed. However, private enterprise 
 was quietly persevering, and thanks thereto, the herring 
 fishing had by the end of the century actually got ahead 
 of the Dutch. 
 
 From 1695 to 1707 success attended the enterprise and 
 efforts of improvement. But the next seven years again 
 saw a retrograde period, and the fishing nearly ceased 
 altogether. This probably principal national industry was, 
 by the stupid and complicated regulations and laws of the 
 Legislature immediately after the union, nearly suppressed, 
 and that at a time when its supremacy over other nations 
 was most promising. In the years 1714, 1720, 1727, 1750, 
 bold attempts were made to revive the trade. Large
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 39 
 
 companies were again established, backed up and assisted 
 by the Government, but the expected great results were 
 never realised. A better year happened to be i/57> an< ^ 
 the fishings kept steady thereafter till 1767, after which 
 came the periodical backwardness, culminating in 1782, 
 when we read the total catch was only 12,522 barrels for 
 that year. The legislation of 1808, on fishery laws and 
 regulations, laid the foundation of all its future workings, 
 and it is from this period that we have a continual and 
 progressive success. Several excellent alterations and 
 additions were made by the Act 55, Geo. III. 694, 
 I4th June 1815, and about this time the east coast seemed 
 to be endowed with a new life. Herring curing seemed 
 prosperous, and the small coast villages in many cases in 
 a few years grew into fair-sized and prosperous towns. 
 Perhaps the best example is Fraserburgh. Twenty years 
 ago an insignificant 'Burgh indeed, but at this day the 
 Scotch herring capital. Built on and around Kinnaird 
 Head, it has the command of the Moray Firth. To the 
 south lies its beautiful bay. Jutting out from the Kinnaird 
 Castle is the breakwater, extending south and at the 
 middle south-east, and shelters the harbours and the bay. 
 It is 810 yards in length, and its average thickness about 
 30 feet. At its point there is a good lighthouse. The 
 Balaklava Harbour at Fraserburgh is the largest herring 
 boat harbour on the coast. It is 12% acres in extent. 
 
 The growing importance of the herring fishing has caused 
 several inquiries and commissions to take place, and the 
 results have always tended to its well-being. I refer to 
 such years as 1832, 1843, 1852, 1859, and the more modern 
 but the most important of 1881. 
 
 The following statistics show the total catch of herrings
 
 40 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 for the past twenty-six years, for the entire east coast 
 including Shetland, Lewis, and Barra, viz. for 
 
 1857 . . . 
 
 329,251 crans. 
 
 1869 . . . 403,633 crans. 
 
 1858 . . . 
 
 393,035 
 
 1870 . . . 596,421 
 
 1859 . . . 
 
 302,943 
 
 1871 ... 562,865 
 
 1860 . . . 
 
 463,100 
 
 1872 . . . 562,737 
 
 1861 . . . 
 
 485,645 
 
 1873 7H,7i7 
 
 1862 . . . 
 
 520,280 
 
 1874 . . . 720,964 
 
 1863 . . . 
 
 439,2io 
 
 1875 . . . 655,606 
 
 1864 . . . 
 
 432,064 
 
 1876 . . . 406,440 
 
 1865 ... 
 
 395,157 ,, 
 
 1877 . . . 561,439 
 
 1866 . . . 
 
 413,065 
 
 1878 , . . 618,597 
 
 1867 . . . 
 
 474,098 
 
 1879 . . . 516,406 
 
 1868 . . . 
 
 366,068 
 
 1880 . . . 930,307 
 
 
 
 1881. 1882. 
 
 
 
 Crans. Crans. 
 
 Stornoway . 
 
 . 
 
 . 41,950 45,980 
 
 Shetland . 
 
 . 
 
 46,500 . . 102,250 
 
 Orkney 
 
 
 14,418 . . 16,018 
 
 Wick . 
 
 . 
 
 . 61,742 .. 8l,792 
 
 Lybster 
 
 . 
 
 . 16,688 .. 1,730 
 
 Helmsdale . 
 
 
 16,388 . . 6,404 
 
 Cromarty . 
 
 . 
 
 1,638 .. 1,376 
 
 Findhorn . 
 
 
 6,890 . . 4,872 
 
 Buckie 
 
 . 
 
 7,173 7,630 
 
 Banff . 
 
 . 
 
 22,106 . . 23,003 
 
 Fraserburgh 
 
 
 . 132,642 .. 139,451 
 
 Peterhead . 
 
 . 
 
 . 124,878 . . 124,185 
 
 Aberdeen . 
 
 . 
 
 78,702 . . 80,363 
 
 Stonehaven 
 
 . 
 
 . 19,355 .. 15,910 
 
 Montrose . 
 
 
 26,012 . . 28,820 
 
 Leith . * 
 
 * 
 
 7,216 . . 3,660 
 
 Eyemouth . 
 
 . * . 
 
 59,486 . . 59,825 
 
 
 
 683,784 743,269 
 
 Deduct season 1881 . . 683,784 
 
 Showing an increase for season 1882 of . . 59,485
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 41 
 
 And for the past five years the total catch at the individual 
 stations : 
 
 Stations and Districts. 
 
 1878. 
 
 1879. 
 
 1880. 
 
 1881. 
 
 1882. 
 
 WICK .... 
 
 84,248 
 
 63,094 
 
 113,186 
 
 55,542 
 
 69,926 
 
 Lybster and Clyth 
 
 6,910 
 
 9,240 
 
 12,371 
 
 15,231 
 
 1,626 
 
 Forse 
 
 282 
 
 620 
 
 592 
 
 219 
 
 28 
 
 Latheronwheel 
 
 512 
 
 790 
 
 637 
 
 1,237 
 
 78 
 
 Dunbeath . . . 
 
 1,502 
 
 2,800 
 
 1,056 
 
 1, 802 
 
 504 
 
 Helmsdale . . . 
 
 7,600 
 
 10,855 
 
 10,285 
 
 13,783 
 
 3,920 
 
 Portmahomack . 
 
 858 
 
 1,391 
 
 1,790 
 
 1,515 
 
 i,376 
 
 Burghead and) 
 Hopeman . .) 
 
 1,122 
 
 3,009 
 
 5,200 
 
 3,090 
 
 2,328 
 
 Lossiemouth . . 
 
 819 
 
 4,896 
 
 7,600 
 
 3,800 
 
 2,544 
 
 Buckie District . 
 
 2,864 
 
 3,832 
 
 12,413 
 
 7,173 
 
 7,630 
 
 Portsoy .... 
 
 4,935 
 
 4,670 
 
 6,950 
 
 5,600 
 
 4,650 
 
 Whitehills . . . 
 
 1,102 
 
 1,610 
 
 1,667 
 
 840 
 
 i,i74 
 
 Banff 
 
 2?O 
 
 i -?6o 
 
 I QI1 
 
 1, 606 
 
 3O7O 
 
 Macduff. . . . 
 
 my* 
 
 4,756 
 
 x > jr** 
 
 7,384 
 
 5 V L J 
 
 8,530 
 
 5,538 
 
 > W J U 
 
 9,762 
 
 Gardenstown . . 
 
 4,058 
 
 7,007 
 
 6,915 
 
 7,685 
 
 4,387 
 
 Fraserburgh . . 
 
 175,820 
 
 105,037 
 
 218,504 
 
 132,613 
 
 139,500 
 
 Peterhead . . . 
 
 122,456 
 
 83,200 
 
 177,300 
 
 124,800 
 
 124,185 
 
 Aberdeen . . . 
 
 69,231 
 
 36,400 
 
 78,810 
 
 78,657 
 
 80,253 
 
 Stonehaven . . 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 15,910 
 
 Montrose District 
 
 26,758 
 
 30,048 
 
 54,091 
 
 45,352 
 
 28,820 
 
 Anstruther 
 
 3,975 
 
 6,490 
 
 7,840 
 
 3,660 
 
 3,H5 
 
 Leith to D unbar . 
 
 1,500 
 
 5,460 
 
 4,600 
 
 4,110 
 
 2,722 
 
 Eyemouth District 
 
 25,407 
 
 52,149 
 
 48,715 
 
 59,486 
 
 59,825 
 
 Orkney .... 
 
 14,722 
 
 8,364 
 
 16,142 
 
 14,418 
 
 16,160 
 
 Shetland . . . 
 
 6,240 
 
 6,700 
 
 38,700 
 
 46,250 
 
 102,000 
 
 Lewis and Barra . 
 
 50,670 
 
 60,000 
 
 94,500 
 
 41,100 
 
 45,240 
 
 Stonehaven has been this year disjoined from the 
 Montrose district, and erected into a separate station. 
 In the foregoing tables we therefore give the results for 
 1 882 separately, although for the previous years they are 
 all included in the Montrose district.
 
 42 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 A perusal of the foregoing statistics will prove that 
 although yearly fluctuations have taken place, yet that 
 every periodical decade proves that the prosperity as 
 regards the catch is steadily on the increase. The quality 
 and selection have also much improved, thanks to wise 
 regulations and our national characteristic intrepidity. 
 The prices also are year by year becoming more firm, 
 are less speculative, fluctuate less than in former years, 
 and are now entirely regulated according to supply and 
 demand. The supply, apparently always increasing, is at 
 the present moment very great, but it is pleasing to state 
 that the demand is proportionally quite as great and strong. 
 
 In recapitulation, the following calculations are here 
 given to show the reader some idea as to the wealth of the 
 herring trade. 
 
 CAPITAL. 
 
 
 
 Fishermen's boats, all necessary gear included 
 
 6131 boats at ^275 per boat 1,686,025 
 
 6131 boats' " fleets " of nets at Jos. per net, allowing 
 
 25 nets to each boat 536,432 
 
 Fish-curer's invested capital, lowest estimate . . . 720,000 
 
 Total . . ,2,942,457 
 
 ONE YEAR'S BUSINESS (1882). . 
 
 s - 
 Bounties paid to fishermen 
 
 6131 boats at ^40 per boat 245,240 o 
 
 Prices paid to fishermen for herrings 
 
 743,269 crans at average of 1 8 s. per cran . . 668,942 2 
 
 1 67 new boats, with all necessary gear, at $ 1 o per boat 5 1 , 770 o 
 
 1 67 new " fleets " of nets 30 per boat, at 70^. per net . I 7>535 o 
 
 For new nets distributed amongst the fleet . . . 15,000 o 
 Lowest estimate for repairs on the fleet (paid to boat- 
 builders, rope and sail makers, block and tackle 
 
 manufacturers, Cutch dealers, &c.) . . . 12,500 o 
 
 Total paid " to " and " by " fishermen .. 1 ,010,987 2
 
 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 43 
 
 Fish-curer's outlay, interest on capital, rent of yard, 
 plant, stock and work, wages to coopers, gutters, 
 labourers, cartage, shore dues. Equal to about 
 8s. 6d. per barrel . . . . . . ,394,862 
 
 Fish-curer's income return for herrings 
 
 743,269 crans = 929,086 barrels at 30^. per barrel 1,393,628 
 
 We must not forget that the fishermen own seven- 
 eighths of the houses they inhabit, and also, that they are 
 heavy depositors with our Scotch banks. Many of the 
 fish-curers are affluent, and possess both money and 
 property. Likewise, the Scotch buyers for foreign export, 
 who may be said to turn over once more the great money 
 circulation of this trade. 
 
 Of the much required and expected improvements, it is 
 apparent that harbour accommodation is the most needed. 
 It is gratifying to note that the surplus branding fees 
 are to be devoted in that improvement, and that a large 
 Government grant may be shortly expected for an east 
 coast harbour of refuge. Whilst large centres are receiv- 
 ing every assistance, even at present, there are small centres 
 who receive little or none. Some are most deserving, and 
 ready to spring into a new energetic life whenever they get 
 a new harbour, or an extension. 
 
 With a rapidity quite amazing, the improvements in our 
 boats, gear, and nets, have sprung into force within the 
 past dozen of years. The herring fishing is year by year 
 being prosecuted further from the shore, and large and 
 finer sea-going boats are becoming necessary. If such 
 continues, to prevent the quality of the fish retrograding, 
 the application of steam to our fishing boats will be 
 necessary. Already I can see symptoms of an east coast 
 steamboat herring fishing.
 
 44 THE SCOTCH EAST COAST HERRING FISHING. 
 
 Last, but not least, comes the great necessity for 
 improving the social condition of our fishermen, and 
 especially of providing suitable and proper accommodation 
 for them at the herring centres. I sincerely hope that 
 circumstances may arise at an early date that will demand 
 an inquiry, the result of which will tend to the much 
 needed rectification of a backward mode of living. A very 
 slight monetary expenditure and a few forcible regulations 
 are all that is requisite to right this matter. The success of 
 the trade is due in a great measure to the fishermen anp 
 their steady enterprise, but they have nearly gone as far 
 as they can ; at least, it is not their business to provide 
 temporary residences at every place they may go to fish. 
 It must therefore lie with the curers (employers), or through 
 Government agency to provide the needful. Our fishing is 
 progressive, so let us hope that our fishermen will also be 
 so. Progress the watchword, and Prosperity the result. 
 
 LONDON: PRINTBD BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS^ LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARlNli CROSS.
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition 
 
 LONDON, 1883 
 
 MACKEREL AND PILCHARD 
 FISHERIES 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS CORNISH 
 
 LONDON 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED 
 
 INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION 
 AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 
 1883
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITBD, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition 
 
 LONDON, 1883 
 
 CONFERENCE ON 13 JULY, 1883. 
 
 Sir JOHN ST. AUBYN, Bart, M.P., in the Chair. 
 
 THE CHAIRMAN, in introducing Mr. Cornish, said he had 
 come at the request of the Executive Committee to tell 
 them something about a subject on which most people 
 knew comparatively little. Whilst almost everybody in 
 the room was more or less intimately acquainted with the 
 mackerel, there were very few, except those who lived in 
 Cornwall, on the west coast of Ireland, and on the coast 
 of Brittany, who knew anything about the pilchard ; but 
 they might take it on his authority that the pilchard was a 
 most excellent fish when eaten fresh, and when preserved, 
 either after the manner of sardines in oil, or salted for 
 exportation, it formed a most nutritious and excellent 
 article of diet. The Cornish fishermen were employed to 
 a very large extent both in the mackerel and pilchard 
 fisheries, and went out a considerable distance from the 
 shore in quest of these fish. They met with the mackerel 
 at spring-time at a distance varying from close in-shore, to 
 sixty, seventy, or one hundred miles out, and twenty-four 
 hours after they were caught, people in London were in a 
 position to judge of the result by seeing the mackerel on 
 the slabs of fishmongers. A pilchard was a different sort 
 
 [3] B 2
 
 of fish altogether. It did not readily bear carriage, but 
 had to be eaten as soon as possible after it was out of the 
 water, and consequently the great trade in pilchards was 
 when they were salted or preserved in oil. He could not 
 give the statistics of the men, boats, and capital employed, 
 but, to give some idea of the magnitude of the fisheries, he 
 might mention that, in his own immediate neighbourhood, 
 the water on which he could look down from his own 
 windows contained within two and a half miles a fleet of 
 something like four hundred boats, with all kinds of nets 
 and gear and other appliances, representing a capital of 
 something like ; 140,000. If a proportional amount of 
 capital and men were employed in other parts of the 
 country, it could readily be seen how important those 
 fisheries were. They were not only important as a means 
 of providing food, but formed an excellent nursery and 
 school for a race of seamen than whom there were none, 
 either in this kingdom or anywhere else in Europe, more 
 industrious, steady, independent or courageous. 
 
 MACKEREL AND PILCHARD FISHERIES. 
 
 LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, The honour has been done 
 me of requesting me to read a Paper before you on the 
 " Mackerel and the Pilchard," and I presume that this has 
 been done, because I come from West Cornwall, the 
 principal English home of the fisheries for these two fish, 
 and am well acquainted with them ; but my ignorance 
 makes it advisable that I should confine my remarks to the 
 familiar facts which I know of these fish in my own 
 county, rather than attempt to deal with the subject 
 scientifically.
 
 The mackerel is the head, or typical fish, but one of the 
 smallest in size, of a large family, which has representatives 
 in every sea in the world, except in the regions of extreme 
 cold, and every member of which is excellent as food. 
 
 The first distinguishing mark of the family to an outside 
 observer is a tail having a peculiar fork. You can see it in 
 a moment in the fish market here. The next is the 
 cleanness of the lines on which the fish is built. The long 
 conical forepart of the body and snout, the smooth round 
 body, and the clean run of the afterpart, all fit the fish for 
 rapid propulsion through the water, whilst the powerful 
 forked tail, working with much less opposition to the water 
 than would a rounded tail, and precisely with the action 
 with which the sailor sculls his boat by one oar over the 
 stern, enables the fish to make the greatest possible use of 
 the advantages of its shape. The last distinguishing exterior 
 feature which I shall notice is the existence between the 
 base of the tail fin, and the hindmost upper and under fins, 
 and both above and below the body, of a series of little 
 soft rudimentary fins, called finlets, and the use of which is 
 obscure. This family includes the bonitos, the tunnies, the 
 albacores, and other Mediterranean fish, all occasional 
 visitants of our Western seas, and just excludes (if, indeed, 
 it does exclude, for I, who have seen the fish, am not clear 
 about it,) the Northern " opah," a noble great fellow, some 
 four to five feet long, which would more than cover an 
 ordinary card -table, and is a very Assyrian for "gleaming 
 in purple and gold," being in fact almost the only northern 
 fish which excels in splendour of colour the fish of the seas 
 of the temperate zones and the tropics. I do not at this 
 moment recollect whether there is a specimen of this fish 
 in the building. If there is, you will find it in the court of 
 Norway or possibly of Denmark.
 
 But, of all the family, the mackerel is the most fitted for 
 rapid propulsion and has the most powerful tail ; and this, 
 you know, means the greatest power of propulsion, for the 
 sole natural propulsive power of every fish lies in its tail. 
 I once proved this beyond question, thus : We stay in 
 summer in a house so close to the sea that we are in our 
 boat within a minute of our leaving our front door, and we 
 have there a pill, or salt water pool, in the rocks, about 
 thirty feet long by ten wide by three deep, which is left by 
 the tide for about six hours in every tide, and into this pool 
 we put the fish which we bring in alive from our trammels 
 every morning, and watch them until we want them. 
 
 I have watched an octopus in that pool many times. But 
 once I cut off the tail of a fish, a pollock I think, and I 
 put it in this pool. At first the fish did not realise its loss, 
 and we saw the stump of its tail working, but the other fins 
 were, as usual, only balancing the fish. There was no 
 progression. After a while the fish stopped working the 
 stump of the tail, and lay simply balanced. About an hour 
 afterwards I came back to it, and it was slowly progressing by 
 using its pectoral fins (those next behind the gills) as oars. 
 I had seen all I wanted to know, and had ascertained that 
 the tail fin was the fin of propulsion, that the fish had sense 
 enough to find out when it had lost it, and reason enough 
 to adapt its pectoral fins to a use for which they were never 
 intended. I then killed the fish, but my conscience did not, 
 nor does it, accuse me of any cruelty towards it. It showed 
 no symptoms of pain. Indeed, of all the very many 
 thousands of fish that I have seen die, I never saw one show 
 symptoms of pain. The nearest approach to it has occurred 
 in the crimping of skate immediately on its being taken out 
 of the water. The crimping is done by drawing a sharp 
 knife in three cuts to the bone, on each side of and parallel
 
 to the back-bone. The fish writhes under the knife, but 
 from muscular action, I think, more than from pain, and 
 before the last cut is given it is dead. And this, in my 
 opinion, is a much more merciful way of dealing with the 
 skate, than allowing it to lie suffocating in the bottom of 
 your boat for the hour which it occupies in dying that way. 
 I know many good people say that we should kill our fish 
 as we catch them. If we could, we would, for they would 
 be so much the better for the table, but in most kinds of 
 sea fishing this is utterly impossible. Take a mackerel 
 seine for instance. A tolerably successful haul ought to 
 produce at least 2,000 fish. After the haul commences, 
 everything depends on the speed with which it is completed. 
 Every hand on board the boat is at it, and in a few minutes 
 the 2,000 fish are spluttering about in the bottom of the 
 boat. I once took upwards of 6 cwt. of fish, principally 
 skate, on a long line of 500 hooks (i.e. 500 fathoms) stretched 
 along the bottom of the sea in shallow water, in one haul. 
 The whole hauling had to be done with the least possible 
 stoppage, and at times the fish came so fast, that the 
 boatmen attending on me had not time to unhook them, 
 and had to cut away the snoodings. The fish had to lie in 
 the bottom of the boat and die, we could not stop to kill 
 them. And in the end I found that the line had cut my 
 two forefingers almost to the bone. The fish were crueller 
 to me that day than I was to the fish. 
 
 Whether viewed for its colour or its form, the mackerel 
 is one of the most beautiful of English fish. I need not 
 describe it to you. Doubtless its form is familiar to you 
 all. And if it is not you have only to go into the fish- 
 market here and see it in -as much perfection as it can 
 retain after a long journey. Beautiful as the mackerel on a 
 London fishmonger's stall is, much more beautiful is it as it
 
 8 
 
 comes out of the water alive. There is, in the best 
 mackerel, an iridescent, rosy tint under the gills and forepart 
 of the body, which I have seen in fish here, but which is 
 much more conspicuous when they are taken. And it is 
 this colour by which our fishermen judge their fish. They 
 say, " Red mackerel is good mackerel ; white mackerel is 
 mackerel ; green mackerel is poison." 
 
 And in this last remark they are quite correct. When- 
 ever a green hue supersedes the rosy, the flesh of the fish 
 when eaten will, with very many people, produce most 
 unpleasant symptoms of blood poisoning ; and as these 
 green mackerel are taken amongst the others at all times of 
 the year, they give the fish a bad name, and cause people 
 to abuse the whole family, when the truth is that they 
 ought to have made a better selection. 
 
 An average mackerel weighs i^ Ibs., which gives about 
 1, 500 fish to the ton. Large fish go to 2 Ibs. or even 2\ Ibs. 
 but they are rare, and as they do not sell for more than the 
 others, are reserved by the fishermen for presents to their 
 friends, which starts another of our West Cornwall notions 
 that " you should never eat a mackerel unless it is given to 
 you." This saying is quite understood in West Cornwall 
 now, but in process of time it will very probably get to be 
 understood there, as meaning that it is unlucky to buy 
 mackerel, and if that belief once gets about, well, we are a 
 superstitious people, and you ladies and gentlemen in 
 London will have a large addition to your supply of 
 that fish from Cornwall. 
 
 These large mackerel are usually females, with roes ready 
 to be shed, and are known as Queen mackerel and King 
 mackerel, but I do not recollect ever seeing a large male 
 mackerel of this sort. 
 
 Sometimes one is startled by an announcement in the
 
 papers that a mackerel of six or even eight pounds weight 
 has been caught, but in every instance in which I have 
 been able to make inquiries the fish has turned out to 
 belong to an allied species the short finned tunny which 
 sometimes herds with the mackerel. 
 
