BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 13 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SARDINES FKOtI THE VEXDEAN COAST, 



AND ITS CAUSES. 



By GEORGE GIFFORD. 



[From Dispatch No. 66 to Department of State. Transmitted to the United States 

 Fish Commission by J. C. Bancroft Davis, Assistant Secretary.] 



The sardine having' long been the principal item of export to the United 

 States from this part of France, its disappearance is a matter of consid- 

 erable commercial importance. For the fishermen themselves it is an 

 overwhelming calamity, as the phylloxera is for the vintners on the 

 Charente. 



The sardine has generally appeared on the Vendean coast about the 

 1st of May, and, following the shores of the Bay of Biscay northward, 

 has furnished occupation to some 15,000 Vendeans and Bretons, and 

 3,000 boats. Formerly the annual catch was worth at least 83,000,000. 

 But in 1879 the sardine suddenly disappeared for the most part, and the 

 two following years having given most unsatisfactory results, it is with 

 a heavy heart that the discouraged fishermen are now fitting out their 

 boats for the season, which begins next month. The commercial houses 

 engaged in the preparation of the fish for the market have in a measure 

 escaped loss by advancing their prices, but charity alone keeps the fish- 

 ermen from absolute destitution. 



This disappearance of the sardine has been coincident with an extra- 

 ordinary change of climate, which has attracted the attention of meteor- 

 ologists and other scientific observers, who have endeavored to establish 

 some relation between the phenomena. The winter on the Breton coast 

 is generally characterized by a low barometer and very frequent rains. 

 During the four months from November, 1878, to February, 1879, for 

 example, it rained at Nantes the extraordinary number of 79 days, and 

 at Lorient 86 days, while the average rainfall in Western France during 

 that time was about 15 inches. During the corresponding months of the 

 season which has just passed it did not rain at all on this coast, and the 

 high barometric pressure has been almost incessant. The storms, the 

 arrival of which has ordinarily been predicted with so much accuracy 

 from New York, have passed to the north, and the southwest wind, laden 

 with moisture and bringing frequent rains, has given place to a dry wind 

 from the northeast. And this in a somewhat less degree was also the 

 meteorological history of 1880-'81, and of the preceding year. 



The effect of this high pressure and change of wind on the tempera- 

 ture has been by no means constant. The average winter temperature 

 in Western France is not far from 45° Fahr. But the winter of 1879-'S0, 

 with its cloudless sky, was one of extreme rigor, during which the Loire 

 was for several weeks frozen over. During the winter just past, the sky 

 being often concealed by a thick fog, there has been neither snow nor 