 There is one fact about the personal history of this fish, 
 which I will mention although I know I do it at the risk of 
 having my veracity suspected ; but I narrate only what I 
 have seen over and over again, have repeatedly shown to 
 my friends, and am prepared to show in the cases of two 
 fish out of three, to any one of you who will call on me at 
 Penzance and go out and catch mackerel with me. The 
 mackerel, like the turbot, requires, and has, enormous 
 muscular power at the tail to give the fail-fin its full 
 advantages. In the turbot the fishermen recognise this 
 fact and say that the turbot has a "second heart," and, as 
 soon as they can, after they have caught one, they, at least 
 in our parts, " bleed it," that is, make an incision on the 
 line of the lateral line on the white near the tail, which cuts 
 into this "second heart," and from which the fish bleeds 
 freely. They have an impression that it whitens the white. 
 Now, for my mackerel. The strongest and most muscular 
 fish are those which wander about by themselves, and take 
 surface bait, and it is on these only that my experiment 
 has been tried. Take one of these immediately it comes 
 into your boat, and, at once, without injuring it more than 
 is necessary, prepare it for the gridiron just as your cook 
 would, and lay it on the deck of the boat. In a short time 
 a muscular action will develop itself in the tail, and 
 the disembowelled fish will turn a clear summersault, some- 
 times two, and occasionally three, and will then become 
 quiet after a convulsion in which every fin vibrates. Like 
 many other discoveries this one was made by accident ; but I
 
 10 
 
 call your attention to the fact that very much the same sort of 
 thing happens in the case of a common snake killed, and 
 dead beyond all question, but in which a muscular action 
 goes on for hours, and gives rise to the common idea that 
 a snake never dies until sunset. And I think our medical 
 men can tell us that a very strong muscular action oc- 
 casionally takes place in the human body after death from 
 some particular convulsive diseases. 
 
 Taking the season through, a mackerel is worth two pence 
 at the boat's side, and, with that fact before you, I leave 
 you to judge how much the railway carrier and the fish- 
 monger between them get out of the consumer. 
 
 Of course the price varies from day to day. Within the 
 last month I have known mackerel selling at the boat's side 
 for two and six pence per one hundred and twenty, or just 
 one farthing per fish ; and a boat with a catch of eight 
 hundred threw them all overboard rather than come into 
 harbour and pay her quay dues. On the other hand I have 
 seen them selling at the boat's side at one shilling per fish. 
 
 The mackerel fishery of Cornwall is a very old one. The 
 fish itself was known in our seas very long ago, for it has a 
 name in the old Cornish language (" brithel "), but it was 
 but a small affair until railways opened up our markets in 
 1859. I find that in 1808 we were sending mackerel from 
 Penzance to Portsmouth in sailing cutters, but the record 
 does not say in what condition they arrived there. It was 
 probably fortunate for their owners that there were no 
 Sanitary Inspectors about the markets in those days. 
 
 At this time, the fleet employed on the fishery in Cornwall 
 consists of about 400 sails of luggers of about 15 to 18 tons 
 burden, excellent sea-boats (of which many models are to 
 be seen on the Cornwall stall in the British Fisheries Gallery) , 
 costing, when the nets are on board, six hundred pounds
 
 each. They are capable of going closer to the wind than 
 any ordinary yacht. The spread of canvas they make is, 
 as you can see for yourselves, enormous, and they will live 
 in exceedingly heavy weather ; but they give in sometimes. 
 Three years ago the boat Jane succumbed to a fearful 
 cross sea, and sank within two hundred yards (one hundred 
 fathoms) of Penzance pierhead, and drowned her crew of six 
 men and a boy, not only within sight of their own homes, 
 but within sight of their wives and children, who knew what 
 boat she was. But even in that case, the men who knew 
 said she was lost because she had not sufficient canvas on 
 her to force her through the sea. 
 
 If one of these boats is overpowered by the sea, she 
 takes down her spars and makes them and her nets and 
 such of her sails as she can afford to risk into a kind of 
 raft, under the slight shelter of which she rides out the 
 gale ; but you will find on the " Cornwall Stall " a sugges- 
 tion for a very great improvement in this method. The 
 exhibitor is a Cornishman, and he calls it a " floating 
 anchor." It consists of a beam of timber to which is 
 attached a large square piece of canvas, to which is attached 
 another beam of timber from which there trails away a 
 perforated zinc can which finds its place, when at work, in 
 the cavity of a cone made of canvas, fastened to a wooden 
 hoop. When the boat is storm-pressed she lowers her 
 masts, heads up to wind, and hoists the whole machine 
 out ahead of her and makes fast to the first beam ; and 
 then, being deeper in the water than the machine, she 
 drifts astern and down the wind towing the anchor, the 
 outer beam of the anchor stretches the canvas sheet, and is 
 assisted in doing this by the cone which it is dragging mouth 
 foremost. The cone meanwhile is receiving from the zinc 
 can, oil which exudes from it, and which the cone itself sends
 
 12 
 
 out in a fan shape. Thus, an advancing wave first meets 
 the oil, of the effect of which we have heard so much 
 lately. It then meets, and perhaps breaks against the 
 forward beam, and then has to pass under or fall on the 
 sheet and in any case will reach the boat in a very 
 enfeebled condition. I find practical men are speaking 
 very well of this invention. 
 
 Each of our boats carries a crew of seven men and a 
 boy (the latter usually a relative of one of the crew), and is 
 owned by a practical fisherman very frequently by the 
 master or his father and is worked on the share system, 
 under which each man brings a certain number of nets on 
 board, and the proceeds of each season are shared in a 
 peculiar and complicated way between the boats, the crew, 
 and the nets. We have no large boat-owners and no 
 boat-owning companies. This state of affairs produces 
 results which, like many other things in Cornwall, are 
 peculiar to the county. When the Commissioners came 
 down last year on the inquiry as to 
 
 Cruelty to fisherboys. 
 
 The prevention of desertion, and 
 
 The method of paying wages. 
 
 we satisfied them that under our system there was, in our 
 fisheries : 
 
 No cruelty to fisherboys. 
 
 No desertion self-interest preventing it. 
 
 No disputes as to wages. 
 
 This last thing puzzled the Commissioners most of 
 all. After the meeting two fishermen and myself were 
 standing in the lobby when the Chairman came to us and 
 said : 
 
 " I am satisfied you have no disputes about wages, but I 
 cannot make out how it is done." And I turned to one of
 
 13 
 
 the fishermen and said, "Tell the gentleman how it is 
 done," and he said, " We leave all that to the women." 
 
 It will be seen from the numbers which I have given, 
 that our mackerel fishery gives employment to about 3,000 
 men and boys, who, between the month of February when 
 the season begins and June when it ends, usually catch 
 about 4,000 tons of fish, which will give six millions of 
 individuals. As soon as our mackerel season is over the 
 pilchard season begins, and when it ends, our fleet sails 
 for the Irish fishery, the Plymouth fishery, or the East coast 
 of England fisheries ; for they can go anywhere. One 
 once reached Australia safely, but now, in these days 
 when 14 foot punts cross the Atlantic, that is no great 
 feat. 
 
 Still, in 1854, when the Mystery, of 36 foot keel and 
 about 1 5 tons burden made her voyage, no boat of her size 
 had ever attempted to deal with the Atlantic Ocean since 
 the Caravel, which was the smallest of the little fleet of 
 Columbus, had done so 350 years before, and she was 
 in company with large vessels, and therefore the voyage 
 of the Mystery remains noteworthy. This solitary boat 
 sailed from Mount's Bay on the i8th November, 1854, and 
 reached Melbourne on the I4th March, 1855, after a 
 voyage of 117 days. She had a crew of seven men and 
 carried her nets. I have recovered the log which was kept 
 on board of her,* and, judging from it, a more dreary 
 voyage than hers was never made. Beyond sighting a few 
 ships and a few albatrosses, and being feted at Table Bay, 
 nothing seems to have occurred of more importance than 
 " the broaching of the second barrel of pork," until they were 
 nearing Australia, and then, for a short time, things got 
 exciting, and they met with weather which made them ride 
 * Kindly lent to me by Mrs. Boase,the widow of the seaman who kept it.
 
 to a raft in the way which I have described, and which they 
 describe. 
 
 Thus, on 1 8th February, 1855, the Log says : 
 
 Sunday, February i8t/i, 1855. 
 
 Lat. by acct. 40 5' S. ; Long. 81 25' E. 
 A.M. Strong gales with heavy sea running. 
 4 A.M. Gale still increasing, handed the foresail and set a 
 
 reef second mizzen forward. 
 6 Terrific gale with a tremendous heavy sea running, 
 
 and carried away the second mizzen yard. Brought 
 
 the ship head to wind and hove a raft out. 
 6*30 A.M. Split the third mizzen, unbent it, and bent the 
 
 new one. 
 8 Gale still increasing, with more sea and heavy 
 
 rain. 
 
 NOON. Ditto, weather. 
 3 P.M. Less wind and sea, made sail, set reef second mizzen 
 
 forward. 
 MIDNIGHT. Strong squally weather. 
 
 Friday, February i^rd, 1855. 
 
 2 P.M. Gale fast increasing. 
 
 4 A complete hurricane, with mountains of sea and 
 
 very heavy rain. Brought the ship head to wind. 
 
 Ship riding very easy to a raft prepared for the 
 
 purpose. 
 7 Rather less wind. Veering to the westward, hauled 
 
 the raft on board, made sail, set reef second mizzen 
 
 forward. 
 
 Saturday, February 24^, 1855. 
 A.M. Strong winds with a heavy sea on. 
 4 Moderating, set storm foresail and jib ; squared.
 
 8 P.M. Light airs and cloudy, all possible sail set. 
 
 10 Heavy rain. Wind inclined northerly. 
 
 NOON. Jibed ship. Lat. by acct. 40 S. ; Long, by acct. 
 
 101 E. 
 
 P.M. Wind veering all round the compass, with heavy 
 showers of snow and sleet. 
 
 3 P.M. Set the jib. 
 
 4 More wind, took in the large sails and set storm 
 
 foresail and third mizzen. 
 
 5 Heavy gusts of wind and rain, ship running under 
 
 bare poles. 
 
 6 Set reef second mizzen forward. 
 
 7 . Very heavy squalls. Hauled down second mizzen. 
 
 8 Set second mizzen. 
 
 10 ., Down sail. 
 
 1 1 Set it again. 
 
 MIDNIGHT. Very strong squally weather. 
 
 Monday, March $th, 1855. 
 AM. Strong gale, with mountains of sea. Ship running 
 
 under reef second mizzen forward. Shipping a great 
 
 quantity of water on deck. 
 
 4 P.M. Gale increasing with a great deal more sea. 
 6 P.M. Complete hurricane. Brought the ship head to 
 
 wind, riding very easy, raft prepared for the 
 
 purpose. 
 MIDNIGHT. Very heavy weather, with a high sea running. 
 
 Tuesday, 6th March, 1855. 
 
 A.M. A terrific gale of wind, it being the heaviest that 
 we have experienced since leaving England. Our 
 gallant little boat rides the mountains of sea remark- 
 ably well, not shipping any water whatever, having 
 dry decks fore and aft. I am confident that she is
 
 i6 
 
 making better weather at present than a great many 
 ships would if here. 
 4 A.M. Heavy gust of wind. 
 
 8 More moderate. 
 
 9 Hauled the raft on board, made sail, set reef second 
 
 mizzen forward. 
 
 NOON. Very strong weather. Lat. by observation, 40 S. 
 Long, by chronometer, 131 E. 
 
 Saturday, lot h March, 1855. 
 A.M. Very heavy gale with a high sea running, ship riding 
 
 very easy to a raft. 
 
 8 A.M. Ditto Weather ; repairing the second mizzen. 
 NOON. Rather less wind and sea. Lat. by observation, 
 
 38 39' S. ; Long, by chronometer, 140 45' E. 
 6 P.M. Hauled the raft on board ; made sail, set storm 
 
 sails. 
 
 10 Moderating fast. 
 
 11 Made the Australian land between Cape Northum- 
 
 berland and Cape Bridgwater. Tacked ship. Wind 
 off the shore. 
 MIDNIGHT. Very fine weather. 
 
 The log does not state her rate of sailing, but I learn 
 from Mr. J. C. James, who is related to one of the crew, 
 that curing one period of twenty-four consecutive hours 
 she made eight knots, which is the equivalent of something 
 like nine and a half miles per hour. 
 
 Our men, when on the home mackerel fishery, sell their 
 fish to buyers who are sent down by the large London 
 and other houses for the purpose in a very primitive but 
 very effective fashion. The auctioneer takes his station on 
 the beach in the early morning with the buyers around him.
 
 17 
 
 A boat appears in the offing, and signals her number and the 
 number of fish she has. The auctioneer announces both, 
 and, if the bidding is slack, chucks a stone into the air. 
 The buyers have to bid before that stone falls. If a bid 
 comes, another stone is chucked up, and so on. And as the 
 boats do not all arrive at the same time, this method 
 conduces to much speculation. 
 
 Sometimes the fleet puts into Scilly, and sends the catch 
 to the mainland by steamer. Then the market is steadier, 
 because the total of the catch is known by telegraph ; but 
 scenes of wild excitement take place. The early boats 
 unload and pack their fish and stow the baskets on board 
 the steamer, but the late boats crowd round the steamer, 
 which is a mail boat and bound to time, and simply unload 
 their fish on to her decks. These fish are packed on the 
 way over by men working against time. I came over in the 
 steamer once when she had more than 60,000 fish on board, 
 and I watched the packing of more than 1 5,000 of them, 
 which had been thrown loose upon her deck, after which I 
 considered I could say that I knew mackerel when I saw it. 
 It was on a hot summer's day, and as the steamer rolled to 
 the Land's End seas, the packers were constantly ankle- 
 deep in blood and slush. 
 
 One result of this investigation was the certain conclusion 
 that the " scribbled mackerel " and " dotted mackerel " of 
 Couch (British Fishes) were only accidental varieties of the 
 common mackerel. 
 
 Strictly speaking the mackerel is not a migratory fish. 
 It is in our seas all the year round, but in the season which 
 I have mentioned February to June it, for some unknown 
 purpose, crowds from the deep sea inshore. By day, during 
 this season, it swims in scools or shoals, and by night it 
 makes a formation in loose order, probably for the purpose 
 [3] c
 
 i8 
 
 of feeding ; but it never pursues, as true migrants do, any 
 settled route. The fishermen have to search for their fish 
 day by day. In the day-time the fish are taken by the 
 scool or shoal in shallow water by the seine net, a net shot 
 ahead of and around them. In the night-time they are 
 taken by the drift-net, a net shot over the boat's side, 
 and fastened at one end to the drifting boat, which goes 
 with the wind or tide or both as may happen. The fleet 
 represents a capital of about 240,000, the property of 
 bond fide fishermen, and certainly deserves the protection 
 which it requires. The drifters are much put upon by 
 trawlers. These latter drive in hours which belong to the 
 former. Trawling is a day fishery ; driving is a night 
 fishery, and every now and then the slow moving, helpless, 
 illegally fishing trawler comes across the nets of the equally 
 helpless but legally fishing driver and carries them away. 
 This happens in the night time ; the driver never has a punt 
 with her and cannot ascertain the trawler's number. In 
 fact she does not know that the mischief is done until she 
 hauls her nets, and she has no remedy. I have known 
 400 of damage done to the drivers in this way in a single 
 week. The thing could be easily prevented ; a gunboat 
 or even a Government cutter cruising on the fishing-ground 
 during the two months in Spring in which the mischief 
 happens, would stop the whole thing. Some years since we 
 had reasons for expecting to see that gunboat come round 
 the Lizard every day for three seasons in succession, but she 
 never came, and we gave up expecting her. 
 
 There is another matter in connection with our Mount's 
 Bay fleet, and I believe it affects also some of the other 
 fleets, which I think may interest you. Just before the 
 Jane, of which I spoke just now, was lost, a Mutual 
 Fishing Boat Insurance Club was started for the Mount's
 
 19 
 
 Bay fleet. But we had then lost no boats lately, and our 
 men were indifferent about it, and the thing fell flat. Only 
 seven boats were entered in it. It happened that the 
 Jane, and two other boats, partially wrecked in the same 
 storm, were in it, and the club was ruined. The public 
 generously gave us over 2,000 to provide for the widows 
 and orphans of the crew of the Jane, and to repair 
 damages generally. Out of this fund we provided liberally 
 for the widows and orphans, and we then paid to the club 
 enough to enable it to meet the demands on it, and we then 
 distributed the remainder of the fund amongst the other 
 owners whose boats had sustained damage, with the distinct 
 assurance that if they did not put their boats in the club no 
 one would ever again stir a finger to help them in case of 
 accident The Cornish fisherman is not behindhand in 
 taking a hint, and I believe every boat in the bay is now in 
 the club, even before she is launched. I certainly do not wish 
 to see any club make its prosperity by such a fearful 
 experience as that which set up ours, but I shall be most 
 happy to send the rules of the club to any one interested 
 in the matter. The general outline is just this : nets are not 
 insurable (for want of that gunboat.) The surveyor of the 
 club examines each boat entered and reports on her value, 
 and she is then insured in two-thirds of her survey value. 
 Losses are made good by the levy of a rate on all owners 
 of boats in the club at the time of the loss, and no loss is 
 made good which is occasioned by any neglect to observe 
 the Board of Trade Rules. 
 
 I wish to call your attention to a great advantage which 
 this Exhibition will certainly confer on Cornwall. Mackerel 
 shoal in deep water as well as in shallow. Our desideratum 
 for a long time past has been a seine which can capture the 
 deep water shoals. A gentleman named Cox, a Cornishman, 
 
 C 2
 
 20 
 
 has invented a seine of which a model is in the middle of 
 our Cornwall stall (it is the one which has the weight 
 attached to it), which he says can be worked at deep sea 
 shoals of fish ; and curiously enough, a model of a second 
 seine on the same principle, but differing a little in detail, is 
 exhibited on the same stall by Mr. Moses Dunn, of Fowey, 
 and a third by Mr. Barren of Mevagissey. Practical men 
 saw these models, both before they came here and since, 
 and pronounced them very pretty little toys, which might 
 succeed in a fish pond, but utterly unfit for use at sea. 
 Now a full seine costs a large sum of money, and no 
 hard-headed capitalist is likely to lay it out on a specu- 
 lation which the practical men tell him must fail. Well, the 
 nets come here, and to them came an American gentleman 
 and he said, " You have the precise principle on which we 
 are working deep-sea seines in America, and they succeed 
 admirably." 
 
 There is another point which I must not overlook. There 
 is an idea of great antiquity, and very generally entertained, 
 that mackerel must always be fresh to be good. It is 
 perfectly true that mackerel is in its perfection when cooked 
 as soon as captured, but if that cannot be done it is like most 
 other fish, none the worse for a little keeping. And it is for 
 this reason, and because ice takes the flavour out of the fish, 
 that I consider dry packing (ie., packing fish-upon-fish 
 without ice) preferable to packing in ice; it injures the 
 flavour less. But there is another view to be taken. This 
 fish is eminently amenable to the action of antiseptics. 
 The smallness and fineness of its scale causes an antiseptic 
 bath to act upon its skin and gilled surfaces with marked 
 effect. I once received two of the large mackerel of which 
 I have spoken, which had been caught off the Scilly Isles 
 on a Monday night in the month of June (I believe, at all
 
 21 
 
 events in the height of summer) ; I received them in their 
 natural state on Tuesday evening, and put them into a bath 
 formed by the solution of some antiseptic in powder, which 
 the late Mr. Frank Buckland had procured for me. The 
 bath totally destroyed the beauty of colours of the fish, 
 and turned them into a dirty brown, but I ate one of those 
 fish on the Saturday after in perfectly good condition and 
 flavour, and I could have eaten the other in the same state, 
 so far as the flesh went, on the Saturday after that again, 
 but the flies had got at the gills, and the idea was distasteful. 
 I wrote for some more of the disinfectant, and the reply that 
 I got was that the company was in liquidation, and that I 
 could have the patent for .1,000 ; so I thought no more of 
 the matter and have forgotten the name of the disinfectant. 
 I only mention the matter to show of what service antiseptics 
 may be. 
 
 The drift fishery of which I have been speaking is the 
 principal mackerel fishery now, and supplies us with 
 practically the whole of this fish. The few thousand 
 mackerel taken at present each year in seines are wholly 
 absofbed in strictly local markets. The mackerel takes 
 bait, but, generally speaking, shyly. Every five or six 
 years they turn up in large shoals, which are intensely 
 localised, in the autumn and for about two hours a day, in 
 the evening, for a week or ten days, take surface bait 
 greedily. I, myself, once cruising backwards and forwards 
 over a little patch of ground (where a shoal of this sort had 
 located itself), for about two hours between five and eight 
 on each evening, for four days in August month, took, on a 
 whiffing or light hand-line and on a hook baited with a 
 strip cut from an old white kid glove, over three hundred 
 fish. I have known the mackerel to be in shoals in 
 December, but this is rare. When they do occur in
 
 22 
 
 that month they arc small but in excellent condition as 
 food. 
 
 Before I pass away from the mackerel, on which I have 
 detained you a great deal too long, I wish to tell you of 
 another discovery of mine, which no doubt equally affects 
 all fish ; but as my observation of it was made on mackerel, 
 I confine my narrative to that fish. Its habit of shoaling 
 in the daytime taught me the curious fact that the shoal 
 leaves behind it a distinct scent in the water, and that there 
 are other inhabitants of the sea who quite understand 
 what that scent means, and utilize it. 
 
 A shoal of fish in the water looks, at a distance, like the 
 shadow of a cloud moving steadily on. As the shade 
 nears you, you can see the fish "playing," jumping out of 
 the water just as small trout do, only in a large shoal you 
 will see thousands of fish out of the water at the same 
 time. Each sort of fish gives a colour to the water which 
 is peculiar to it, so that an experienced fisherman knows 
 at sight whether the shadow of the cloud, which he knows 
 to be a shoal of fish, covers mackerel, or pilchard, or 
 herring, or sprat. I was once standing on the beach with 
 an old fisherman when we saw a straggling shoal of fish 
 about half-a-mile long, swimming very slowly, which we 
 could not make out. Their colour was new to him. So 
 we took a boat and went out to them, and found they were 
 a shoal of huge jelly fish, great transparent things shaped 
 like an open umbrella and about its size, having around 
 the edge of the umbrella a beautiful purple fringe which 
 causes you to recollect it if you incautiously touch it. 
 On the occasion to which I refer I was standing on a 
 headland in a place called Prussia Cove, in Mount's Bay, 
 when I saw a shoal, which I knew at once to be of 
 mackerel, come out of a sandy bay there and go due west.
 
 23 
 
 Shortly after I saw a shoal of porpoises (a cetacean which 
 loves the mackerel in an epicurean sense) come lumbering 
 up from the south into the sand. When they came across 
 the trail of the mackerel these latter were a good mile 
 off on their way. The porpoises had no sooner got into 
 their back water than they wheeled into their course and 
 set off in full chase. In about three minutes they were 
 in the midst of the mackerel, playing havoc, whilst the 
 unfortunate mackerel were driving forward in one solid 
 line of terror, making the water foam before them as they 
 fled. 
 
 Of the Pilchard I have a different tale to tell. It is a 
 little fish of the " herring " family, generally about ten 
 inches long", and rarely so much as half a pound in weight. 
 It is very local in its habits, rarely occurring in numbers of 
 any importance east of the Start Point, in Devonshire, on 
 the South coast, and Trevose Head, in Cornwall, on the 
 north. It is taken yearly as far east as the estuary of 
 the Exe, and has been taken, and occasionally in large 
 numbers, off Seaton, in Devonshire, at the mouth of the 
 river Axe. Some years since a small shoal was taken off 
 Folkestone.* 
 
 It occurs in very large numbers off the south-west coast 
 of Ireland, but there is no native fishery for it there, and as 
 its season on that coast coincides with its season on ours, 
 our people are too busy at home to look after it. It occurs, 
 of course, off the French coasts as the sardine. And the 
 Spaniards have a mode of curing it which altogether beats 
 our English method, as may be seen by a comparison of our 
 
 * There is also some record of the capture of a shoal at Harwich, 
 and a fish supposed to be the pilchard occurs in Scotland under the 
 name of the garvie herring, but practically its home in England is in 
 Cornwall and mainly in West Cornwall.
 
 24 
 
 cured pilchards in this exhibition with those in the Spanish 
 division.* 
 
 Unlike the mackerel, the pilchard is not sought for in its 
 fresh state out of Cornwall and West Devon. Our 
 fishermen have tried many markets with it, but without 
 success. And this is the more remarkable seeing that the 
 fish is cheap, nutritious, and of exceedingly good flavour. 
 When tourists first found out West Cornwall, they very 
 soon found out pilchards, and more, they turned a little bit 
 of "chaff" against us west countrymen into a reality, at 
 their own expense. It used to be said of us that we ate 
 "cream with our pilchards," which of course we never did. 
 But when the tourist came down, he took it for granted 
 that he could eat clotted cream with everything, and he 
 insisted on having " cream with his pilchard," and he is said 
 to have got it, and to have found it so good a mixture that 
 now no large hotel gives broiled pilchard for breakfast 
 without itf 
 
 But we have other ways of cooking them besides broiling. 
 We fry them and eat them with a sauce made of finely 
 chopped onions, salt, cold water, and nothing else ; it is 
 a very nasty sauce. And we eat them without any knives 
 or forks, with our fingers. I do not say that all of us do 
 this, but I have seen it done, and less than one hundred 
 years ago the practice was universal amongst the bulk of 
 our people. 
 
 I hope to cure this want of a fresh pilchard market soon 
 
 * There are two open barrels of the fish exhibited one at each end 
 of the westernmost case in the Spanish Court. One is labelled 
 "pressed sardines," and the other "salted sardines," but they are 
 both of them pilchards, more cleanly cured than is our wont. 
 
 t I can speak to the excellency of clotted cream as a ,sauce with 
 broiled pilchard from personal experience.
 
 25 
 
 in this building. I hope to induce some of our fisher people 
 to send a supply to the fish-market here so soon as the 
 season opens, which it will in a few weeks, and I think that 
 with the great advantages offered here, we may succeed 
 where others, under less favourable circumstances, have 
 failed. Spain is running us so close in the business of 
 supplying salted pilchards for the markets of the Roman 
 Catholic countries, that we could easily find thirty to forty 
 millions offish for the supply of a fresh fish market without 
 feeling the loss of them. This apparently enormous 
 number would be a mere flea-bite out of our catch for a 
 season. It would be a day's, or at most two day's successful 
 fishing for the seines of St. Ives alone. And this brings me 
 to the support of Professor Huxley in his remark, that in 
 the waters frequented by the pilchard the sea, taken acre 
 for acre, is of greater pecuniary value than the land. A 
 seine w r hen " shot " around a shoal of pilchards may enclose 
 an acre of superficial water, certainly not more than two. 
 It is on record that the seines in St. Ives Bay did on one 
 occasion, in one day, capture 10,000 hogsheads, or over 30 
 millions of pilchards, worth, over the boat's side, 2 per 
 hogshead. I do not know the number of seines employed, 
 but they could not possibly have exceeded 20 ; but, 
 supposing they were 20, then 20 acres, or at the highest 
 figure 40 acres of sea yielded ^"20,000 as its produce for 
 one day, and each season consists of many days, and the 
 fisherman pays no rent." 
 
 * The greatest recorded catch by one seine at one shot was made 
 at St. Ives in 1868. There 5,600 hogsheads, or over 16 millions of 
 pilchards, were saved out of one seine. This catch was worth between 
 ; 1 1,000 and 12,000. Remarks of precisely the same character, but 
 differing in detail, apply to our trawling grounds, but as pilchards are 
 never taken by the trawler, I only allude to this fact.
 
 26 
 
 Since I wrote the above about opening up a cheap 
 market for small dainty fish like the pilchard, the question, 
 as one intended to benefit the poorer classes, has been 
 placed before me in what is to me an entirely new light. 
 And it is this : Supposing you can supply pilchards in the 
 height of their season at one penny each over the fish-stall 
 (and the remark applies to all other fish which could be sold 
 cheap), what is the poor man to do with it ? In summer he 
 must go to the expense of a fire to cook it. At any time 
 he must provide fat in which to fry it, most of which will be 
 wasted, and after all, the chances are that his wife does not 
 know how to cook it, and will spoil the dish in the doing of 
 it. And for this, my practical informant says, there is but 
 one remedy. If you want to introduce cheap fish for the 
 use of the artisan you must in some way or other start 
 shops or whatever places you like where he can get it 
 cooked. Most of these difficulties apply also to the 
 dressing of fish by boiling, but my informant adds to these 
 another, that the prejudice against boiled fish is at present 
 so deep-seated as to be practically ineradicable. 
 
 You will find in this building, pilchards cured by all the 
 methods in use, salted in barrels for the foreign market, 
 dressed in oil, as sardines, or in salt sauce, as anchovies, or 
 marinated, which is, I believe, an invention of our own ; and 
 in every form you will find them good. 
 
 The method in which the pilchards are cured for the 
 Italian market expresses from them when "in bulk" (i.e., 
 under the pressure in large masses necessary for salting 
 them) large quantities of blood, which run from the curing- 
 house down the streets in gutters to the sea. We are a toast- 
 drinking people, and this peculiarity in the curing process 
 gave rise to a toast which used to be given as equiva- 
 lent to prosperity to the pilchard fishery. It was:
 
 27 
 
 " Long life to the Pope, and may our streets run with 
 blood." 
 
 The fish itself resembles a small silvery herring having 
 large scales. The people who catch it are much the same 
 as those who fish for mackerel, but the fishery has a 
 separate capital invested in it, the boats and nets used 
 being peculiar to it. 
 
 It is captured in much the same way as the mackerel is. 
 In the night in drift nets ; in the day time in seines. 
 Originally pilchard seining and mackerel seining were 
 conducted in much the same way, but the decline of 
 mackerel seining has now-a-days caused them to differ. 
 
 The lookout of a mackerel seine is mostly kept on board 
 the boat itself, and the seine net is hauled bodily on board 
 with the fish in it, but in pilchard seining the lookout is kept 
 from some hill where the huer or man stationed to watch 
 for the shoals of fish can be seen from the boat, standing 
 clear out against the sky. He thus gets a much wider out- 
 look than can be had from the boat. He holds in each 
 hand a bush, and when he sights a shoal of fish he informs 
 the boat of its whereabouts by preconcerted signals made 
 with these bushes. The seine boat moves in the direction 
 indicated, and if it reaches the shoal in time it shoots its 
 net. You must consider of this net when shot, as a round 
 room in the water without a floor or ceiling, and if the shot 
 is successful it contains the pilchards. At the next low 
 water time a net, called a tuck net, and which I will liken to 
 a perforated pocket handkerchief, is let down from large 
 boats stationed at one side of the room of water, the tuck- 
 net being inside the seine, and it is drawn up by means of 
 ropes hauled in on board large boats stationed for the 
 purpose at the other side so as to scoop up the fish in 
 the seine. As the ropes come home the boats close in
 
 28 
 
 upon the net, and then a very exciting, and on moonlight 
 nights a very beautiful scene sets in. Millions of silvery 
 little fish are sputtering and clattering on the surface of the 
 water in the tuck-net Half a dozen men are in the midst 
 of them up to their knees in fish, handing them into the 
 boats in baskets, and working for dear life. Everybody 
 is giving orders at the top of his voice about everything, 
 and nobody is obeying anybody, and so the work goes 
 on until the coming tide stops them, and causes them to 
 run the risk of the escape of the fish before the next low 
 water. Most of the fish thus caught are salted for 
 export, but many find their way through the locality of 
 their capture in the cowels or baskets exhibited on our 
 Cornwall stall, and which are worn in the picturesque 
 way shown in the lithograph also exhibited there. A 
 strong woman can carry I cwt. of fish in the way shown, 
 and for miles. 
 
 But the waving of a huer's bushes has a very curious 
 effect on any fishing village which happens to get sight, or 
 news of it. To the stranger it would appear that the whole 
 population of the place had suddenly gone lunatic. Every 
 available man, woman and child turns out and rushes 
 violently down the steep cliff to the sea shouting " heva ! 
 heva ! " Whence the word is derived, we do not know ; but 
 it is the signal that shoaling fish arc in sight, and that the 
 population must turn out to be ready to receive them, for 
 all this fish-work requires to be done with the utmost 
 dispatch. 
 
 A very curious thing, and entirely inexplicable, about 
 these shoaling pilchards, is that at uncertain periods they 
 shift their course for years together. For instance, fifty 
 years ago, St. Ives on our North coast had almost a 
 monopoly of the shoaling pilchard ; now she divides with
 
 29 
 
 Newquay. Thirty-five years ago the principal South coast 
 seining fishery was in Mount's Bay, now it is at Mevagissey, 
 and it is no question of new seine fisheries having been 
 established. It is due solely and entirely to a change of 
 habitat on the part of the fish. We have many things yet 
 to learn about the pilchard. 
 
 One thing I have learned since I began to write this 
 paper, is that during the mackerel season (February to 
 June) and before our pilchard season commences, numerous 
 shoals of very large pilchards are met with by our mackerel 
 drivers in the deep sea, eight leagues and over, south and 
 west of the Scilly Islands. These large pilchards are mostly 
 females full of roe, ready to be shed, and unlike most fish in 
 that condition are so dry and tasteless as to be utterly 
 useless as food. A test of their size is that they are taken 
 in the meshes of the mackerel nets. 
 
 Like the mackerel the pilchard is not a true migrant, but 
 comes in from the deep sea, shoaling by day and scattering 
 by night, and remains on for its season. Unlike the 
 mackerel it never takes a bait,* and is but vjry rarely seen 
 in our seas except in its season ; but again, like the mackerel, 
 it is too thorough a nomad to stand the confinement of an 
 aquarium. And those of you who wish to see either of 
 them alive must seek for them in their native haunts. 
 
 * Whilst this paper was in the press information reached me that a 
 pilchard had been captured, hooked in the mouth, on a white-feather 
 whiffing-fly ; but as two other pilchards were at the same time 
 captured, hooked in the side, it is probable that they were all acci- 
 dently hooked out of a shoal through which the whiffing-line was 
 passing. The fish may have been playing with the fly rather than 
 attempting to feed on it.
 
 DISCUSSION. 
 
 Professor, BROWN GOODE said he had heard some 
 complaint that there were too many scientific men on the 
 platform in these conferences, and too few practical men, 
 but every one would agree that Mr. Cornish had shown 
 that he had a thorough practical acquaintance with the 
 subject, whilst he had used a thoroughly scientific method 
 in his deductions. He had listened with great pleasure 
 to the Paper, having been for some years paying special 
 attention to the mackerel fishery in the United States. 
 That fishery was one of the most important in the 
 American waters. The produce in the year 1880 was 
 about 132,000,000 pounds. It employed about 470 of 
 their finest sea-going schooners, of from 60 to 100 tons 
 burden each, and with an aggregate capacity of about 
 23,000 tons, with crews of 14 to 20 men, and nets worth 
 450,000 dollars or more. Within the last few years, since 
 the introduction of the purse net to which Mr. Cornish 
 had referred, it was not uncommon for one of those vessels 
 to catch fish to the value of 5000 or even 7500 a year. 
 The history of the mackerel fishery was very interesting. 
 As long ago as the year 1600, within forty years of the settle- 
 ment in New England, there were records of the colonists 
 seining the mackerel off Cape Cod by moonlight ; and it was 
 somewhat remarkable, that on this fishery was founded the 
 system of public schools in the United States, for within 
 ten or twenty years of that time the first public school was 
 founded on a tax upon the fishery. At that time, when 
 perhaps not one hundred barrels a year were taken, they 
 found the inhabitants petitioning to prevent the destruction
 
 of the mackerel by this method of fishing, and that 
 appeal had been repeated at various times in the history 
 of the fisheries, even down to the present time. In the 
 American Court of the Exhibition could be seen a 
 diagram showing the progress of the mackerel fishery, 
 and the very great fluctuations which took place not 
 only with reference to the quantity of fish caught, but 
 the number of vessels employed. It would be noticed 
 that in 1882 the catch was very much greater than in 
 any previous year, so that the fears as to the destruc- 
 tion of the fish did not seem to be well founded. Two 
 methods of fishing were afterwards introduced ; first, the 
 gill net or drag net, like that used in Cornwall, and which 
 is still used to a limited extent at the present time. 
 Another method introduced about the same time, and 
 kept up for a considerable period, was what they called 
 trailing, or dragging a bait after a vessel under sail. That 
 was carried on until the beginning of this century, and 
 it was not uncommon to see a vessel with four or five 
 poles sticking out from it, to which the bait was attached. 
 That was given up, however, fifty years ago. At the 
 beginning of this century another form of apparatus came 
 into use, which was exceedingly effective for a time, and 
 it was during the prevalence of this method that the 
 great fisheries in the United States and the Canadian 
 waters sprung up which had led to so many treaties 
 from 1865 to 1870. There were from 500 to 700, or even 
 in some years 1000 American vessels in the Gulf of St.- 
 Lawrence fishing for mackerel, and this was called the 
 mackerel hook fishery. It was conducted in this way : the 
 fishermen took on board a hundred or more barrels of 
 a very oily, fat fish called the menhaden, something like 
 the pilchard. They ground it up fine and threw it out
 
 in great quantities. The mackerel would follow this for 
 a long distance, and come up round the vessel like a 
 flock of chickens coming to be fed. Then the fishermen 
 had short lines with hooks on the ends, with which they 
 caught the mackerel and threw them over on to the deck, 
 and with a crew of 10 to 14 men the catch would some- 
 times amount to 20,000 in a day. That mode of fishing 
 was carried on for a long time, but the purse seine gra- 
 dually came into use and displaced it. It was first used 
 in 1814, but did not come into general use until 1860, 
 and there were now probably 500 of them at work. The 
 mackerel fishery had now been transferred from the Gulf 
 of St. Lawrence to off the shore waters along the coast, 
 and at the present time they followed them down to 
 Cape Hatteras. The mackerel on the other side of the 
 Atlantic had definite migrations, coming north in the 
 spring of the year, when the fishermen followed them 
 until August, when they were in the Gulf of Maine, then 
 they followed them back in the fall. The mackerel 
 increased in size as they got on better feeding-ground. 
 They disappeared for a month or so in June, when 
 they went to the bottom and spawned. He could assure 
 Mr. Cornish that there was not the slightest practical 
 difficulty in working the purse seine. They were from 
 70 to 150 feet in depth, and 1,000 to 1,300 in length, 
 and were worked by a special boat something like a 
 whale boat, and it was quite easy for a vessel to catch 
 as many fish as could be cured in three or four days. 
 At first they used to give the surplus away or let them 
 go, but now they had invented a kind of storage net, 
 which they hung out over the side of the vessel, and 
 kept the fish alive in it, taking out at intervals as many 
 as they could cure before they spoiled.
 
 33 
 
 Mr. KENNETH CORNISH asked if Mr. Cornish was in 
 favour of legislation for the preservation of mackerel ? 
 Referring to what had been said in regard to the pursuit 
 of herrings and mackerel by porpoises, he might say that 
 he witnessed a very remarkable sight at Teignmouth in the 
 year 1860. In walking along the sea wall they saw a great 
 commotion in the sea, a mile out, and watching it, they 
 soon found a shoal of salmon running in, pursued by a 
 shoal of large grampuses, who drove the unfortunate 
 salmon right against the wall. They seized the salmon in 
 their jaws, threw them up, and caught them like a terrier 
 would a rat, and when the salmon turned and went out to 
 sea again, they pursued them. He should like to know if 
 Mr. Cornish thought it possible to catch these cetacea, seals 
 and other animals that preyed on salmon, herrings, and 
 mackerel, by the use of spinning bait on a large scale ? It 
 seemed to him we were thinning down the fish, but not 
 thinning down their natural enemies. It would not be at 
 all difficult to make baits which would exactly represent a 
 salmon, mackerel, or herring, with hooks concealed inter- 
 nally ; and they might even be impregnated with the 
 natural flavour of the fish. 
 
 Mr. CORNISH, in reply, said, as far as his experience 
 went, he did not think legislation was required with respect 
 to a close time for mackerel or pilchards ; they took a close 
 time for themselves and got away where they could not be 
 caught. Further legislation was very desirable for the 
 purpose of regulating the fishing of our own boats in British 
 waters ; and even if what legislation there was were better 
 enforced, it would be of great importance. With regard to 
 catching porpoises, he should not like to tackle one weighing 
 more than 2 cwt. in a small boat. 
 
 Mr. SHAW, M.P., in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. 
 [3] D
 
 34 
 
 Cornish, said he was much interested in the mackerel 
 fishing of the south coast of Ireland ; but he had learnt a 
 great deal he did not know before. Up to the present he 
 always thought that -if a mackerel could speak it would 
 talk Irish, but he was now pretty well convinced that it 
 would also speak in Cornish ; and perhaps if it could 
 speak in either language it could give a different account 
 of its sufferings to that which had been given in the Paper. 
 One thing, however, might mitigate one's sympathies in 
 this respect, for mackerel had not the slightest regard for 
 other fish which suited its taste. In the neighbourhood 
 of Cork there was a fleet of five hundred boats engaged in 
 the mackerel fishery. He was sorry to say there were not 
 as many native Irish engaged in it as he could desire, 
 because round that part of the coast the inhabitants were 
 a poor class of men, with very little enterprise, and very 
 few of them were men of business or capital. In another 
 district, too, mackerel fishing had been established, and 
 seemed likely to succeed ; and he should be very much 
 wanting in his duty if he did not refer to the great help 
 given there by Lady Burdett Coutts, but for whose assist- 
 ance the thing could not have existed. It was very satis- 
 factory to know that the people of the coast a simple 
 primitive people had availed themselves of the assistance 
 offered them, and there were some of the best boats engaged 
 in the fishery now going from the Harbour of Baltimore on 
 the south coast of Ireland. The great object of catching 
 fish was to bring it as quickly and cheaply as possible to 
 the table, and he did not think there was a better fishing 
 ground in the world than that round the south coast of 
 Cork ; but hitherto facilities of transport had been rather 
 deficient. Now, however, they were in a much better 
 position in this respect, as there were rails now touching the
 
 35 
 
 fishing grounds at Kinsale, Skibbereen, Baltimore, and 
 Bantry, and in the Bay of Bantry a steamer had been put 
 on, so that every evening the fish caught in any of those 
 places could be shipped, and next day it would be delivered 
 in the cities and towns of England. The great thing to be 
 desired was to have as few people as possible between the 
 consumer and the fishermen, otherwise the profit was scat- 
 tered about by the number of hands through which the fish 
 passed. If there were any gentlemen present engaged in 
 the fish business, he would recommend them to send their 
 agents over there, who would day by day collect the fish 
 and send it forward. He knew, from practical experience, 
 that fishermen got very little as the result of their industry ; 
 this did not apply so much to the mackerel fishery, because 
 it was mostly conducted by men of skill and experience 
 who could take care of themselves. 
 
 Mr. C. E. FRYER had great pleasure in seconding the 
 vote of thanks. The Chairman had referred to the beautiful 
 scene presented at night when the boats were leaving the 
 harbour, but it appeared to him the enjoyment was much 
 enhanced when you happened to be on board one of the 
 vessels going to the fishing grounds. Having had the 
 pleasure himself, he could recommend any one who visited 
 Cornwall to endeavour to get a night's fishing on board 
 one of those boats ; for no more beautiful scene could be 
 imagined than was presented on a fine evening on board a 
 boat off the Land's End. The energy of the Cornish fisher- 
 men had been referred to, but, like many others engaged 
 in the same vocation, they were remarkably conservative in 
 their habits, and it was very difficult to induce them to 
 adopt improved methods of fishing. He had had the great 
 satisfaction of introducing into this country the system of 
 preserving pilchards in oil, in the manner in which sardines
 
 36 
 
 were preserved in France. There could be no question that 
 the sardine was exactly the same fish as the pilchard, and 
 those who had not tasted them he would recommend to buy 
 in future not the French sardines but the Cornish. He had 
 no interest personally in giving this advice, beyond the 
 desire of seeing an industry which he had established pros- 
 pering to the extent which it deserved. As an instance of 
 the difficulty of inducing the fishermen to take a "new de- 
 parture " in fishery matters, he related that on one occasion, 
 when off Penzance, he endeavoured to get the fishermen to 
 put aside the smaller fish, for the purpose of preserving them 
 as sardines, as it was found that the smaller ones were pre- 
 ferred for the purpose, but he had the greatest difficulty in 
 the world to induce the fishermen to adopt that simple pre- 
 caution. Every fish had to be taken out of the net, and 
 it would have been perfectly easy for the men to put the 
 small ones on one side and the large ones on the other, but 
 their conservative tendencies prevailed, and they would not 
 take the trouble to do so. There was a saying that the 
 Cornish people could make anything into a pie ; and it was 
 said that if a certain gentleman, who should be nameless, 
 were to go there, he would be put into a pie ; and just as 
 they were determined to put everything into a pie, so were 
 they loth to adopt new methods of preserving fish for the 
 market. If proper means were adopted there was no reason 
 why enormous quantities of pilchards, preserved in salt as 
 well as in tins, should not be sent to London and other 
 English markets, though of course there were difficulties of 
 transport to be overcome. Mr. Cornish had referred to the 
 remarkable occasional disappearance of the pilchard from the 
 coast of Cornwall, and it occurred to him that possibly the 
 china clay works in Cornwall might have some influence on 
 the movements of those fish. Enormous quantities of milk-
 
 37 
 
 white water were poured into the sea down many small 
 streams in the county, and that might have some effect, 
 though he did not suppose it was the chief cause of the 
 disappearance, because the same sudden disappearance had 
 been noticed in France. He recently came across a letter 
 received in 1879 from a friend in France, who spoke 
 of the sudden appearance there of the sardines in great 
 abundance, though for more than twenty years there had 
 been a great scarcity. The abundance which had generally 
 prevailed since had shown large occasional fluctuations. 
 He trusted that many other gentlemen in Cornwall would 
 follow Mr. Cornish's example, and make a study of the 
 movements of this and other fish with a view to the 
 practical encouragement of those very important industries. 
 The resolution having been carried unanimously 
 Mr. CORNISH said he did not think the china clay had 
 much to do with the disappearance of fish, because it had 
 been noticed that they still remained in localities where that 
 water and also mineral water ran into the sea. They would 
 require to watch them still more closely for some time to 
 find out the reason for those movements. 
 
 The MARQUIS OF EXETER then proposed a vote of thanks 
 to the Chairman for presiding. Mr. Cornish had alluded 
 to three kinds of mackerel, one of which, the green, was 
 unwholesome ; and he was glad to hear the explanation, 
 because not long ago his crew, who were Irish, came one 
 morning and said they were all very bad from eating 
 mackerel that had been in the moonlight. He concluded 
 that it was this green mackerel. He had oftentimes en- 
 joyed the pleasure of fishing off the Cornish coast, and had 
 always met with the greatest kindness from fishermen and 
 others ; and he could recommend any one who wanted a 
 good fishing ground where they could catch all manner of
 
 38 
 
 fish, to go, when the wind was not to the south or west, and 
 lie off Penzance. They might catch there every kind of 
 fish, from the mackerel down to the beautiful jelly-fish 
 which Mr. Cornish had alluded to, which he had often 
 watched on a calm day struggling to make head against 
 the tide, but eventually drifting with it ; and perhaps the 
 Chairman would recollect that they had it on the authority 
 of a noble duke, that certain friends of his, who were as 
 brilliant in talents as these jelly-fish were in colour, were 
 also in the habit of drifting with the tide. 
 
 Mr. HORNBLOWER seconded the motion, which was 
 carried unanimously. 
 
 The CHAIRMAN, in response, said it had given him much 
 pleasure to be present at a discussion of so practical a 
 character. There were many points on which he should 
 have liked to touch had the time not been so far advanced, 
 but he would only say, in correction of what Mr. Fryer had 
 said, that the Cornish proverb was that the devil would not 
 come into Cornwall because he was afraid of being put into 
 a pie. 
 
 LONDON I PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition, 
 
 LONDON, 1883. 
 
 THE 
 
 HERRING FISHERIES 
 
 H. J. GREEN, 
 
 {PRIZE ESSAY.} 
 
 LONDON: 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 1884.
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS,
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 THE increasing interest shown year after year in all 
 matters connected with our fisheries is a sign of the times 
 that can neither be overlooked nor under-valued. It is 
 practically a recantation of the doctrine that the subject 
 was one merely concerning professors and students of 
 natural history, and an acknowledgment that, considered 
 with reference to British industry and commerce, it is a 
 matter of paramount importance. One of the most inter- 
 esting divisions of the fisheries is the herring fishery. It is 
 interesting, not only on account of the large number of 
 persons which it employs, and its influence on the country 
 financially, but on account of the natural history of the 
 herring, of the theories which have been advanced and 
 overthrown respecting its migration, and of the veil of 
 mystery which for a long time hid the secret of its repro- 
 duction from human understanding. It is obvious that 
 whatever tends to elucidate and clear up disputed points in 
 its natural history must react in a beneficial manner com- 
 mercially. The record of the last few years has been far 
 from being a blank page in this respect ; but perhaps, for 
 the sake of completeness, it will be well to state a few of 
 the earlier facts ascertained of the natural history of the 
 herring.
 
 4 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Let us consider first, then, the senses of the herring. 
 They have been the subject of much difference of opinion, 
 as indeed they have been concerning all fish. Yet the 
 organs, though of course very minute, are so distinctly 
 formed that we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that 
 they were meant to be used. The tongue, for instance, is 
 very small, but there is no doubt about a tongue being 
 there ; and what is a tongue there for if not to be used ? It 
 is true that the senses of taste and smell of some of our fish 
 are not always very correct, especially of -those who prefer 
 the neighbourhood of sewers and drains ; but they are the 
 exceptions which prove the rule. Then, as regards hearing, 
 the balance of evidence seems to be in favour of their being 
 endowed with that sense. We need not question whether 
 they are able to see or not. 
 
 One of the most important points to be ascertained with 
 certainty is what constitutes the chief food of the herring ? 
 There has been much diversity of opinion on this matter ; 
 but it appears to be pretty clear that the herring does 
 not feed upon one kind of food. The preference seems 
 to be for small Crustacea, although worms and the eggs of 
 fishes have been found in their stomachs, and even young 
 herrings. It will thus be seen that the cultivation of crus- 
 tacea has a very important bearing on the prosperity of the 
 fisheries ; for we cannot hope to bring the latter to a high 
 degree of efficiency if the food supply is not promoted in a 
 corresponding degree. It is a noticeable fact that herrings 
 caught in lochs and bays are superior in quality to those 
 caught on the open sea-coast. What is the reason of this ? 
 Is it that the food is more abundant or more suitable ? It 
 is a point worth investigation. 
 
 The next important point to be solved is the settlement 
 of the period of the year when they spawn. On the satis-
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 5 
 
 factory solution of this problem the very existence of the 
 fishery greatly depends. If we do not know when to look 
 for the fish, we cannot catch them ; therefore anything that 
 adds to our knowledge on this point is a very material 
 assistance. A great many of our eminent men are of 
 opinion that the herring spawns twice a year. We know, 
 however, for certain that herrings appear at different times 
 at different places ; and the investigations of the last few 
 years have led us to believe that the object of their appear- 
 ance off the coasts is for the operation of spawning. For 
 instance, at Wick they appear between July and September ; 
 at Eyemouth between June and September; at Arran 
 between July and November ; and at Thurso as early as May. 
 In the Moray Firth the time is from June to September, 
 but in the Firth of Forth it is from November to March. 
 [It may be noted incidentally that the Scotch fishery of last 
 year was very successful.] In England we find the herrings 
 at Yarmouth between June and November, off Cornwall in 
 August and September, off Kent in October and November, 
 and off Yorkshire between July and September. In 
 Ireland they are fished at Galway in September ; off Kerry 
 between January and March ; and in the Irish Channel 
 between June and November. Taken as a general rule, 
 we may say that the winter herring generally spawns 
 in February and March, and the summer or autumn ? 
 herring in September and October. 
 
 It is an easy transition from the subject of their spawning 
 time to the subject of their migration, or supposed migra- 
 tion. There was a time and we should not have to go 
 back very far when the theory of their migration from the 
 Arctic regions was most stoutly maintained. We know 
 better now. The interesting story was to the effect that 
 the normal abode of the herrings was in the Arctic seas, 
 E. 22. B 2
 
 6 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 and that they made periodical visits to the south (led by an 
 advanced guard of one or two fishes !) for the purpose of 
 spawning. Little was wanting to complete this dramatic 
 story. We knew that the herrings usually lived in the 
 North ; we knew that they sometimes came to the south ; 
 we knew that they divided off the north of Scotland, one 
 corps going to the right and the other to the left, all that 
 was wanted were the herrings themselves. There is not, 
 however, a shadow of a doubt about our previous belief 
 being a huge mistake. The herring inhabits the deep water 
 round our coasts all the year round, and comes periodically 
 towards the shore to propagate its kind. The chief argu- 
 ment that has been set up in favour of this statement is, 
 that year after year, and at the same time of the year, we 
 always find the same kind of herring in the same place. It 
 is therefore a very reasonable assumption that they are in 
 the neighbourhood all the year round. Besides, herrings 
 caught in the extreme north of Scotland are inferior and 
 lean compared to those caught at the same time farther 
 south, which should not be the condition of herrings that 
 are just about to spawn. Whether there are any who still 
 believe in the migration of the herrings from the Polar 
 regions and we would remind them that they must also 
 believe in the advanced guard story, too matters little ; it 
 is enough that a very large number of persons have long 
 since abandoned it and accepted the other theory. 
 
 The next point on which we would willingly have more 
 information is what period elapses between the time of 
 depositing the spawn and the appearance of the young fish ? 
 
 This is a matter very difficult to ascertain, chiefly from 
 the difficulty experienced in observing the operation ; but 
 we may take it that the eggs are converted into fish in a 
 fortnight or three weeks. In about nine weeks' time the
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 7 
 
 fish are 3 or 4 inches long, and are full-grown herrings in 
 about a year and a half. Any information on the latter 
 point would also be extremely useful. It would dissipate 
 some doubts as to when the operation of spawning is per- 
 formed for the first time by the young herring. 
 
 After all, it must be confessed with regret that our 
 knowledge of the natural history of the herring is ex- 
 ceedingly limited. It has been thought that we may learn 
 a good deal from those whose vocation it is to catch them. 
 That, however, is very far from being the case. The 
 ignorance among the fishermen of the habits of the herring 
 is certainly not very flattering to our insular pride. That 
 it betrays a want of observation on their part, or incapacity 
 to connect their observations with their occupation, cannot 
 be denied. Perhaps the remedy might be found in erecting 
 schools for fisher-boys, where the young generation might 
 learn something of elementary Natural History that might 
 act as an incentive to further observation of animated 
 nature. The aim of all knowledge should be to apply it to 
 the affairs of our eve ry-day life. 
 
 A study of the fisheries of other countries is always 
 interesting, and often instructive. We may in this way 
 often learn methods of capture and curing, that may be pro- 
 fitably followed by ourselves ; and we may also gather fresh 
 facts concerning the natural history of the fish. It is but 
 fitting to commence with a reference to the Dutch fisheries. 
 We cannot help feeling a respect and admiration for a 
 people who once possessed the finest fisheries in the world. 
 We recall with envy the picture of their former superiority, 
 a superiority which has long since passed away. The 
 naturalists tell us that their superiority was owing to their 
 fishing on our coasts in our absence on other matters. 
 Whether that was the case or not we cannot say ; but
 
 8 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 even supposing that it was, it looks as if the Dutch still 
 deserved the palm for superior strategy. While, however, we 
 willingly accord whatever praise is due to the Dutch, we 
 are far from endorsing the extravagant eulogy that many 
 have thought fit to bestow on them. The Dutch fishermen 
 of old acquired, and for a long time maintained, their proud 
 position by their method of curing herrings. It is some- 
 what strange that, great as England was in many respects 
 at the meridian of Dutch prosperity, she should have been 
 so far behind in this matter. Probably those great events ' 
 of the time of Elizabeth were themselves the cause. The 
 people were too much occupied by foreign affairs to attend 
 to humbler matters at home. The Dutch fishermen kept 
 their secrets pretty much to themselves ; but it will probably 
 be found that they owed much of their success to their curing 
 the herrings immediately they were hauled up from the 
 sea. 
 
 The French fishery is chiefly remarkable for the cure of 
 sprats (about which we shall have something more to say 
 presently) in oil. 
 
 The Norwegian fishery is noted for various methods of 
 smoking the young herring. 
 
 A very interesting mode of fishing under difficulties is 
 practised in Russia. Owing to the severe climate of that 
 country, and to the consequent freezing of the water, the 
 fishing industry is much curtailed ; but the fishermen 
 manage to secure a good many fish by making lines of 
 holes in the ice, and inserting their nets in them. 
 
 It may not be inappropriate to say something here about 
 the whitebait, the sprat, and the pilchard. As regards the 
 whitebait, the question that chiefly interests us is whether 
 it is the young of the herring or not. For a long time 
 naturalists held that it was not ; and there is a good deal
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 9 
 
 that might seem to support that view. The head of the 
 whitebait was thought to differ slightly from the head of 
 the herring ; the comparative length of the head to the rest 
 of the body was supposed to differ, and the body itself 
 was flatter than the herring, and lighter in colour. But 
 there is an argument that completely over-rules and 
 destroys these minor objections, viz. that the whitebait is 
 never found with milt or roe. This, to our mind, taken in 
 conjunction with the fact that large quantities are some- 
 times caught with herrings, demonstrates very clearly that 
 the whitebait is the offspring of the herring. The length 
 of the whitebait is between two and four inches, and, very 
 rarely, five inches. It is very plentiful in the Firth of 
 Forth, and in the Thames, and is sometimes found in the 
 Clyde and other rivers. 
 
 The sprat is also an interesting fish. It has been 
 accused of following the example of the whitebait ; but, 
 although it is remarkable that sprats are taken in large 
 numbers with herrings, we will not, on our present know- 
 ledge, go so far as to say that they are the offspring of 
 the herring. There is some relationship between the two. 
 However, the fact of sprats having milt and roe at the 
 proper spawning-time seems to show that they are not the 
 young of the herring. The sprat fishery commences in 
 November, and lasts till February or March. The princi- 
 pal coasts on which it is prosecuted are Norfolk, Suffolk, 
 Essex, and Kent. 
 
 The pilchard resembles the herring in some respects, 
 although there are important differences both in the forma- 
 tion and in the habits of the two. For instance, the scales 
 of the pilchard are larger than those of the herring. Again, 
 the pilchard will rest in a horizontal position if suspended 
 by the dorsal fin ; while the herring dips towards the head.
 
 io THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Further, the pilchard has an exceedingly limited distribu- 
 tion, while the herring has a very wide distribution. The 
 pilchard fishery generally commences about July, and con- 
 tinues to December. Like the herring, the pilchard is a 
 migratory fish, lives in the deep water, and approaches the 
 shores to spawn. The coasts that it most frequents are 
 those of Devon and Cornwall ; in fact, we may say that the 
 fishery is confined to those counties, and the fish appear 
 in great numbers. 
 
 There is yet one other digression that we would make. 
 Scotland has the honour of being the home of two very 
 puzzling fish, namely, the powan of Loch Lomond and the 
 vendace of Lochmaben. Careful observation has " almost 
 persuaded " naturalists to believe these fish to be descen- 
 dants of herrings ; and the reason they assign for the 
 existence of the fish in fresh water is that the monks of old, 
 who, it is to be presumed, lived largely on fish, brought 
 them there. The habits of the fish certainly very much 
 resemble those of herrings. 
 
 We will now consider the question of the herring brand. 
 A very slight examination of the subject will suffice to 
 show that the system is opposed to the principles that should 
 regulate trade. It is true the brand is not compulsory, 
 which, while robbing it of many objections, really amounts 
 to very little, because every large curer is bound to use it 
 for the simple reason that everybody else does. The 
 brand, however, is very useful to small curers, because it 
 gives them a chance of competing with the large curers. But 
 it is a distinct form of State interference an interference 
 in the sale of an article of extensive consumption. What 
 are the reasons that can sanction such an arrangement ? 
 Why are not our potatoes, and cabbages, and boots, and 
 chairs and tables branded ? The chief reason that can be
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 11 
 
 urged in favour of the continuance of the brand is that it 
 is convenient for foreign trade. The brand has been in 
 existence for so many years that the buyers in foreign 
 countries have learnt to regard it as a guarantee that 
 they are not being cheated. Barrels bearing the Crown 
 brand are never waiting for a buyer, and they are passed 
 on from hand to hand with nearly as much convenience 
 as paper money. We cannot deny, either, that the system 
 greatly assists the people in their purchases by the rejec- 
 tion of inferior fish. It is best as a rule to choose for 
 ourselves, but there are certain occasions when the judg- 
 ment of a skilled officer is preferable to our own. In 
 the next place, those whom the question most nearly 
 affects are in favour of the continuance of the brand. If 
 those who are most nearly concerned are content to pay 
 the small fee for the brand to the Scotch Fishery Board, 
 it certainly seems unwise and unnecessary to disturb a 
 system that has worked so well. 
 
 We have here, then, a remarkable instance of a system 
 undoubtedly wrong in principle working well in practice. 
 It would seem that our objects have been accomplished by 
 means which are open to question. Nevertheless, although, 
 in the circumstances, we would wish to see this particular 
 system maintained, we strongly disapprove of it for other 
 articles. No fresh system should be started on these 
 principles. It may be urged that a fresh system would 
 become as successful as this has become. We think not. 
 This system was instituted when the fishery was com- 
 paratively undeveloped, and therefore, having grown with 
 it, the system has become, as it were, a part of the fishery. 
 But to start a similar system now, in connection with an 
 article of extensive use, would be a decided mistake. We 
 may depend upon it that the less we have of Government
 
 12 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 interference the better it will be for us. There are, of 
 course, a few matters, such as the regulation of cab-fares, 
 that are, for simple convenience, best done by the Govern- 
 ment. But it is a dangerous principle. It has led to 
 tyranny in the past, and it may lead to tyranny in the 
 future. The times have passed we trust for ever when 
 justice was openly bought and sold, and when monopolies 
 were bartered for political objects. We cannot forget 
 those days, never to be recalled without a feeling of shame, 
 when one class was raised by the degradation of another. 
 It is a dark page in our history ; but it is, nevertheless, one 
 that must be guarded against for the future. If ever the 
 time should come when Englishmen will submit to all 
 trade being arrested by imposts and fetters, we confess 
 that we should have little hope for the future of England. 
 Are we to be treated as children as persons who are 
 incapable of judging for themselves ? No ; the noblest 
 aim of man should be to think and act for himself, to 
 exercise the intellect with which God has endowed him 
 above every other creature, and to contribute as far as in 
 him lays to the sum of human happiness. 
 
 LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition, 
 
 LONDON, 1883. 
 
 THE 
 
 HERRING FISHERIES 
 
 BY 
 
 R. J. MUNRO. 
 
 {PRIZE ESSAY.] 
 
 LONDON: 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W 
 1884.
 
 LONDON : 
 PRINTKD BV WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET ANR CHARING CROSS.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PACE 
 
 Around the Coast and order of the British Herring Fishery Close time 
 
 wanted 3 
 
 Curing herring by machinery 5 
 
 The West Coast The Best Coast 6 
 
 Great Yarmouth Historical notices, and mode of curing herrings . . 7 
 
 Irish and West Coast of England Herring Fishery 10 
 
 Iceland Prospects at Shetland Loss of life, &c 12 
 
 Herring Fisheries of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark Modes of curing 13 
 
 Holland and Dutch cured herrings 15 
 
 Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and North American coasts Specimens 
 
 of the Clupeidae family, &c., &c 17 
 
 Largest takes of herring yet recorded for the West Coast in February 
 
 and March 1883 19 
 
 Harbour accommodation Coasting steamers Uncertainty of the season 
 
 Causes assigned 20 
 
 Winter Fishery on the East Coast of Scotland and statistics for the year 
 
 (1883) Sprat Fishery, &c 24 
 
 Table showing total catches over the entire East Coast of Scotland for 
 
 past twenty-six years 25 
 
 Quantities branded for past twenty-six years 25 
 
 Exports from Wick to Continental, Irish, English and Scotch ports for 
 
 past ten years 26 
 
 Total catch at each station from Northumberland to Shetland during 
 
 past ten years 27 
 
 Food of the herring Spawning, Temperature, &c 29 
 
 Allegations against trawlers Remedies Other grievances .... 30 
 Fish Culture versus Trawling Herring spawn The old Mesh 
 
 Statistics for England desirable, and total quantities landed at 
 
 Great Yarmouth 34 
 
 Scotland, the leading Herring Fishery of the World Bounty system 
 
 illustrated 35 
 
 Leading centres in Scotland, and largest exports those of 1882 Com- 
 parative table for Fraserburgh 36 
 
 Curing process The "Brand Question," and merits of cure Stettin 
 
 Report, &c 37 
 
 Distinguishing features and structure of the herring Habitat 
 
 Frequency of spawning process 39 
 
 Commissioners' Report New method of fishing with old nets, &c. . . 41
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE herring fisheries form one of the greatest commercial 
 sea enterprises at home or abroad as a ready source of 
 wealth. Royalty has aided its development, for it is 
 branded from olden time by the legislative care of kings 
 and governments. In England this fishery was pursued 
 at a very early period. Yarmouth was taxed to the amount 
 of ten thousand herrings for his Majesty King Henry I. 
 Edward III. encouraged and fostered this industry with 
 money and wise legislation. In Scotland, also, it has had 
 the patronage of royalty, especially from their Majesties 
 James V. and VI. And to this present time Parliament 
 has passed many Acts and inquiries affecting our herring 
 fisheries. 
 
 The British herring fishery is inaugurated at the Hebrides 
 in the month of May, and closes with the autumn and 
 winter fishery at Yarmouth (with some exceptions in Scot- 
 land). Owing to this, we have a spring, summer, autumn, 
 and winter fishery, and it is also between the winter and 
 spring seasons that a close time for herring should exist. 
 
 Yarmouth is the central fishing station for this great 
 industry on the east coast of England. Wick, Peterhead, 
 and Fraserburgh, are the great fishing stations for the east 
 coast of Scotland, but the best fishing grounds are found 
 on the west coast. 
 
 E. 21. C
 
 4 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Immature herring, which is really summer fry seeking 
 the ocean waters, are found in the Atlantic in vast shoals, 
 and many fishermen traffic with these comparatively worth- 
 less fish as early as the month of April. In the interests of 
 the Lewis fishermen alone a close time is needed, and this 
 is asked to be from the i$th of March to the i$th of 
 May. 
 
 From Lewis in the Hebrides, Skye, Fort William, and 
 other adjacent districts, the boats put out for the herring 
 fishery. Sometimes after toiling all night the boats will 
 come home clean, but more generally the season is favour- 
 able and propitious ; for instance, the records for last year 
 (1882) " Stornoway Herring Fishing" show great success 
 attending the fishermen's efforts. In the beginning of May 
 for that year " shots " of from thirty to forty " crans " were 
 very common, while several were as high as fifty and sixty- 
 three crans. Whereas at Barra, in the Hebrides, very poor 
 " catches " were got, at least for the opening season of that 
 year. Again, as we shall have occasion to notice, a bad 
 opening may end in the same place with a perfect harvest 
 of fish, and vice versd, or the season may prove a very 
 fluctuating one at almost any station or district. Some- 
 times a " total failure," and often a " good season," all 
 through the different months. 
 
 The Orkney and Shetland Isles districts follow suit, 
 passing round the north-east coast until it (the season) 
 reaches the central and main fishing stations for Scotland, 
 which is early in July. 
 
 " The Herring Fishery " now takes the precedence over 
 the " White Fish Fishery," although both are well repre- 
 sented from the east coast fishing stations, and it ought to 
 be noticed that the best bait for catching our white fish is 
 the herring itself.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 5 
 
 Many stations on the east coast are now actively engaged 
 from July to September, and in the latter month the northern 
 districts are practically closed for the season, and the 
 engagements for the east coast fishermen also end in 
 September. For all that, the fishery is still pursued from 
 the various stations south-east of the Firth of Forth, known 
 as the Berwickshire Coast Fishing Stations, and large 
 additions of mixed quality are added to the season's 
 catch. 
 
 About this time the herrings come inshore to spawn 
 along the coasts of Northumberland, and of course the 
 fishermen of this part have their rightful share in the 
 fishery, and inaugurate the autumn and winter east coast 
 of England herring fishery. 
 
 The Tyne trawlers of Newcastle and Hull boats follow 
 out the fishery ; and with reference to the last-named town 
 or fishing district, it may be suitable to mention at this 
 stage a novel invention of " curing herrings by machinery," 
 introduced by Mr. George Leach of Hull, by which he 
 estimates a barrel of herrings can be bloated at a cost of 
 6d., as against is. gd. the present cost. The plan may be 
 described as a successive process of drying, smoking, and 
 cooling, by carriage from the cleaning room to the grills 
 or wire-work trays. By passing up through a series of 
 chambers, and down again in a zig-zag direction, they are 
 operated upon by the agency of heat, smoke, and cold, and 
 on their coming down to the reception table at the end of 
 the first journey, they are ready for packing. 
 
 The " Newcastle kipper " also deserves notice, as it is 
 competing favourably against the celebrated "Yarmouth 
 bloater " in the Metropolis, and was introduced at first 
 by the late Mr. John Woodger, of Newcastle and Great 
 
 Yarmouth. 
 
 C 2
 
 6 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Filey, off Flamborough Head, is the next and most 
 important station, and exclusive of Great Yarmouth there 
 are very large captures taken by the fishermen of Lowes- 
 toft, Folkestone, and Hastings, and boats come from the 
 north of Scotland to share in the English fishery, although 
 there is a winter fishery pursued in Scotland besides that 
 of Yarmouth. 
 
 While in this vicinity we may notice the abundance of 
 " whitebait " found during summer in the Thames, Humber, 
 and other brackish waters near the sea coast, and that it 
 really is the young of the herring or herring fry. 
 
 It ought also to be noticed that the smallest herrings are 
 caught off this coast, known as " longshorers," and are 
 really the finest caught on the east coast of England. The 
 takes of herring by the Tyne and North Shields fishing 
 boats for August, 1882, were so large that the "railway 
 company had to put on extra special trains" for their 
 transit to the Metropolis. 
 
 Coming round to the west coast, vid Solway Firth and 
 Ayrshire districts, we enter a " New Year," and they are 
 still fishing for the best herrings that are found on any part 
 of the British coasts. Loch Broom, Loch Horn, Loch Fyne, 
 and many other places, have only to be mentioned, as the 
 celebrated resorts for the best quality of herring. Indeed, 
 during the month of October for last year (1882), extra- 
 ordinary takes of herring, and such as have not been for 
 many years, were found at Astle Bay, near the head of 
 Ardlamont, Rothsay ; from six hundred to seven hundred 
 crans landed, and for the most part sent to England. 
 
 At Girvan, during January and February, the fishery is 
 still pursued, and from many parts of the opposite coast, 
 including Newhaven, fishermen come and share in the 
 closing hauls for the season, and neither for quality or
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. ^ 
 
 quantity can any fishing grounds equal those in the west 
 of Scotland ; but practically there is no close of the British 
 herring fishery, although the great season is from July to 
 September. 
 
 Yarmouth, the headquarters for the English fishery, 
 usually commences operations at the close of the east coast 
 fishery for Scotland. In the beginning of October, a fleet 
 of, or more than, five hundred vessels set out to the fishing 
 grounds. A Yarmouth lugger is better adapted for the 
 business, and less dangerous, than the open boats of Scot- 
 land, except where the " hauling in " of the nets are con- 
 cerned. This is obviated in the case of Yarmouth boats 
 by using smaller nets, as when searching for fish the men 
 may shoot and re-shoot them quite easily. Nets range 
 from one hundred to one hundred and forty for each boat, 
 and the nets are forty-eight feet long, and thirty feet deep. 
 A Yarmouth lugger may cost from .700 to 1000, and 
 is equipped for cargo and partial curage, carrying barrels, 
 salt, and other essentials. The boats average fifty feet long, 
 and the crew about fifteen men. Both the fishery and the 
 curing processes connected with it are very carefully con- 
 ducted. Buoys, in the shape of small barrels, show the 
 position of the nets, and these buoys are painted according 
 to the ship's name and port to which they belong, and 
 at night lights are used to prevent collisions with the 
 boats. 
 
 Although there is a great and increasing demand for 
 fresh herring, especially in the earlier part of the season, 
 the greater portion of the season's catches is cured. The 
 broken fish is sold in hundreds of tons for manure, and 
 sometimes at as low a figure as 2Or. a ton. The curing- 
 houses usually consist of two interior divisions, one for 
 receiving and cleaning the fish, and the other to smoke
 
 8 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 them. The smoke-house, from bottom to top, has a series 
 of woodwork called " tiers," on which the loaded spits hang, 
 and the women are very dexterous in their manipulation, 
 spitting a last in one day's time, or something like thirteen 
 thousand herrings. Different effects follow both as to 
 colour and curing, according to the length of time the fish 
 are exposed to the action of heat. The names themselves 
 indicate this, as they are called " Bloaters," " Straitsmen," 
 " Reds," and " Blacks." 
 
 At Yarmouth, billets of oak wood are used for smoking 
 the fish, but in the west of Scotland brushwood and furze 
 is made use of, but in all cases of smoked fish oak wood is 
 best for practical purposes, though pine wood is said to 
 give the best flavour ; and a great deal depends on the fish 
 itself, and dispatch in curing them, hence the reason why 
 the boats carry salt and other necessaries with them. The 
 Yarmouth " bloater " is a familiar speciality, only hanging 
 till it swells or " bloats." It is often packed and ready for 
 transmission the night following its capture. 
 
 The Yarmouth fishermen count their herrings by " swill- 
 baskets ; " thus twenty swills make one last, supposed to 
 contain six hundred and sixty herrings in each swill. Again, 
 four herrings make a "warp," thirty-three warps go to a 
 " hundred ; " in other words, one hundred and thirty-two 
 fish. 
 
 Great Yarmouth, if not itself the earliest station of which 
 we have any record, at least occupies the sand-bank which 
 appeared about the same time as the Roman legions. This 
 sand-bank, " Cerdick shore," derives its name from Cerdick 
 the Saxon, who landed here in the year 495. 
 
 Not only were the Romans great lovers of fish, but 
 especially so to a dish of herrings, and their encampment 
 at the mouth of the Yare still remains in proximity to
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 9 
 
 Great Yarmouth. It is said that our ancient fisher- 
 men supplied this " garianonum " or encampment with 
 herring. 
 
 In 670 a tax upon the herring fishery is mentioned, and 
 this tax was commonly known as " herring silver." Another 
 reference in details is dated also with the history of Eve- 
 sham Monastery, founded in 709. We also find that an 
 annual tribute of herrings, varying from thirty thousand to 
 sixty thousand fish, was paid as rent to one Hugh de 
 Montford, of Suffolk Manors. The " free fair " of Yar- 
 mouth, or herring market, was attended by many foreign 
 fishermen,and this " free fair " lasted for forty days, ending 
 November nth. 
 
 We have already noticed the tax paid to King Henry I., 
 and in 1209 we find King John granting a charter to Yar- 
 mouth, on condition that the burgesses provide his Majesty 
 with fifty-seven ships for forty days at their own charge, as 
 often as he should need them, for hostile occasions, and also 
 that they pay an annual fee of 5 5 to farm rent for ever. 
 
 The Abbot of St. Albans was a large patroniser at the 
 herring market, and some idea may be gathered from the 
 fact that his agents employed "seven stout and handsome 
 horses" in carting his herrings for storage. These latter 
 he sold over again at a profit, after the free fair was 
 over. 
 
 Passing by many interesting records, we find that the 
 prefix " Great " was added to Yarmouth in the reign of 
 Henry III. ; and a noble provision in Magna Charta 
 enacted that " all merchants may with security and safety 
 go out of England, and come into England, and stay and 
 pass through England, by land and water, to buy and to 
 sell, without any evil tolls, paying the ancient and rightful 
 dues, except in time of war."
 
 io THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 The Statute of Herrings passed in 1357 enacted, "That 
 all herrings should be bought and sold in the haven of 
 Great Yarmouth during the fair, not at sea, or within a 
 radius of seven miles from the port of Great Yarmouth, 
 and that the last of fresh herring should not be more than 
 40.?., and that two lasts of fresh shotten herring should only 
 be equal to the last of fresh full herring. 
 
 " That all sales should be contracted between sunrise and 
 sunset, that six score should be the hundred of herrings, 
 and the last to be ten thousand. 
 
 " Further, that the merchants of Yarmouth and Metro- 
 polis or elsewhere sell the thousand of herring to the public 
 after the price rate of the last, and that the Yarmouth 
 dealers should sell the last of red herring within forty days, 
 at and not exceeding half a mark of gain above 40^. paid 
 for fresh," &c. 
 
 These provisions show how important was the acknow- 
 ledged position of Yarmouth in its relations to the herring 
 fishery. 
 
 The herrings appear on the Irish coast in June, and just 
 at the close of the mackerel fishery, and they are captured 
 both by the Irish and Manx fishermen. Immense shoals 
 now commence their journey down the west coast of Eng- 
 land, literally darkening the sea with their numbers and 
 density. They have been known to extend a distance of 
 six miles off the Isle of Man. Great quantities are caught 
 in Cardigan Bay, Swansea Bay, and St. Ives Bay. It may 
 be noticed that the west coast of England fishery com- 
 mences about the same time as the east coast of Scotland, 
 and also that the Irish herring fisheries are almost a name ; 
 for instead of working a coast that may be said to super- 
 abound with this fish, they are content to derive supplies 
 from the north of Scotland.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. n 
 
 Sprats (Clupea sprattus] are caught in abundance off the 
 Cornwall coast, and also in the south of England ; and the 
 pilchard fishery of St. Ives is still one of the most im- 
 portant of any connected with the Cluptida family. The 
 season is between August and September, and upwards of 
 sixty years ago large quantities were caught in the Firth 
 of Forth and other estuaries of Scotland. At present this 
 fishery is confined to the coast of Cornwall. The mode of 
 capture is to encircle the fish with a net called the " seine- 
 net," requiring twenty men to each net. Including boats, 
 netting, and gearage, the cost is nearly 1500. When 
 cured for exportation they are carried and laid in " bulk," 
 that is, laid in layers of salt and fish alternately, until the 
 pile is finished. In about a month sufficient oil is extracted 
 to allow of their being packed ; and this, the last process, 
 requires a good deal of pressing before " heading " up the 
 casks. On this account a pressing-machine is used for 
 three times to each barrel or cask before heading it up. 
 The Irish coast and west of England herring fishery can 
 show records of national importance, and charters relative 
 to it, as far back as the year 1202. 
 
 The French herring fishery has a history of its own, and 
 is carried out not only on its own shores, but to a large 
 extent in English waters. Prior to the Anglo-Franco war, 
 more than three hundred French vessels pursued the fishery 
 at Yarmouth Sands, and at this time they were considered 
 the best fishers in the world. 
 
 Open ruptures were common among different nation- 
 alities through fishermen trespassing in each other's waters, 
 and in 1468 a mutual treaty was made between European 
 powers that fishermen should be allowed to fish without 
 hindrance in any water. 
 
 The free fair of Yarmouth drew many French fishermen,
 
 12 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 and others likewise, to vend their produce in England. 
 Many of the traditions connected with Great Yarmouth 
 are strangely linked with names that bespeak French or 
 Norman extraction. 
 
 Peter Chivalier, a Yarmouth merchant, is credited with 
 discovering how to cure herrings in salt, and his method 
 was followed up by one Peter de Ferars. Louis VII. of 
 France passed an edict that only mackerel and salted 
 herrings might be purchased at Estampes ; this was in the 
 year 1155. 
 
 It was at Kiel Bay that the food of the herring was 
 popularly demonstrated to be of a certain kind. Although 
 M. Mobins is not the only naturalist who has asserted this, 
 still we are indebted to the French coast fishery for those 
 facts which relate to herring food. In the year 1383 im- 
 mense shoals were caught off the French coasts, and some- 
 times the schools of herring are so large that the boats are 
 unable to take all the herring which " strike." 
 
 During the season of 1880, which was a remarkable one 
 in all quarters, one French fisherman drew thirty-five lasts, 
 and it is asserted that another on one occasion caught more 
 than fifty lasts, or 700,000 herrings. 
 
 And the takes of herring by French fishermen for 1 880-81 
 are recorded to be above the usual average. 
 
 The sprat or sardine fishery of France is the most ex- 
 tensive of any that seek that species of the herring ; and 
 young herring-fry and pilchards form a large percentage of 
 the true sardine ; and it may be admitted that, in other 
 points connected with fish culture and fish acclimatization, 
 we should do well to follow up the footsteps of France. 
 
 The herrings appear on the north-western shores of Ice- 
 land from May to September ; sometimes [later, never 
 sooner, or very rarely so, and always found in September
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 13 
 
 in the eastern fjords ; they are never found on the south 
 and south-west coasts. 
 
 The shoals, in their migration to the north and north- 
 east coasts of Iceland, sweep into those fjords possessing 
 deep water and feeding properties, and so we find them 
 abundantly in such fjords as Eskjfjord or Seydisfjord. 
 
 The fishery is carried on in these fjords, and principally 
 by Norwegian fishermen, who stay for the season, curing 
 the fish at the various stations or wooden sheds erected for 
 the purpose. 
 
 The Norwegian boats are larger than the Icelandic boats, 
 but yet smaller than those of the east coast of Scotland. 
 
 The fishing is by means of the seine-net, and in large 
 takes the ends of the net are anchored ashore, when the 
 operations may now be compared to the pilchard fishery 
 of Cornwall, the fish being taken out as they can cure 
 them. The nets vary in size to suit the varying depths, 
 with a mesh of half an inch. 
 
 The best kinds of white fish are found here in conjunc- 
 tion with the herring, besides many of the numerous enemies 
 that pursue the shoals, such as sharks, " herring whalers," 
 catfish, wolf-fish, sea-gulls, &c., &c., and by the end of the 
 season, or at least in September, herring nearly one pound 
 in weight are taken, and such usually measure fourteen 
 inches in length. It ought to be noticed that medium 
 herring, or even the small ones, are preferable in quality. 
 
 As stated, the Icelanders do not follow out the herring 
 fishery, and although Nonvay takes a leading share in this 
 fishery, the east coast is represented in these waters through 
 the firm of Messrs. Slimon, Leith. 
 
 Shetland is realising the growing importance of the 
 herring fishery, for although they pursued the cod fishery 
 with skiffs in comparison to the open boats, or even the
 
 14 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 double-decked mainland Scotch boats, they have not only 
 increased the number and size of the latter, but solely with 
 the view to prosecute the herring fishery ; as an instance, 
 the following statistics will show this. In 1880, the number 
 of boats was increased to 217. The success attending the 
 fishermen for that year led to an increase of boats, which 
 rose to 276 as against 217 for the year 1881 ; also 125 large 
 decked boats as against 72 ; and in the year 1879 Shetland 
 only possessed six large herring boats : this favourable 
 account for this district is still on the increase. The terrible 
 north-west gale which broke over the Shetland district on 
 July 20, 1 88 1, cost them the loss often boats and fifty- 
 eight lives ; but as many will remember, the season was a 
 bad one all through ; many valuable lives were lost, for on 
 the east coast alone not less than one hundred and thirty- 
 four fishermen perished within sight of home and friends. 
 A fisherman's wife, writing about Shetland, says, " Instead 
 of a fund for widows and orphans, could something not be 
 done to save us being made such ? " 
 
 The " haafs," or deep-sea boats of Shetland, are really 
 what we termed them, " skiffs," barely able to carry 60 cwt. 
 of fish ; they resemble the Norwegian yawl, but having a 
 greater spring from stem to stern. 
 
 Round the many points and promontories, and between 
 the islands, numerous and dangerous tideways run at a 
 fearful velocity. " Cutting the string " means crossing these 
 tideways, and this is only attempted at slack tides ; when it 
 has to be performed at full tides, the danger will to some 
 extent be understood ; the livers of the fish are crushed to 
 prevent the waves breaking called " lioom ; " when this so- 
 called " cutting the string " is not attempted, then they 
 scud before the wind under bare poles. 
 
 It would prove an advantage to all connected were the
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 15 
 
 jacket-net more universally adopted at the herring fishing, 
 as it saves time by telling whether herring are about, and 
 at what depth, and a thermometer is also attached to show 
 the temperature of the water. 
 
 Fishermen would be better prepared for any emergency 
 if they would only provide themselves with a portable life- 
 jacket, which could be inflated before taking the harbour 
 in a storm. 
 
 Although the Norwegian schooners run to Iceland for 
 herrings, their own fisheries, exclusive of Sweden and 
 Denmark, are of considerable importance and value. The 
 jagts or yawls fish in the numerous fjords, which in some 
 cases extend inland for a hundred miles, with frowning 
 mountains overhanging their sides, or sweeping cataracts 
 disgorging themselves into the basin below, and sea-gulls 
 helping themselves to the finny wealth from these waters. 
 The depth close inshore of some fjords is one hundred 
 fathoms, and even deeper in some cases. 
 
 The creeks of the west coast are subject to sudden 
 squalls, which, through the intervening mountainous back- 
 ground, sweep down unperceived. The herring shoals 
 sweep into and from these fjords proceeding towards 
 Stavangar and the Naze. From Bodo and along the chain 
 of islands known as Loffoden Islands the fishery is prose- 
 cuted, and as a feeding ground these fjords resemble our 
 own west coast of Scotland. 
 
 Along the Swedish coast there are also rocky islands of 
 varying length and breadth, with a fisherman's house upon 
 one or other of them, and a creek or fissure serving the 
 purpose of a harbour. The fishery is pursued at various 
 seasons of the year from the Cattegat grounds into the 
 northern Atlantic ; but there are very important stations 
 and fishing districts along the south coast, and the sprat
 
 16 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 and anchovy fisheries form an independent nucleus of 
 wealth. 
 
 Their mode of curing is peculiar and unique. Besides 
 curing sprats (d la sardine), we may get herrings skinned 
 and boned, or skinned, boned, and marinated, that is, cooked 
 and potted either in vinegar or glacialine, or we can get 
 the " brack-water herring " done up in the same manner. 
 
 Perhaps we should state here that these coasts exemplify 
 a curious feature in marine life, viz. herrings living in fresh 
 water, being unable, through physical features of the coast, 
 to reach the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 There are also large companies in Norway and Sweden 
 which cure and export herrings on a very large scale, such 
 as the Stavanger Preserving Company, Nordlands Pre- 
 serving Company, Bodo, Norway, &c. 
 
 Before the eighteenth century Swedish records show 
 that their home and foreign trade surpassed the Scottish 
 fishery. Vast quantities were boiled down for oil, and this 
 over and above an immense quantity consumed at home 
 besides exportation. The same is truer still in regard to 
 Holland, for even before the sixteenth century their herring 
 fishery was the best developed and most extensive one 
 known, until it was prohibited in 1625 from fishing off our 
 coasts unless provided with a royal licence. About this 
 time a British Fishing Association was suggested by Coke 
 as a mutual aid in withstanding the encroachments from 
 Dutch and French fishermen. Notwithstanding both the 
 Dutch and French fleets continued prosecuting the fishery 
 in sight of Yarmouth, and the Dutch fleet were guarded 
 by war-ships. The war between France and Holland was 
 the first perceptible step that led to a decrease in her 
 fisheries ; this was in 1702, and through which she lost four 
 hundred of large sized Dutch busses.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 17 
 
 The invention of curing herrings is attributed to one 
 Beukelsz, who died in 1397, an d it is recorded that the 
 Emperor Charles V. paid a royal compliment by visiting 
 his tomb. 
 
 It seems as if the Clupeida family had found out the 
 truth, for some time back, in that term which is so well 
 known, viz. " Amsterdam is built on herring bones." At 
 least the herring fishery of Holland is not what it used to 
 be, principally owing to the scarcity of fish, yet it was 
 Holland who inaugurated and developed this fishery into 
 a system of commerce, though there is good reason for 
 giving equal or even pre-historic precedence to Scotland, 
 who allowed it to decline. 
 
 The Dutch are famed for the scrupulous care in every 
 incident connected with the fishery and curing operations. 
 They have two kinds of fish and two kinds of salt ; this 
 latter commodity is brought from Spain, the barrels must 
 be of a certain kind, the mode of eviscerating must be up 
 to the standard, and from beginning to end every detail 
 must be complied with ere one officer would dare to stamp 
 them as Dutch cured herrings. 
 
 We might notice here that the word " herring " was 
 derived from the German " Heer," an army, in relation to 
 the moving shoals in their progress or migration. 
 
 At Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Carolina and Virginia, 
 and other parts of the coast of America, an extensive 
 herring fishery is followed out, arid the same physical 
 aspects and feeding properties through the rivers and other 
 agencies mark out these grounds as a resort for all kinds 
 offish. 
 
 The season for herring begins in April, when the first 
 " run " arrives, named " Granville fish," from the course 
 they take past that township. The May herring are spent
 
 1 8 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 fish, and, of course, inferior in quality. The season lasts to 
 October, when, between the early takes of large herring, 
 the celebrated Nova Scotia sprats form the closing hauls. 
 Herrings of superior quality are found in the numerous 
 bays of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland during summer 
 and autumn, but, as we find on our own coasts, and, indeed, 
 more or less everywhere, the herring shoals will disappear 
 for a season, or seasons, invariably returning again to their 
 old haunts. The sprats or herrings are cured by smoking, 
 and one speciality in this class of cured fish is to remove 
 the bones before drying them. 
 
 The herring species are extremely large in the North 
 Atlantic waters. The Clupea elongata measures 15 inches 
 in length and over 5 inches at its broadest part, and these, 
 perhaps, are the extreme limits. They are very abundant 
 during the season, and the smelts (Osmerus viridescens) are 
 so abundant during the winter that they are invariably 
 used for manuring purposes, notwithstanding their delicious 
 flavour and edible qualities. Splendid specimens of the 
 genus Alosa tyrannus are found here, and, if possible, they 
 are even more extensively used to enrich the earth. The 
 best specimens of our white fish are found here, and, con- 
 sidering the quality of their food so largely represented by 
 the herring species, we need not search further for reasons. 
 It is recorded that in the year 1796 a vast quantity of 
 herring was frozen into a solid mass in one of the weirs of 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
 As we have stated, the smallest herrings are those 
 caught off the Norfolk coast, known as " long-shorers," and 
 the largest specimens are found along and off the coasts of 
 Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador, and vicinity of 
 North America. The herring is widely distributed, abound- 
 ing in the White Sea, Baltic, Zuider Zee, and in the Black
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 19 
 
 and Caspian Seas. The Persians call their herring royal 
 fish. It is a familiar favourite on all parts of the British 
 coast, through Europe, and all parts of the northern 
 hemisphere. 
 
 Large quantities of special cured herring are exported 
 direct to our Australian colonies, and it is an expressed 
 wish from the Antipodes that some effort for introducing 
 the Clupea harengus be made. 
 
 Abundant as the herring is, there is good reason to 
 believe that it may be made a common commodity 
 wherever the conditions necessary to its habits exist ; these 
 conditions do exist particularly around the British coast, 
 and very specially in the western islands of Scotland. 
 
 The herring is most abundant on the British coasts, in 
 comparison to any other coast throughout the world, and 
 perhaps this is the cause above all others why Great 
 Britain possesses the best herring fisheries in the world. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 IN the district of Girvan there is a small village named 
 Ballantrae, and the fishing-bed is on the " Ballantrae banks." 
 Upon these banks the herring come regularly, and have done 
 so for centuries, during the month of February, as a rule. 
 This year (1883) has been the culminating point in the 
 records of that district. Clouds of gannets darkened the 
 immediate vicinity, or forced attention as they swooped 
 to the surface of the water, and, rising with their captured 
 fish, made way for others to repeat the process, in their 
 journeys to and from " Ailsa Craig." 
 
 For the week commencing February 28th and beginning 
 E. 21. D
 
 20 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 of March, or, at least, not more than five days altogether, 
 the total catch was "32,000 baskets," and to despatch the 
 fresh herring, 500 railway trucks were linked on to a series 
 of special trains. This is only for one week, and brings us 
 already into the spring fishery, although we have yet to 
 refer to the winter fishery. More than fifty carts were 
 employed in taking the fish to the railway stations. 
 
 Some idea of the inconveniences resulting to our fisher- 
 men through a felt want of proper harbour accommodation 
 may be gathered from this district. 
 
 Owing to the unsuitability for fishermen landing in this 
 harbour they land on the beach, and when a heavy surf is 
 rolling, this is, of course, impossible. To the credit of a 
 few gentlemen interested in the fishermen's welfare, a 
 machine or engine was constructed by which the boats are 
 now drawn on to the landing-stage in safety. Notwith- 
 standing these humane agencies, loss of life and property 
 is frequent, and at the close of this week which we have 
 just recorded, two Ardrishaig boats, while deeply loaded 
 and returning from the Ballantrae banks to Girvan, ran on 
 to the " Whelk rocks," a very dangerous reef that ought to 
 be marked by a cage-beacon ; we are sorry to add that 
 three of the crews lost their lives, and only at some risk 
 the rest were saved. 
 
 A cruising steamer with an officer from the Fishery 
 Board does good service here by keeping a free course on 
 the grounds where smacks anchor and cause obstruction. 
 
 The west coast herring make splendid kippers, and the 
 produce of this class of cured fish comes from the Storno- 
 way district ; their fishery ends in November. 
 
 Messrs. James Methven and Company, Leith, used to 
 take the responsibility of forwarding the kippers and cured 
 fish to foreign ports, but, finding this too heavy for
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 21 
 
 them, these gentlemen were forced to charter powerful 
 steamers for this purpose, besides an arrangement that 
 the Baltic line of steamers shall call at Stornoway and 
 other fishing ports on the west coast during the season, 
 and convey the fish to Stettin, Dantzig, Konigsberg, Riga, 
 and St. Petersburg. Besides these large steamers, smaller 
 craft convey shipments to Glasgow, vid Hamburg, and 
 other places, and Norwegian schooners even come for this 
 purpose. In June for the year 1882 one steamer alone 
 shipped upwards of 21,000 barrels of cured herring for 
 Stettin. The smaller steamers referred to bring a large 
 percentage of the herring to Stornoway in " bulk," to be 
 gutted and otherwise prepared for the continental markets. 
 The last shipment, in November, from Stornoway for 
 Baltic ports was upwards of 1 500 barrels of cured herring. 
 
 As a proof how fluctuating and uncertain the fishery 
 may be at almost any station, we may select the present 
 district 
 
 At Stornoway, in May (1882), we stated that some boats 
 realized from fifty to sixty-three "crans." In the be- 
 ginning of June very poor catches were recorded, though 
 some boats were more fortunate. Again, herrings were 
 reported to have left the Ayrshire coast for a time, as they 
 were met in with at the sound of Killbrannan ; but one 
 month later (September) a Troon boat came into Ayr 
 Harbour loaded to the gunwale with a take of herring. It 
 was estimated that she had forty maise (or 20,000 herring) 
 of medium size and quality. 
 
 Wick, once the celebrated centre for Scotland, is a 
 peculiar example on this point. In 1794, and even within 
 the memory of some still alive, herrings were so plentiful 
 that the land had to be manured with them. The selling 
 price at Bo'ness, Firth of Forth, was 6d. per barrel. 
 
 D 2
 
 22 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Even a strong wind was sufficient to strew the beach with 
 fish. 
 
 Some authorities assert that the diminution of the 
 herring fishery is caused by the winter fishery for sprats 
 and young herring, and that the same reason may be 
 applied to our white fish ; and the splendid fishery in the 
 Firth of Forth, extending at one time to Kincardineshire, is 
 cited as an instance how we can disperse the white fish by 
 exhausting the herring shoals. 
 
 As good authorities assert that it is impossible to affect 
 the herring, or cause any apparent diminution in the 
 average takes for the season, as any differences may 
 readily be accounted for by the season itself, such as 
 stormy weather, not to mention the casualties that too 
 frequently happen through loss of nets, boat, and even life 
 itself. But since we have to close this order with the 
 winter fishery, it may serve some purpose to examine the 
 facts, and leave opinions alone in the meanwhile. The 
 principal centres for the winter fishery on the east coast 
 are Wick, Anstruther, and Firth of Forth. The Firth of 
 Forth closes in January, and the other districts named 
 begin the winter fishery in this month. 
 
 The statistical tables are the main guides in determining 
 our question, and as these are appended in full for some 
 years past, we may state as a broad conclusion that where 
 a decrease is shown at one district, an increase is shown at 
 another. For this year (1883) about eight yawls, which 
 represented the winter fishery in Firth of Forth, reported 
 very poor fishing indeed ; but then the bulk of the New- 
 haven fleet were at Girvan on the west coast, or Anstruther 
 on the. east coast, and for both stations large takes and 
 good prices are recorded. At Wick (1883) the catch was 
 very small, and for the whole season up to March it records 
 1990 crans against 4693 crans of corresponding date of
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 23 
 
 last year (1882). Now, although the comparison is very 
 disparaging between this and last year, yet, since the 
 inauguration of the winter fishery, the number for this 
 year is, almost to a cran, "the number for any previous 
 year." 
 
 This is very important in proving no diminution in the 
 fishery itself, but, if possible, an increase, or the numbers of 
 last year mean nothing, and, as we have tried to show, a 
 decrease at one station may mean an increase at another. 
 
 We will now subjoin the tables for the district of 
 Anstruther up to the year 1882. For this year (1883) a 
 very promising commencement was made, and English 
 buyers were early on the ground, and these were even 
 more numerous than any previous year, representing 
 London, Filey, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Lowestoft, 
 North Shields, Scarborough, Bridlington Quay, &c., and 
 three of the principal English railway companies had 
 representatives at Anstruther. 
 
 For the week ending January 2/th the returns read 
 
 Monday 40 crans, price 52^. to 8oj. per cran. 
 
 Tuesday 200 501. 53*. 
 
 Wednesday .... 150 5&r. 
 
 Thursday (Stormy). 
 
 Friday 102 $"js. 6os. 
 
 Saturday (Stormy) . . 2j 6oj. 
 
 A mixed fleet of 185 boats was by the i/th of February 
 reduced to 130, and these landed 1050 crans, realizing a 
 sum of 3000. One boat had nearly fifty crans, and re- 
 ceived for its cargo 130. 
 
 The 24th of February was the practical close of this 
 fishery, owing to general stormy weather, but the details 
 were very satisfactory for that week, and may be stated in 
 sequence.
 
 24 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Monday . 
 
 8 1 boats 
 
 400 
 
 Tuesday . . 
 
 . 194 
 
 1,288 
 
 Wednesday . 
 
 . IOO 
 
 400 
 
 Thursday . . 
 
 . 160 
 
 500 
 
 Friday . . 
 
 . 91 
 
 120 
 
 Saturday . 
 
 . 24 
 
 6 
 
 400 crans, highest price 5 2if> 
 
 37*- &/. 
 38*. 
 33-f- 
 45*. 
 
 Total catch for the week . 2,714 
 
 Total catch for the season, 8866 crans, or about 1650 
 crans above the quantity landed at the corresponding date 
 of last year. 
 
 Now this is very satisfactory, and reads all the more 
 favourably when stormy weather is taken into account. 
 
 CLOSE of the HERRING FISHING at ANSTRUTHER, May 1882, and 
 COMPARATIVE TABLES for the SAME DISTRICT. 
 
 Crans. Crans. 
 
 1873 . . 9,800 1878 . . 10,500 
 
 1874 . . 20,000 1879 . . 2,160 
 
 1875 . . 8,700 I880 . . 8,630 
 
 1876 . . 5,640 1881 . . 16,950 
 
 1877 . . 2,500 1882 . . 13,380 
 
 There were nearly 1500 boats at this district in 1882, 
 and, in consequence of competition among English buyers, 
 the prices averaged 4is. per cran. The inshore grounds 
 are proving more remunerative than on former occasions, 
 and the quality superior. 
 
 Taking the winter fishery as a whole, in the upper parts 
 of the Firth of Forth and northern districts they are very 
 good, except for this year (1883) at Wick, which is the 
 worst season they have yet dealt with. 
 
 The take of sprats from Firth of Forth in 1881 amounted 
 to 13,110 crans, valued at ,2786; in 1880 the take was 
 14,500 crans, and only realised 2175. 
 
 The chief centre for the sprat or Garvie fishery is in the 
 Beauly Firth, and extremely heavy catches were taken in
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 November, 1882, as some boats had 25 crans, averaging 
 80 to each boat, and, as near as possible, for the whole 
 season, 4500. 
 
 Such figures may prove very tantalising to those persons 
 who hold that the sprat is really a herring, and, either way 
 granted, it forms a very important item in our winter 
 herring fishery. 
 
 TOTAL CATCH of HERRING OVER the ENTIRE EAST COAST of SCOTLAND for 
 TWENTY-SIX YEARS ; LEWIS and BARRA EARLY FISHING INCLUDED. 
 
 
 Crans. 
 
 1857 . 
 
 . 329,251 
 
 1858 . 
 
 393,035 
 
 1859 . 
 
 302,943 
 
 1860 . 
 
 . 463,100 
 
 1861 . 
 
 485,645 
 
 1862 . 
 
 . 520,280 
 
 1863 . 
 
 . 439,210 
 
 1864 . 
 
 . 432,064 
 
 1865 . 
 
 395,157 
 
 1866 . 
 
 . 413,065 
 
 1867 . 
 
 . 474,098 
 
 1868 . 
 
 . 366,068 
 
 1869 . 
 
 403,633 
 
 
 Crans. 
 
 1870 . 
 
 596,421 
 
 1871 . 
 
 . 562,865 
 
 1872 . 
 
 562,737 
 
 1873 . 
 
 . 7H,7I7* 
 
 1874 - 
 
 . 720,964* 
 
 1875 
 
 . 655,606 
 
 1876 . 
 
 . 406,440 
 
 1877 . 
 
 561,439 
 
 1878 . 
 
 618,597 
 
 1879 
 
 . 516,406 
 
 1880 . 
 
 930,307* 
 
 1881 . 
 
 675,107 
 
 1882 . 
 
 730,723* 
 
 TABLE SHOWING QUANTITES BRANDED in WICK DURING the LAST TWENTY- 
 SIX YEARS up to 3Oth September in each year. 
 
 Years. 
 
 ass 
 
 Years. 
 
 Z 
 
 1857 
 
 48,612 
 
 1870 
 
 38,700 
 
 1858 
 
 54,348 
 
 1871 
 
 45,7oo 
 
 I59 
 i860 
 
 50,256 
 60,559 
 
 1872 
 1873 
 
 42,000 
 55,ooo 
 
 1861 
 
 67,949 
 
 1874 
 
 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 
 77,564 
 80,000 
 67,000 
 
 1875 
 1876 
 1877 
 
 54 ',000 
 36,500 
 31,600 
 
 
 57,000 
 
 1878 
 
 60,000 
 
 1866 
 
 56,700 
 
 1879 
 
 53,450 
 
 1867 
 
 66,450 
 
 1880 
 
 77,108 
 
 1868 
 1869 
 
 21,200 
 63,000 
 
 1881 
 1882 
 
 43,046 
 48,280
 
 26 
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
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 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
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 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 29 
 
 The herring is a very voracious feeder, and, according to 
 M. Mobins, the principal food of those found in the Baltic 
 and German Ocean consists of some kinds of minute 
 crustaceans of the order of Copepoda. 
 
 In February, 1872, a number of herrings were caught in 
 Kiel Bay at about 240,000 herrings daily for three weeks, 
 and in almost every one that M. Mobins opened, the 
 stomach was found loaded with Copepoda belonging almost 
 entirely to one species (Temora longicornis). By careful 
 counting the number present in one case was found to be 
 60,895, and another herring contained 19,170. The upper 
 surface of the water swarmed with these animalculae, and 
 could easily have been taken with fine nets in literal 
 thousands. A very low estimate was assumed from these 
 facts, namely, that allowing each of the 240,000 herrings to 
 have devoured daily 10,000 Copepoda, this would give for 
 one day a consumption of 2400 millions, and in three 
 weeks 43,000 millions. 
 
 The roe of an ordinary sized herring is allowed to con- 
 tain about 33,000 eggs, and the time taken for hatching 
 the eggs depends both upon the season and the tempera- 
 ture of the water. Hatching operations seldom take longer 
 than one month, and the young fry are invariably produced 
 from the eggs in three weeks' time. 
 
 As with all our marine fish, temperature has a very 
 important function in the growth and development of each 
 species, and observation is showing a close relation between 
 large or small catches and varying temperatures. Thus a ' 
 low temperature is conducive to large catches, and a high 
 temperature to small ones, and if the thermometer registers 
 the sea temperature to be at or about 55*5, average catches 
 may be expected, other things being equal. 
 
 One of the most serious allegations against trawlers is,
 
 30 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 that they both disturb and destroy immense quantities of 
 herring spawn, and a very recent instance was cited by the 
 Cockenzie fishermen and laid for redress before the Lord 
 Advocate at Edinburgh, urging him to draw attention to 
 this and other grievances they have to suffer. This is a 
 public question, and may be dealt with at some length. 
 The allegation was that a trawler brought up an immense 
 quantity of herring spawn, and that it was sold for 
 " manure." This is an old story, for the same complaints 
 were made against the English trawlers, and at a com- 
 mission of inquiry appointed by Government, it was alleged 
 by a South Shields fisherman that he had drawn up himself 
 three and a half tons of fish-spawn, and further, that he 
 has seen a ton and a half of herring spawn offered for 
 manuring purposes. 
 
 It is important to remember that up to the present date 
 there is no diminution, but, as we think, rather an increase 
 in the herring fishery ; for all that it behoves us, for the 
 future interest of our sea wealth, to make the strictest 
 inquiries from competent sources and legislate accordingly. 
 More than fifty tons of herring have been taken at one 
 haul, and, considering the constant drain at all times of the 
 year by the varied enemies of the herring, there is reason 
 enough to feel anxious about the future welfare of our 
 herring fishery. 
 
 The report of the Fishery Commissioners issued in 1879, 
 estimates that 120,000,000,000 of herrings are annually 
 destroyed by men, birds and fishes around the British 
 coast, but that 1,200,000,000,000 eggs are deposited ,in the 
 sea as a balance against this draught. 
 
 It is a fact that fifty years ago large quantities of fine 
 herring could be found as far up the Firth of Forth as 
 Alloa, and the curing troughs still remain along the coast
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 31 
 
 as a sad evidence ; but it could not have been the trawlers 
 who prevented herring ascending the Forth, seeing that 
 they are a recent innovation on the east coast fishery for 
 Scotland, and it is interesting to find that the Newhaven 
 fishermen have launched a trawler for themselves, as of all, 
 perhaps, they had most reason to complain. That the 
 trawl will bring up herring spawn there can be no doubt, 
 but, as a rule, it cannot do so, for herring prefer spawning 
 among rocks or upon coarse ground, where the trawl 
 cannot go without injuring itself. 
 
 Again, trawlers assert that our flat fishes are the most 
 voracious feeders upon herring spawn, and that, as they 
 capture a large proportion of these fish, they are really 
 conferring a benefit upon our fishermen by its use. 
 
 A counter allegation was, that the use of circle trawls 
 instead of ordinary beam-trawls in the sprat fishery enabled 
 the fishers to capture young herring, and that the destruc- 
 tion of these young fry was fatal to the white fish fisheries 
 and conducive to a diminution of the herring themselves. 
 
 A very important point comes out in connection with 
 the Firth of Forth, and one which we have already alluded 
 to, namely, that herring became scarce in this district 
 before the introduction of trawlers. If it can be shown 
 that there is no decrease on other parts of our coast where 
 trawling operations are carried out, then the question is so 
 far satisfactorily settled, and we think the statistics are on 
 this side. But there are some very important reasons why 
 specified limits as to the kind of trawl to be used, and the 
 place or grounds to be fished over should be rigidly main- 
 tained. The law at present seems to be a dead letter in 
 many points, and this is chiefly owing to a felt want for 
 marine police. It is a frequent occurrence for trawlers to 
 run right through the nets, and it is at any time dangerous
 
 32 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 for them to be in the vicinity of open boats using either 
 nets or lines. 
 
 Trawling cannot be abolished without an international 
 convention, nor is it generally desired that it should be 
 even without this ; but that some effective measures which 
 will meet all cases is requisite, and urgently demanded, the 
 baneful system of coopering alone will show. A cooper is 
 a floating public-house, under the colour of a fishing smack. 
 The worst is that these bumboats sell or barter poisoned 
 drink in return for fish ; and cruel evidence has been 
 proved against this villainous traffic, where in many cases 
 not only do they take all the money first, but have as often 
 succeeded in securing fish, nets, gearage, and even the 
 boats too, in return for a maddening drink that has made 
 some victims leap overboard through its effects. Evidence 
 of a worse nature than this was brought against foreign 
 fishermen, chiefly Belgian and Dutch trawlers, to the effect 
 that not only were the nets purposely run through, but the 
 warp was cut in a deliberate manner by an instrument 
 called the " devil." This instrument resembles the end of 
 a huge scythe, and when fixed at the stern of the ship it 
 can be used with terrible effects to the helpless fishermen. 
 
 International protection is both needed and asked for as 
 a guarantee against these nefarious proceedings, for the 
 regulations at present existing only apply to territorial 
 waters, and the application of the law is the fault at issue. 
 Even where ordinary grievances prevail fishermen can raise 
 an action for damages, but as a rule they have neither 
 opportunity nor means to do so. Some useful remedies 
 have been often suggested, such as empowering our coast- 
 guardsmen at their respective stations to act on the com- 
 plaint of a fishing crew, or to have at least four swift 
 cruisers in the German Ocean, representing England, France,
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 33 
 
 Belgium, and Holland. Also, with a proposal to adopt 
 fish culture in some of our favourite estuaries and firths, 
 that trawling be entirely abolished from such districts, &c. 
 
 It is now five hundred years since a petition was pre- 
 sented to the English Parliament against the use of a 
 machine which not only retained all kinds of fish, both 
 small and great, in the meshes of its net, but also by its 
 iron supports destroyed fish, spawn, &c., "to the great 
 damage of the whole commons of the kingdom." Trawling, 
 then, has not yet reduced the fish supply, and it only now 
 remains to guard against this. 
 
 Much of the so-called herring spawn has been proved to 
 be gelatinous bodies of marine zoophytes and ascidians, 
 or the spawn of cuttle-fishes, but, as we stated, herring eggs 
 have been brought up by the trawl. 
 
 The old legal mesh for the herring net was I inch 
 square from knot to knot, but since 1868 fishermen have 
 been allowed to use any size of mesh they please. It is 
 desirable that the old law of 1809 be re-enacted, because a 
 small mesh will catch small, and therefore young, herrings ; 
 at the same time it can only choke large herrings without 
 catching them. There are very many points which require 
 overhauling in the interests of the fishermen alone. And 
 there are some which require redress in the interests of the 
 public. For instance, boat owners and others " sailing by 
 the share " must proceed in the first instance to a custom- 
 house, and sign their respective contracts before the officials. 
 The charges for taking depositions as to damage or loss at 
 sea should be from some other source than the sufferers 
 themselves. 
 
 Great damage is done to nettage by lost anchors ripping 
 them open, and these hidden snares are unintentionally 
 encouraged by the Board of Trade, for heavy penalties
 
 34 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 bind the salvors to deliver "swiped anchors" to the 
 Receiver of Wreck. Now, as very few owners return to 
 look for lost anchors, and the amount given by the Board 
 of Trade for salvage is extremely small, it follows that 
 very few take the trouble to clear the grounds, notwith- 
 standing the general loss continually accruing. 
 
 Again, if statistics are to be taken at all, they should be 
 dealt with generally all round the coast, either in the order 
 of the fisheries themselves, or commencing in the north 
 and ending in the south, or where practicable. Statistics 
 for the east coast of England are always awanting, and 
 when given very unreliable as a total estimate to the 
 growing importance of the English coast fishery. 
 
 The spring herring fishery at Lowestoft is a recent 
 addition to this industry, but usually the largest deliveries 
 of the season are landed at Yarmouth. It is asserted that 
 in 1853 upwards of 10,000 lasts of herrings were cured at 
 Great Yarmouth. And it is within the estimate to allow 
 the yearly average to be 15,000 lasts delivered at Great 
 Yarmouth alone for the past thirty years. One authority 
 assumes the grand total for the past thirteen years to be at 
 least not less than 2,772,000,000 herrings, or 210,000 lasts. 
 
 Before noticing the leading fishery and particular features 
 connected with it, a novel and very pleasant pastime is 
 offered to anglers through the open facilities in catching 
 herrings. A few enterprising individuals have even sup- 
 plied the markets by angling operations over the side of a 
 boat, and others have taken them from the shore itself. 
 The reason why this mode of fishing is not more general 
 than it deserves to be, is the erroneous ideas existing about 
 the fishing apparatus and habits of the herring. Herrings 
 are a surface-swimming fish, and the great point to suc- 
 cessful angling is the smallness and brightness of the hooks
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 35 
 
 used, as the herring possesses a very small mouth. In the 
 north of Scotland some anglers fix the hooks from the end 
 of ordinary stocking wires, and these wires are about twelve 
 inches distant from each other on the line. No bait is 
 required, but the hook must be small and bright. 
 
 PART III. 
 THE LEADING HERRING FISHERY OF THE WORLD. 
 
 As the herring fisheries of Scotland are the leading 
 fisheries in the world, we may infer from this fact alone 
 that there must be gigantic modes of carrying on the 
 business in the mighty waters. 
 
 The curers are the real promoters of this industry ; in 
 some cases they even provide the boats and gearage ; but 
 arrangements are made long before the season begins, 
 notwithstanding the fact that the fishery is to a large 
 extent uncontrollable by regulations. Thus, though boat- 
 owners may bind themselves to deliver a certain number of 
 crans at a given time in the season, it is after all a proba- 
 bility that these very men may have the " cleanest " boats 
 for that season. 
 
 The " bounty system " is a mode of advancing money, 
 and as often a question of retaining it, and cannot be 
 compared to the "share" principle, where the fishermen 
 have a better compensation for their arduous work. Boat- 
 owners try to strike as good terms as possible, and by 
 stating an agreement entered into last January (1883) for 
 the ensuing season, we may illustrate this. 
 
 E. 21. E
 
 36 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Herring Fishing Engagements at Droughty Ferry, January, 
 1883. 
 
 Twenty-one boats, with the crews already made up, are 
 arranged to fish as follows : Montrose district, ten boats ; 
 Aberdeen district, nine boats : the other two to fish between 
 or on the coast bounded by the Tay and Montrose. Terms, 
 ^"45 of bounty, ,1 per cran of fresh fish for a complement 
 of 200 crans, and 1 5 s. per cran for salted herrings. Aries, 
 money or perquisites in addition to each boat's crew, 2. 
 In the case of the Montrose boats the herrings will only be 
 considered fresh when landed at I A.M. In the case of the 
 Aberdeen boats the herring will only be considered fresh 
 when landed at " midnight." After these hours the prices 
 allowed will be the same as is allowed for salted fish, &c.* 
 
 The highest prices are paid for the early takes in every 
 district ; and as it would be noticed, the men are bound 
 down to a given time, even should their boats be so loaded 
 that they cannot get in. 
 
 Enormous quantities of early fresh fish are trucked 
 immediately to English markets, or partially cured and 
 shipped to German ports, till at length the curing yards 
 become a scene of life and activity that can only be com- 
 pared to the herrings themselves in their onward progress 
 beneath the waves. 
 
 The largest quantity exported from any Scotch port as 
 a cargo was that of last season (1882) by the ss. Silesia, 
 from Peterhead, with 3075 barrels of cured herrings, and 
 at present Peterhead and Fraserburgh are the leading 
 centres of the east coast for Scotland, just as Great Yar- 
 mouth and Lowestoft are in England. 
 
 For Fraserburgh the season's cure of 1882 is very close 
 
 * It may be stated that the bounty is better this year by about ^10 
 than on any previous occasion.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES 
 
 37 
 
 on the numbers of 1881, but both the vessels employed 
 and the exportations show an increase, thus 1881, vessels 
 employed, 158 ; 1882, vessels employed, 173. Or to tabu- 
 late it in fuller form, thus : 
 
 Fraserburgh. 
 
 
 Fraserburgh. 
 
 
 Season 1882. 
 
 
 Season 1881. 
 
 
 Vessels employed for con- 
 veying cured herring to 
 continental ports 
 Total number .... 
 Barrels exported . 
 
 173 
 160,678 
 
 Vessels employed in 1881- 
 Total number .... 
 Barrels exported . 
 
 158 
 145.494 
 
 Tulv 
 
 Barrels. 
 28 QI4.i 
 
 Tulv 
 
 Barrels. 
 2Q Sdli 
 
 
 63 "i74.i 
 
 
 
 September .... 
 October 
 
 47.321 
 2O 131 
 
 September .... 
 October . . 
 
 40,053 
 22 8OO 
 
 November .... 
 December .... 
 
 *7?6i 
 
 November .... 
 December .... 
 January 
 
 12,496 
 620J 
 
 
 
 
 *82 
 
 
 
 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 160,677^ 
 
 Totals . . 
 
 145,494 
 
 The second section of tables gives a comparative view of the Monthly 
 Shipments under their respective dates to various continental ports. 
 
 The curing process begins at once, and for this purpose 
 all hands are ready to begin work. The herrings are 
 counted out by the cran to the curer ; the cran is a measure 
 holding forty-five gallons. The "gutters" or eviscerators 
 immediately commence to open and clear away the in- 
 testines. These persons are usually women, who work in 
 gangs of five or eight at a time. The fish are carried to 
 the "rousing troughs," where, as the name implies, they 
 are roused in salt, and so expert are the women at cleaning, 
 salting, and packing, that they will produce a barrel to the 
 cooper in ten minutes with ease. 
 
 When large takes of herrings come in it is necessary to
 
 38 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 have many hands at work, for, unless the herrings be in 
 pickle the same day of. arrival, the officer will not brand 
 them, or at least is supposed to see that this requirement 
 is fulfilled. 
 
 This brand question has been a bone of contention and 
 source of controversy for many years, and it is unfortu- 
 nately branded itself by many fishermen and large curing- 
 firms as a useless and misleading system, and the question 
 has now come to be whether it should be retained or 
 dispensed with. The old Scotch Fishery Board was esta- 
 blished in 1808, but it seems probable that this vexed 
 question may be successfully handled by the re-arrange- 
 ments of the Fishery Board of 1882. As the case stands, 
 the duties of the Board are the branding of the herrings 
 according to quality, together with a collection of statistics 
 as to the fishery itself. 
 
 Many of the firms who stand upon the merits of their 
 own productions have a strong case in point of various 
 classes of cured fish, which at the same time would not be 
 unimpaired by a British brand, and, to say the least, would 
 look all the better. 
 
 The Stettin Herring Report for last season, dated 
 November, states that the supplies of Scotch herring 
 brings the import up to "85,553 barrels crownfulls, against 
 87,238 barrels in 1881 ; 48,751 barrels unbranded fulls 
 against 32,377; 46,112 barrels crown matties against 
 50,902 ; 42,213 barrels unbranded matties against 30,829; 
 7802 barrels crown and unbranded mixed against 5921, 
 and 12,482 barrels crown and unbranded spents against 
 I 3 2 79; 3656 turnbellies in barrels against 2,919 246,559 
 barrels in all, against 223,465 barrels in 1881. 
 
 " This year's import is now considerably larger than the 
 total of last year, and will be still increased by about
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 39 
 
 10,000 barrels floating for our port ; but the stocks of 
 Scotch herrings are not all large here, in fact, considerably 
 smaller than last season, the consumption having been 
 very satisfactory." 
 
 The herring is known as fry or sil, matties, fulls or full- 
 herring, and spents or shotten herring. 
 
 The matties are the finest condition of the fish, when all 
 the food goes to form the fattening properties of the fish. 
 A full herring is a later stage with the milt or roe fully 
 developed, which is not the case with matties ; and, as the 
 name implies, a spent or shotten herring is one that has 
 spawned. 
 
 The herring is a very symmetrical fish, and its dis- 
 tinguishing features are the head and the belly. Although 
 there are no eyelids, yet the eyes are large and extremely 
 beautiful. It possesses all the characteristics applying to 
 such fish as were enjoined as edible food in the Scriptures. 
 It has seven fins, and the number seven is the perfect 
 number in Scripture, and these fins are respectively 
 dorsal, I ; pectoral, 2 ; ventral, 2 ; anal, I ; and caudal, i. 
 
 Strange markings may be seen beneath the delicate- 
 scales, which are compared by fishermen to a herring-net ; 
 indeed, some assert that the idea was conceived from this 
 as to how a net should be constructed ; fancy might rather 
 attribute this to the first herrings which escaped from the 
 nets, and the impressions they received would be indented 
 in their whole being, and handed down to future genera- 
 tions. And when the mouth closes, so as to allow the 
 cheeks to overlap the lower jaw, certain well-defined out- 
 lines are seen on each side, which fishermen say resemble 
 a fishing-boat with the mast in the very position it should 
 be when the men are engaged in fishing operations. The 
 air-bladder is joined both to the vent and stomach. The
 
 40 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 vertebral column has fifty-six bones. The ribs consist of 
 twenty-one to each side. The head is furnished with 
 twenty-eight bones, eight of which form supports to the 
 gills. From end to end the entire skeleton numbers three 
 hundred and seventy-one bones, and in this form it pre- 
 sents a marvellous view of constructive skill and adaptation 
 to its home in the great deep, and reflecting the mind at 
 once to that supreme source from which order has sprung. 
 
 The order of the fisheries just given will indicate the 
 habitat of the herring, and it is never found in warm 
 latitudes, though often found both in and without the 
 Arctic circle. Small varieties are met with on the 
 northern shores of Greenland, and it is scarcely necessary 
 to state that the annual migration of herring shoals to and 
 from polar regions is now known to be a fallacy. It is 
 found in the North Atlantic Ocean between forty and 
 seventy degrees of latitude, and abounds in the northern 
 seas, and found in greatest numbers on the British coasts. 
 
 The herring is not so prolific in the produce of spawn as 
 many of the other species are, unless we take into account 
 that it may spawn oftener than other fishes ; and this is a 
 point that many able men are still investigating. It is 
 estimated that if the full-roed herrings recorded as taken 
 for the year 1881 had been allowed to spawn, and if that 
 spawn had become fry, then " there would have been pro- 
 duced no less than 6,946,470,000 barrels of herring," had 
 such been caught. This assumption is very modest, and, 
 of course, is going on the old lines that the said full-roed 
 fish would only spawn once, though they spawn at least 
 twice in the year ; and it seems certain that they spawn 
 much oftener, as both " spent " and full herrings are caught 
 in nearly any season and at any place. The fact really 
 seems to be that, once they come to maturity, it is only a
 
 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 41 
 
 question of regaining their strength after spawning as to 
 when they shall spawn again ; and it is not improbable 
 that the fecundity of the herring is much greater than it is 
 commonly supposed. When accurate knowledge is esta- 
 blished on such important points as these, then our 
 dominion over the fish of the sea will have attained its 
 highest degree, "for knowledge is power." There is also 
 good reason for believing that what is generally called a 
 white sea by fishermen is really produced by the innu- 
 merable presence of herring spawn and herring fry, as such 
 are actually found upon the surface of the waters in 
 thousands, and many think, despite the fact that herring 
 eggs are found at the bottom of the waters, that they are 
 really produced and vivified at the surface. Indeed, some 
 fishermen think that it is owing to the non-impregnation of 
 milt and roe that eggs are found at the bottom at all, and 
 that only those eggs float which have been so impregnated ; 
 if so, this places the herring on the same footing with our 
 other white fish in regard to its breeding points. 
 
 The report of the Fishery Commissioners for 1878 states 
 that 2,400,000,000 of herrings are annually caught in the 
 North Sea by the British, French, Dutch, and Norwegian 
 fishermen, and it is estimated that Scotland alone possesses 
 no fewer than 14500 herring-boats, with a total for men 
 and boys of about, or more than 50,000, and statistics show 
 that these numbers are increasing every year as yet. 
 
 Surface fishing is an improvement on the old method, 
 and proves that the herring are nearer the surface of the 
 water than was usually supposed. This method is con- 
 ducted with great success, and consists in letting the back 
 ropes be lowermost, so that the bottom of nettage may 
 float towards the surface ; but this plan is open to great 
 risk from passing vessels.
 
 42 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 
 
 Experienced fishermen are usually able to shoot their 
 "nets" at the right time and place, and they can even 
 sight and fix the spot for operations at a distance, as the 
 schools of herring will often throw an oily phosphorescent 
 gleam along the surface of the water. There are other 
 indications as to the presence of herring, and often enough 
 the nets are shot at a venture. Some Norwegian fisher- 
 men use water-glasses in their coast fisheries; this is a 
 simple instrument that enables them to see a long way 
 into the depths, and is probably only a practical aid at 
 such places as the fjords or inshore fisheries. When the 
 train of nets has been cast into the sea by being paid over 
 the stern of the boat as " she " is rowed slowly from the 
 starting-point, then a great perforated wall is left in an 
 upright position on which the shoals will strike in their 
 onward progress, and thus be taken prisoners. 
 
 The beautiful tinted silver rays produced as the herrings 
 are emptied into the boats baffles all description, but the 
 curing-yards are now the only thoughts for the fishermen 
 with their silver treasures, for this may be the last haul for 
 the season, and, as we have been there already, we may 
 now take leave of the " Herring Fisheries," and, as we say 
 good-bye, we wonderingly inquire, if all the herring-nets 
 in the world were joined together, where would they 
 reach ? 
 
 "WHO CAN TELL?"
 
 International Fisheries Exhibition, 
 
 LONDON, 1883. 
 
 THE 
 
 HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 BY 
 
 R. HOGARTH. 
 
 {PRIZE ESSAY.] 
 
 LONDON: 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 
 1884.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 IN the early history of our nation the North Britons were 
 fonder of the chase, or an occasional raid by night on 
 salmon with torch and spear, than looking after the treasures 
 of the deep. 
 
 Little is known of herring except that the Dutch visited 
 our coasts annually for the purpose of fishing them, return- 
 ing often with good harvests. It is difficult to understand Causes of the 
 why Britain did not cultivate such an important industry, ^^5? 
 allowing the Dutch to have it all to themselves, unless it 
 was the many wars she was engaged in and the continual 
 local feuds that kept her hands full, for it would appear that 
 this branch of fishing was very little followed after till the 
 middle of the seventeenth century, and even then it re- Unproductive 
 mained for a long time unproductive, for many reasons, of cIntu!J. I7th 
 which I will mention a few : first, the fishers were nearly all Reasons, 
 small crofters, who, as they derived their subsistence chiefly 
 from their crofts, did not require to prosecute the fishing to 
 any extent. If they earned as much as would pay their 
 rents and get a few necessaries that their land did not 
 supply, they were content ; and as they lived a very frugal 
 life, their wants were but few. 
 
 Another reason was that their materials were not good. Materials 
 The boats that were used for fishing did not suit the de 
 
 B 2
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Boats (their 
 build, &c.) 
 
 Nets and their 
 manufacture. 
 
 Crew. 
 
 The term 
 "barrel." 
 
 Opinions of 
 writers re- 
 garding 
 migratory 
 habits of 
 herrings. 
 These 
 opinions 
 contradicted. 
 
 purpose well, being nearly half as broad as they were long, 
 and open from bow to stern. There was no place of shelter 
 in them, nor any way of cooking their food. Oars were 
 always used, but the fishermen always carried a large 
 blanket with them, which served both as a covering to keep 
 them warm and a sail when the wind was fair. These 
 boats were round-sterned from fourteen to sixteen feet 
 keel and about seven feet beam. It was not possible to go 
 any distance to look for herrings in boats of this description. 
 They were known by the name of " nabbies." 
 
 The nets were also very indifferent, being all home-made. 
 The women spun the twine, and it was very coarse, twice as 
 heavy as that used at the present time. The fishers them- 
 selves made the nets. 
 
 There were generally four men in each boat, and each 
 boat carried a train or fleet of nets consisting of four barrels, 
 one for each man, the name " barrel " arising from the habit 
 of carrying their nets in barrels when going from one fishing 
 station to another. The barrel or net was not made in one 
 length ; it consisted of thirty " deepings," each deeping being 
 twelve yards long and fifty meshes deep, the size of the 
 mesh being rather more than an inch, or what we term 
 thirty-four rows per yard. I will now proceed to make 
 some general statements, confining myself to the west and 
 north coasts of Scotland. 
 
 The method of fishing is nearly alike as regards herrings 
 on all the British coasts, except " trawling," which I refer to 
 afterwards. Buffon and other writers were of opinion that 
 the herring was migratory, that our coasts were wholly sup- 
 plied from the Arctic regions, and that herrings visited our 
 coasts in spring and left in early winter. The spawning 
 banks off Ballantrae and others around our coasts have 
 proved the fallacy of these opinions. In regard to these
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. <; 
 
 statements, I remember hearing an old legend told, how An old legend 
 that herrings were only to be found on the east coast of 
 Scotland ; so a silver herring was made and towed after a 
 vessel or boat round Cape Wrath, and the whole shoal 
 followed and filled all the west coast. 
 
 I do not doubt that we get a supply of herrings from the Herrings from 
 oceans around, but I think we depend chiefly on the herrings around. 
 bred in our own waters. Men of experience seeing her- Distinctive 
 rings in any of our markets can generally tell where 
 - caught. 
 
 Herrings fished at different places have their own peculiar places quoted, 
 appearance, such as Loch Nevis, large ; Loch Hourn (6 or 8 
 miles distant), small ; Scalpa, large ; Loch Broom, small ; 
 Hebrides, all large ; Loch Fyne, generally large ; and Firth 
 of Clyde, generally small. 
 
 This grouping of herrings in different classes according The herring 
 to size proves, I think, that each class of herring frequents migratory, 
 its own particular locality. I may state that I noticed in a 
 newspaper that one of our professors had examined 
 herrings caught at the Hebrides, and found that they had 
 one or two more joints in the backbone, and one or two 
 more ribs in either side, than herrings caught near the 
 mainland. This shows that there is a difference in the 
 species. 
 
 In the early history of the herring fishing there were Great quanti- 
 sometimes great quantities caught, although the boats and occasionally 
 nets were deficient. The fishermen waited till the herrings in 
 went to the heads of the lochs in shallow water, where their 
 capture was easy. Sometimes their nets were so full of 
 herrings that their boats could not take more than half of 
 them. But that involved no loss, as they could return 
 when empty and haul the remainder. Nothing could go 
 wrong with their nets, as they were generally trammelled in
 
 6 THE HERRING FISHERY.- 
 
 Carries built, sheltered places. Carries were built in some places, that is, 
 a round circle was built with stones to the height of about 
 four feet At high water the tide overflowed the wall by 
 some feet, and the herrings went in and got ebbed. 
 
 At Loch Slaben in September 1867 one hundred crans 
 were taken in one of these old carries that had been kept 
 in repair. 
 
 The beginning About the beginning of this century there were large 
 
 of this century. 
 
 fleets of vessels, of from 30 to 150 tons burden, fitted out 
 
 from our ports on the Clyde bound for the lochs in the 
 west and north highlands to buy and cure. Others of 
 them fished their cargoes. The herrings were all sold by 
 the cran a cran holding forty-five gallons. 
 Price and The average prices at the fishing stations were from los. 
 
 profits. 
 
 to 15.?. per cran. 
 
 Great profits were realized, as they were seldom sold in 
 the market at less than 2 per barrel, and sometimes at a 
 much higher figure. It was one of the staple trades of 
 
 A town built Greenock, and Rothsay is said to have been built on 
 on herring- 
 bones, herring-bones. Ayr and other places contributed their 
 
 Saltcoats. fl eets Saltcoats, a small sea-port, sent out twelve to 
 twenty vessels every season. 
 
 The varying The vessels that bought generally made a good many 
 
 trade? 65 & runs m the season, if the fishing was good. Sometimes it 
 proved a complete failure, and it was not an uncommon 
 thing for a vessel to come home clean. I remember 
 hearing of a vessel and her two fishing boats being away 
 
 Government four months, and all for one barrel of herrings. Seasons 
 
 encourage- 
 
 ment. so poor caused heavy loss to all concerned, and the 
 
 Government saw that a branch of our industries was not 
 
 Board of improving. So they established a Board of Fishery, with 
 powers to 'give grants to fishermen and to maintain law 
 and order among them. One of the grants allowed was for
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 7 
 
 the purpose of helping to repair broken boats. They Government 
 offered a bounty for herrings fished a certain distance from en?e"f fish- 
 shore. This deep-sea fishing, however, did not succeed, en 
 as fishermen had not made any improvement on their 
 materials. 
 
 At that time there was a heavy duty on salt, but salt used 
 for curing herrings was relieved from taxation by Govern- 
 ment. They also stationed fishery officers at the different Fishery ' 
 fishing districts along our coasts, to look after fishermen's appointed 
 interests, and to settle any disputes among them, or between 
 them and the buyers. They were there to see that no Their duties, 
 measures were used except those that bore the Crown 
 brand. 
 
 If herrings were sold by the hundred, forty-one 
 casts and a tally were given, making in all one hundred . 
 and twenty-four herrings ; this was the rule on all our 
 coasts except at Howth, where forty-two casts were given, 
 being three herrings more. If there was anything too 
 difficult for these officers to settle, they referred it to head- 
 quarters. They were also experienced in curing, and had 
 power to brand barrels, first having ascertained that they 
 were well filled and properly cured. Curers who wanted Higher price 
 the Crown brand had to pay a small fee for each barrel, crowi b^and. 
 Crown brands always drew a better price in home and 
 foreign markets than individual or company brands. The 
 Government also appointed a revenue cutter under the Revenue 
 Board to attend the fishing fleet Her duty was to see duties and 
 that each boat was properly lettered and numbered. These Lettering and 
 
 numbering of 
 
 letters are the custom-house initials of the district to which boats, and the 
 
 i-L u ._ U i advantages of 
 
 the boat belongs. 
 
 The letters and numbers have proved very useful if any 
 damage is done, such as fouling of boats or destruction of 
 nets ; the guilty parties can at once be found, if their official
 
 8 THE HERRING FISHERY, 
 
 Cutter goes number is known, by applying to the cutter. At the out- 
 
 ttefleetf side fishing stations she goes to sea every night along with 
 
 the fishing fleet, not returning till the fleet is in harbour, 
 
 and if any boat gets disabled she takes her in tow. 
 
 Improvement The fishing gradually improved under the Fishery Board, 
 
 Board. but it was not until about 1840 that a new epoch in the 
 
 history of the herring fishing came about, when a Mr. 
 
 Improved Paterson patented a machine for making nets. He opened 
 nets. 
 
 business at Musselburgh, and it was not long before he had a 
 
 great many machines at work. The demand for these nets 
 was very great, and has gone on steadily increasing. There 
 are now a great number of these net factories over our 
 land and our colonies, and other parts of the world are 
 Difference supplied with these far-famed nets. The machine nets are 
 
 between hand h f j th n th d b the hand and con _ 
 
 and machine- J 
 
 made nets. sequently fished better. Instead of two hundred meshes, as 
 
 arge ' before, they were increased to three hundred meshes deep, 
 
 and in two or three years the trains increased in some cases 
 
 to twenty pieces, each piece a hundred yards long and 
 
 Better boats, three hundred meshes deep. By this time there had been 
 
 JSqSeT* 8 a S reat improvement on the boats. There was the 
 " wherry," a good large-sized boat with a place for the crew 
 to sleep in, but rather clumsy on the whole. The fisher- 
 men began to see that these boats were, although better 
 than their predecessors, still unsuitable, and that they 
 required something faster and abler. So they applied to 
 
 Superior boat Mr. Fife, boat-builder, Fairlie, father of the present Mr. 
 
 from Fairlie. Fife> yac ht-builder there, who built a number of beautifully 
 modelled fishing boats, some of them being 39 feet keel, 
 12 feet beam, and from 6 to 7 feet depth of hold. A 
 plan was also invented for lowering the mast when the nets 
 
 lowering sail, were shot, allowing them to be hauled much more easily. 
 These boats sailed very fast, and suited our waters well ;
 
 . THE HERRING FISHERY. 9 
 
 but for the outside fishing nothing has yet been found to 
 
 equal the Penzance and St. Ives luggers. I consider them Penzance and 
 
 far superior to the east of Scotland luggers ; the fineness of bo'at. V 
 
 their lines and the symmetry of their hulls make them 
 
 more to resemble pleasure yachts than fishing boats. Some 
 
 of our west of Scotland fishermen went to England and Adopted in 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 got boats of this class built to order, and their models were 
 
 copied here for the mackerel and outside herring fishing. 
 
 When fitted up with every appliance they cost nearly a Cost of these 
 
 thousand pounds. Our fishermen say they are really 
 
 good boats, being so buoyant that they can weather almost 
 
 any storm. The Isle of Man fishers seem to have a like 
 
 good opinion of them, as all the old crafts have given way 
 
 to them. The nets in these large boats are nearly all hauled Nets in boats 
 
 , . , . , . , . mentioned, 
 
 by spring-backs, which are hove in by capstans or winches. g . 
 
 Some of the largest boats indeed employ steam winches for ba <*s." 
 this purpose. There is an improved winch, or, as fishermen 
 call it, " iron man," which can be used without a spring-back, "I ron man." 
 thus saving both labour and expense. The east coast fisher- 
 men regard it as a great improvement. The boats used at Boats and 
 both the out and inside fishing are in the best of order, and good order, 
 whatever may be said to the contrary, the gear, sails, sleep- 
 ing berths, cabins, &c., are all good. Speaking of boats and A suggestion, 
 their furniture, I may state that it has often occurred to me 
 that a part of the ballast carried on the outside of the boat 
 would prove a protection against capsizing, and give more 
 stowage for nets. That this would give extra speed is 
 shown by the example of the yachts. Some people might 
 object to this proposal on the ground that it would be 
 unsuitable for dry harbours, but I cannot think that a few 
 tons of iron bolted through the keel and through a good 
 keelson would do any harm ; and where the boats were 
 always kept afloat, more could be added. I mention iron as
 
 io THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 being much less expensive than lead, and a casting of iron 
 of the required mould could be made at any foundry. 
 Steamboats Steamboats for fishing herrings have been tried, but on 
 
 for fishing 
 
 herring. account of the expense involved have hitherto been little 
 better than failures. However, I think I am safe in saying 
 that steam will yet become general in our herring fishery. 
 When such improvements are being made in the depart- 
 ments of steam and steam engines, it is difficult to say what 
 may not be in the future. 
 
 Steam fishing Steam fishing boats would be of great service at our 
 
 boats of great .,,,,. 11-1 
 
 service at outside fishing grounds, which are sometimes far from har- 
 
 fishing. bours. The fleet sometimes goes as far as thirty or forty 
 
 miles to sea, and then calm weather or headwinds are great 
 
 drawbacks, especially with heavy hauls on board, as if they 
 
 are not in time for that day's market the whole cargo is 
 
 generally lost, and likewise the following night's fishing. I 
 
 have seen, both at Stornoway and at Howth, as many as 
 
 two nights' fishing lost in one week with calm weather. 
 
 Towing at At Shields towing is becoming very common among the 
 
 oniclds. 
 
 fishing fleet ; a tug will engage to attend six fishing boats 
 for a week for 30 5 for each boat thus showing that 
 steam for herring fishing is much required ; and it is to be 
 hoped that, seeing steam trawlers have been so successful 
 in other fishings, it will not be long before steam will be 
 employed in this fishing also. 
 
 The year 1848 Returning, in the matter of nets, to the year 1848, I may 
 
 nets. 
 
 Cutch. fi rs t mention that cutch was for some previous years used 
 
 Tanning of by fishermen in tanning nets, sails, &c. It is a great im- 
 
 nets. 
 
 provement on the old system of boiling oak or larch bark 
 to draw the tanning qualities from them. I have seen days 
 and nights occupied under the old system in doing an 
 Advantages amount of work that with cutch can now be done in as 
 many hours. The cutch has only to be melted in water
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. n 
 
 and poured on the nets in a large tub till they are well 
 saturated. This process is repeated once a month while Method of 
 
 tanning by 
 
 the nets are new, afterwards the periods can be lengthened ; cutch. 
 but if nets have not been properly cured they will rot in a 
 very short time. 
 
 Different substances, such as alum, oils, dyes, tar, have 
 been tried for curing purposes, but nothing has yet been 
 found to equal cutch. 
 
 Small trawl-nets were in use before the year I have men- Trawl-nets for 
 tioned, chiefly for fishing saithe. When these fish came close 
 to the shore a few herrings were sometimes caught in this 
 kind of trawl, but they were not looked after. About this 
 time a fisherman belonging to Tarbet on Loch Fyne lost part 
 of his drift-nets, so he made a large trawl of what remained. 
 
 The first night he went out he secured a large haul of Trawling for 
 herrings with this net, about four hundred maise (five commenced, 
 hundred herrings being a maise). This was a turning 
 point on the road to improvement in our herring fishing, 
 proving in this case the truth of the old adage, " Necessity 
 is the mother of invention." 
 
 About this time a number of fishermen, the writer being The writer's 
 
 experience in 
 one, began to make trawl-nets. In the beginning of 1849 I 1849. 
 
 had in one haul upwards of three hundred crans of very large 
 herrings (about five hundred to the cran). We drew, how- 
 ever, only a very small price for them, about ^s. a cran, as we 
 did not know of any fresh market for them, and curers were 
 afraid to buy, as they thought that trawled herrings would 
 not cure. One buyer sent a few of them to England, and English 
 
 market 
 
 next y:ar lh^ result was that we had buyers from different opened, 
 parts of England, including London ; prices rose to "js. and Its beneficial 
 8s. per hundred, or from 35^. to 4Os. per cran, showing that 
 there must have been a great demand for large herrings in 
 England.
 
 i a THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Before this the buying was mostly in the hands of the 
 curers. The greater part of the herrings fished on the 
 coasts of Scotland were cured and sent to the market and 
 sold as new salt herrings. Grocery shops and other places 
 of retail sold them by the pound, like any other commodity. 
 The opening up of the English market to us, and the prices 
 realized there, alarmed the curers, who thought this new 
 method of fishing would hurt their trade, and they raised 
 the hue and cry which several interested parties were not 
 Trawling con- slow to take up. They said that trawling would soon rob 
 
 demned by' 
 
 interested our waters of all the mother herrings, and that herring 
 fishing would soon become a thing of the past. Among 
 the malcontents were fishermen, if we can call them fisher- 
 men men who earned their livelihood as such in the 
 summer months and returned to their trades or farms in 
 the winter. In the newspapers articles appeared against 
 trawling, and monster petitions, very largely signed by con- 
 sumers, were presented to Parliament against the practice. 
 Trawling for- The consequence was that in 1860 an Act was passed 
 ofpartiaLlTt! making trawling illegal on the west coast of Scotland, also 
 closing the time for fishing herrings from the 1st of 
 February to the ist of June. 
 
 Effects of this Many fishermen and their families were brought to 
 measure. 
 
 poverty through this Act. The law was so strictly enforced 
 
 that the fishermen were not allowed even to fish herrings 
 
 for bait, and a substitute for this purpose could not be found. 
 
 Government Her Majesty's Government at last became aware that some 
 
 inquiry insti- 
 tuted, error had been committed and appointed a Commission to 
 
 Commission investigate. The Commission found that neither the 
 
 appointed to 
 
 investigate, quantity nor the quality had been produced since the 
 
 Act repealed, passing of the Act already referred to ; it was repealed as 
 
 soon as possible and all restrictions removed. After this 
 
 herring fishing began to flourish. Cotton twine was also
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 13 
 
 introduced for making nets, giving us a finer, cheaper, and 
 more durable article than the hemp or flax nets that were 
 formerly used. 
 
 Trawling has now become a recognised method, and the Trawling now 
 
 a recognised 
 
 nets are enlarged to such an extent that, instead of being method, 
 fifteen or eighteen score meshes deep, they are now from Trawl-nets, 
 forty to fifty score meshes deep, and three hundred yards 
 in length. 
 
 Some of our fish merchants tried a small screw-steamer to Small screw- 
 attend trawlers and run with their herrings to the market, employed 
 
 by merchants. 
 
 as heavy hauls were sometimes got early in the morning. 
 This plan succeeded so well that we have now about a 
 dozen screw-steamers in attendance. Tugs are sometimes 
 chartered for the same purpose. These steamers are all 
 capable of maintaining a high rate of speed, some of them 
 reaching eleven or twelve knots an hour, so that when they 
 get their cargo of herrings on board they very soon reach 
 Glasgow, often before the market is open. If the herrings 
 will suit the English market they are sent off per rail as 
 soon as possible, and will arrive in England in good con- 
 dition. When the steamers are on the fishing ground they The herrings 
 follow the fleet, and the fisherman who gets a good haul from boS to 
 shows a signal with a light which the buyer understands. steamer - 
 A steamer is soon on the spot, and when the price is agreed 
 on, the work of transferring the herrings from the boats to 
 the steamer is soon accomplished. The herrings are sold 
 by the basket to further their dispatch. 
 
 It requires two boats for trawling, and each boat has a Two boats 
 crew of four men. They generally put to sea in the after- 
 noon to look for appearances. One man is always 
 stationed at the bow to keep a look out, and the practised The " Jook- 
 eye will at once detect the slightest appearance of U 
 herrings.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Methods of 
 discovering 
 the presence 
 of herrings. 
 
 Trawling. 
 
 Steam 
 launches a 
 benefit. 
 
 Drift-nets. 
 
 Successes of 
 
 drift-net 
 
 fishing. 
 
 Decrease at 
 various places 
 not to be 
 attributed to 
 over-fishing. 
 
 Sudden move- 
 ments of 
 herrings. 
 
 Recent im- 
 provement on 
 drift-net. 
 
 There are different ways of discovering their where- 
 abouts, sometimes by the presence of gulls, " gannets," 
 porpoises, or the whale. But what is most depended on is 
 what fishermen term " putting up." Bubbles are seen rising 
 to the surface caused by the water passing through the gills 
 of the herrings. The other appearances mentioned are 
 often on small fry, but this of " putting up " seldom fails. 
 When seen the net is run out in the form of a half circle 
 and hauled near the shore, if possible. The two ends of 
 the net are hauled into the boat, forcing the herring into 
 the centre or bag, where they can be taken out with baskets. 
 Heavy fishings are also got in the middle of our channels 
 by making a circle with this net. I think that steam 
 launches would be a benefit for trawling purposes, as the 
 boats are too large to be easily managed with oars, and 
 they could go a greater distance in calm weather to look 
 for herrings. The take with drift-nets on the west of 
 Scotland has been greatly on the increase for the last two 
 or three seasons, while in Loch Hourn it has been unpre- 
 cedented. 
 
 Our east coasts both in England and Scotland have also 
 done well, and good "takes" have been fished at the 
 Orkneys. Some of the boats fished there two hundred 
 crans in a few weeks. At Howth and Ardglass it has 
 fallen off greatly, and no reason can be given for it. It 
 cannot, however, I think, be attributed to over-fishing. In 
 my own experience I have observed that herrings will 
 frequent certain grounds for a number of years, then 
 suddenly leave, to return again when not expected. 
 
 An improvement has of recent years been made on the 
 drift-net which I cannot explain better than by saying that 
 the net is turned upside down. The strong rope is under- 
 neath, and a small cord or rope is run along the upper edge
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 15 
 
 well corked, so that the net can be kept on or near the 
 surface. This plan will do well where herrings are fished 
 in the tracks of steamers. Some of these, as well as 
 sailing vessels, draw twenty-four feet water, so fishermen 
 must have their nets fully that distance below the surface 
 to allow them to pass ; so if the herrings are near the 
 surface the greater part of the nets will be beneath them. 
 When the small rope is uppermost, steamers or sailing 
 vessels passing over the nets will only break the small rope, 
 doing very little damage, as the strong rope will keep the 
 whole fleet of nets together. By this means the herrings 
 
 can be fished near the surface. This inverted net was first T 
 
 Inverted net 
 
 used on the east coast of Scotland, where it has now first used on 
 
 east coast of 
 
 become general. A few of the west coast fishermen have Scotland, 
 adopted the plan with success. 
 
 At Ballantrae a different kind of net is used when the Nets at 
 herrings are on the banks spawning. These nets are called Ballantrae - 
 ' bottom nets," and are about eighty meshes deep. A rope "Bottom" 
 is put on both edges ; the upper one is well corked, while on 
 the one underneath stones are tied to keep the nets at the 
 bottom, the stones being some distance apart. A large 
 stone is attached to either end for moorings. I have seen 
 these narrow strips of nets completely filled with herrings, 
 and when this is the case it is with the greatest difficulty 
 that the crew can get them hauled. 
 
 It is to these banks that the greater part of the herrings Banks at 
 on the west coast of Scotland resort to spawn, and I may 
 add from the English Channel also, as great shoals are seen 
 coming from the south. The herrings begin to gather 
 there about the 1st of January, and by the middle of 
 February the greater part of the body has arrived. They 
 begin to spawn about the end of February, and are Spawning, 
 generally spawned and away by the middle of March.
 
 i6 
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Its import- 
 ance. 
 
 Fishing at 
 spawning 
 time. 
 
 Herrings do not go in a body after spawning, but scatter, 
 
 keeping near the surface to get food, and if it is mild 
 
 weather they are in good condition by the middle of June. 
 
 Ancient origin The Ballantrae fishing is of long standing some old papers 
 
 ofBallantrae 
 
 fishing. turned up not long ago showing that herrings were fished 
 
 there as far back as the I5th century. But it is only of 
 recent years that it has become of such importance. As 
 many as five hundred boats from different parts are fishing 
 there every season ; the majority are trawling, and the 
 greater part doing well, as the prices are generally good 
 much better than in the summer season. The most of 
 these herrings are sent per rail to England. 
 
 Some think that herrings should not be fished when near 
 spawning, as it will affect our future fishing, and that they 
 are not in a good condition for food. Regarding the last 
 statement I would say that the prices realized for them show 
 that they cannot be in a bad condition, and the idea that 
 man may reduce the quantity of herrings in the sea is simply 
 absurd. As many as 68,608 eggs have been counted in a 
 single female, and if only a tithe of them would come to 
 maturity our waters would get completely filled. 
 
 All sorts or kinds of fish in our waters will eat herrings, 
 and they constitute the chief food of the most of them. It 
 is enormous the amount of herrings destroyed by other fish 
 for food. I saw a fish caught about twenty Ibs. weight, 
 and in its stomach were one hundred small herrings . about 
 two inches in length. Now if a single fish will consume 
 that quantity at one meal what must the total consumption 
 
 Sea-fowl also be ? It is well known that sea-fowl also live almost entirely 
 
 herrings. on herring, so that the herrings fished by man must be only 
 a small fraction compared with what is destroyed otherwise. 
 
 Abundance of I remember seeing in an old Edinburgh publication that on 
 the 2Oth of August, 1796, the herrings were so plentiful 
 
 Herrings the 
 of ot; 
 
 food 
 fish. 
 
 'other
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 17 
 
 along the shores at Ayr that the people got a good supply 
 
 by means of baskets. This is not at all 'wonderful, as three Abundance in 
 
 , . - . . recent years. 
 
 years ago we lifted a good many on board with baskets in 
 deep water off Ballantrae. 
 
 Writers differ widely in their opinions regarding the time Maturity of 
 
 the herring. 
 
 required to bring a herring to maturity most of them 
 thinking that it takes years. Fishermen, too, I observe, are 
 undecided on the point, but recent experiments in Rothesay Rothesay 
 
 Aquarium. 
 
 Aquarium will throw some light on the subject. Herrings Growth of the 
 put in there a few inches long became full grown in less herrin S- 
 than eighteen months, though they did not fill properly. It 
 may be supposed that if in confinement herrings grow so 
 quickly, maturity must be reached much earlier in the open 
 sea, where proper food can be got. At Ballantrae, in 1 879, 1 
 assisted Mr. Melville, who was fishery officer there at that Mr - Buck - 
 
 land's investi- 
 
 time, in procuring some herring spawn for the late Mr. gation. 
 Frank Buckland, Her Majesty's Inspector of Salmon Fish- 
 eries. He wished to ascertain the time taken by the herring 
 to arrive at maturity. Most likely the spawn died before A failure, 
 reaching Mr. Buckland, as his investigation was unsuccessful. 
 The bottles employed were small, holding only two pints or Probable 
 
 causes of the 
 
 little more. These were filled three parts with water, and failure, 
 pieces of seaweed, to which the spawn had adhered, were 
 also put into the bottles, which were closed by covering their 
 mouths with thick paper secured with gum, no air being 
 admitted. The spawn would be at least two hours out of 
 water before being placed in bottles. Had larger bottles 
 been used, the spawn placed immediately in them and the 
 cover perforated, the result might perhaps have been more 
 satisfactory. It is very beautiful to see the spawn on a Beauty of 
 
 spawn on 
 
 broad leaf of seaweed. There is no crowding, each egg or seaweed, 
 particle is placed in the nicest precision, and there is ample 
 space to allow the egg to expand as the young herring is 
 E. 20. C
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Growth of 
 herrings. 
 
 Two classes 
 of herrings. 
 
 Stomach. 
 
 Weather- 
 its effects. 
 
 Early develop- forming. I have seen head and eyes distinctly developed 
 five or six days after being spawned. 
 
 If their growth could be ascertained as easily as that 
 of the salmon, it would most likely be found that the 
 herring, to arrive at maturity, takes months instead of 
 years, as is generally supposed at present. 
 
 It is universally thought that there are two classes 
 of herrings, the " Gutpock," or herring that feeds, and the 
 herring that derives its nourishment from water only. All 
 herrings, however, must eat till they are full grown, and after 
 spawning they eat till they become " prime," that is, when 
 they become well filled with fat. If this fat was examined 
 the stomach would be found in the centre of it, completely 
 closed up. 
 
 I believe that warm weather is beneficial for fishing, 
 especially in summer, as heat is requisite for bringing to 
 The food of life that small fry on which herrings feed. This fry is 
 scarcely discernible, but when sailing over a quantity of it 
 the water has a reddish appearance. It is generally near 
 the surface, and if drift-nets are run out through this, good 
 fishings are generally got if herrings are there in search of 
 their food. 
 
 In my own experience at different fishing grounds I have 
 always found that the stomachs of prime herrings when 
 examined were empty, and that their general food was that 
 small animalculae which I have just referred to, and which, 
 depending on the warmth of the season, is to be found in 
 the end of April or the beginning of May. This animal- 
 Summer life, culae or Crustacea comes into life with the increasing heat 
 of the water, and dies when the cold comes, the quantity 
 always being in proportion to the degree of heat. Another 
 instance of this short summer life is to be found in the 
 jelly-fish, which appears in the beginning of summer affords 
 
 Personal 
 experience. 
 
 Food of 
 herrings. 
 
 Jelly-fish.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 19 
 
 food and shelter to the young whiting, and dies on the 
 
 approach of winter. A warm summer must therefore, as I A warm 
 
 said before, have a beneficial influence on the fishing, as it is beneficial. 
 
 generally the end of summer when herrings become " prime." 
 
 If, however, the herrings cannot get this food, which appears Other food. 
 
 to be specially prepared for them, they will take shrimps or 
 
 other small fish. It is in August that our lochs teem with Deep-water 
 
 herrings, especially our deep-water lochs, and it is there 
 
 that herrings get that fine flavour for which Loch Fyne 
 
 herrings are so much famed. When fishing in Loch Fyne 
 
 I have seen the nets lowered twenty, forty, and even fifty 
 
 fathoms below the surface to get these fine herrings. In 
 
 Loch Hourn and all other deep-water lochs along our 
 
 coasts the herrings improve in quality very rapidly. About 
 
 August herrings gather into large bodies, and if broken up Density of 
 
 they immediately close again so as to protect themselves 
 
 against their enemies. These shoals can only be attacked 
 
 on the flanks, as when alarmed the body becomes so dense 
 
 that the assailant is in danger of being choked by the 
 
 multitudes. It is for such shoals that trawlers naturally The shoals 
 
 J and the 
 watch. If they are not seen in the daytime by the trawlers. 
 
 appearances I have already described there are other ways 
 of finding them at night. If it is a moonlight night 
 fishermen watch eagerly for them rushing or " putting up " "Putting up.' 
 on the surface of the water. 
 
 But when the night is dark, a man is stationed on the A dark 
 look-out, and by striking on the gunwale of the boat, the ' 
 herrings can easily be seen moving by means of the 
 phosphorus that is in the water. If herrings are plentiful Phosphorus, 
 they will make such a flame that it will light up all around 
 the boat when a heavy stroke is given on the gunwale. I 
 saw a statement by one of our professors, to the effect that 
 he had examined the head of a herring and that it con-
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 tained no organ of hearing. If this be the case the other 
 senses must be very acute, as at the slightest noise they 
 will swim away, though it be a gun fired at a considerable 
 distance. The same appearances are, of course, looked for 
 by drift-net fishermen. 
 
 It is in the evening that herrings generally " mesh," 
 before the " fire," as the fishermen term it, comes into the 
 water. The reason of this is that herrings notice the nets 
 by the phosphorescent light and avoid them. If the fishing 
 is light and the night long the fishers generally haul in 
 their nets and look somewhere else for herrings, so that 
 they may have another chance before the break of day. 
 It is different altogether when there is moonlight, as then 
 herrings often net all night. Hence the line in the old 
 song, " The herring loves the merry moonlight." Drift- 
 net fishermen have many enemies which prey on the 
 herrings caught in their nets. During some seasons the 
 " dog-fish " is very plentiful, and very destructive, doing 
 great damage to the nets as well as abstracting the 
 herrings. Porpoises too, in large numbers, frequent our 
 waters, and, when they discover nets well-fished, the fisher- 
 Nets attacked, men have but a poor chance, as the nets are cleaned by 
 them faster than they can be hauled. There are many other 
 enemies among the large fish which do a great amount 
 of damage, but the most destructive of them all is the 
 It visits our coasts in the 
 
 beginning of summer and leaves at its close. Fishermen 
 Destruction of greatly dread this monster, as it often carries away their 
 among nets, nets when it gets entangled in them, or if the nets are left 
 they are so badly torn that they seldom can be mended. 
 
 In the be g innm g of this century the harpooning of the 
 basking shark was common on our coasts, and it is said to 
 have been very remunerative, as an immense quantity of 
 
 Herring 
 having no 
 organ of 
 hearing. 
 
 Morning 
 fishing. 
 
 Fishers 
 change their 
 positions. 
 
 Moonlight 
 fishing. 
 
 Enemies of 
 fishers. 
 
 Dog-fish. 
 
 Porpoise. 
 
 The basking basking shark o/ sunfish. 
 shark.
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 21 
 
 oil as obtained from its liver. I mention this because I Harpooning 
 
 the "shark" 
 
 think that not only would it be profitable to pursue this recommended 
 
 fishing at the present day, but it might help to rid the 
 
 waters of one of the drift-net fisherman's worst enemies. 
 
 It may be the scarcity of the fish was the cause of this 
 
 fishing being discontinued, but its reappearance in greater 
 
 numbers during the past ten or twelve years might warrant 
 
 fishermen in turning their attention to the subject. It 
 
 would not be difficult to harpoon these fishes, as they will 
 
 remain on the surface a long time, allowing a boat to come 
 
 up quite close to them before going down. 
 
 Having just returned from Ballantrae (March 20, 1883), 
 I will add my experience of the year's fishing there. It Experience at 
 was the general opinion of all fishermen that there were Year 1883. 
 more herrings on the Ballantrae Banks than had been 
 there during any previous season in their experience. The 
 gales, however, in January and February were very much Gales in 
 against the fishing ; it was but seldom that boats could go ^^^ 
 to sea, and when they did get out it was only with the Drift-nets only 
 drift-net that boats did any good. I have explained before use ' 
 that the trawl boats have to be pulled with oars while 
 making a ring, and the drift-nets are run out in a straight 
 line before the wind, consequently there were very few 
 herrings landed, and prices ran as high as 5 per cran. p r ; ce 
 The ist of March brought a change for the better, and improvement 
 there were landed on one day seven thousand crans ; prices m u 
 ranging from i$s. to 2os. per cran, mostly trawled. Some 
 of our trawlers are engaged by an English firm to trawl Engagement 
 during the first two months of summer on any part 
 of the Irish coast from Innistrahull to Ardglass. They 
 are to be attended by steamers to take the herrings to 
 market. The trawl has never been used before in this 
 district for herring fishing.
 
 22 
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 
 
 Shetland and 
 the trawl. 
 
 Source of 
 wealth to 
 England. 
 
 " Catch 
 greater. 
 
 No danger of 
 reduction of 
 supply. 
 
 Better 
 methods in 
 future. 
 
 Curing. 
 
 " Bloater," 
 kipper," &c 
 
 Railways. 
 
 In conversation with some fishermen who had been . 
 fishing among the Shetland Islands during last summer, I 
 heard it stated that trawling, if adopted there, would be 
 a success, as the herrings were close inshore. The only 
 difficulty would lie in getting the trawl boats there, on 
 account of the great distance. 
 
 I need not say anything here of what a great source of 
 wealth the herring fishery is to our country, as that is well 
 known from the figures published regarding our exports, 
 not to speak of the immense quantities consumed at home. 
 It would not be possible to give a correct statement of 
 what is used at home ; there are so many bye-ports and 
 creeks where herrings are landed. 
 
 It is acknowledged by all, including those who would put 
 restrictions on engines used for fishing, that the " catch " of 
 herrings is greatly on the increase. I have forty years' ex- 
 perience, and I see no danger of reducing the quantity of 
 herrings in our waters. All the improvements an our 
 material have been a benefit both to fisher and consumer, 
 and, judging the future by the past, we may expect greater 
 improvements and better methods still in capturing the 
 finny tribes. Restrictions on any industry are hurtful, but 
 they are particularly so when applied to herring fishing. 
 
 Before closing I may mention that the system of curing 
 for the home market is now nearly supplanted by better 
 methods of preparing herring for food. There is the 
 " bloater " and the " kipper," and many other ways of making 
 them more palatable than having them packed in barrels 
 and covered with pickle. 
 
 Our railways are also a great advantage to fishers, 
 branches being laid to all the principal parts of the coast, 
 and steamers run in connection with them to the islands, 
 bringing as it were the remotest stations near, so that
 
 THE HERRING FISHERY. 23 
 
 England can in a few hours get a fresh supply from the 
 far North 
 
 It is computed that in Scotland alone upwards of one Number of 
 hundred thousand persons depend on the fishing for their dependent on 
 support, and if England and Ireland were added thereto, 
 
 the number would be immense. It is well known that our Benefit of 
 
 , f , f ,~ , . fisheries for 
 
 navy derives a great many of her seamen from our fishing ^ navy> 
 
 population, and so does our merchant service, proving that 
 Great Britain's fisheries are most beneficial to her, both 
 directly and indirectly. 
 
 Our Government has always taken a deep interest in the Government's 
 fisheries of the country, and fishermen as a rule know this fishing, 
 and appreciate it. They are a loyal race, and, if need be, Loyalty of 
 they would, in the words of the poet : 
 
 " Stand 
 A wall of fire around our much-loved isle."
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
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