154 THE HEEEING FISHEEIES 



are concentrated at a comparatively small number of ports, 

 culminating in the great autumn assembly of ' drifters ' in 

 Yarmouth and Lowestoft. 



Moreover, the herrings were landed chiefly by large vessels — 

 thus steam drifters landed approximately : 



In England and Wales . . . 335,000 tons out of 365,000 

 In Scotland 142,000 tons put of 222,000 



while the big sea-going motor- drifters landed 9,900 tons in 

 England, and the best part of 18,000 tons in Scotland. These 

 vessels — the big steam and motor drifters — are the backbone 

 of the herring-fleets. The ' longshoremen ' in England, for 

 instance, caught less than 6,000 tons, and the big sailing drifters 

 less than 15,000 tons. Even of the comparatively insignificant 

 catch landed on the Irish coast a considerable proportion came 

 out of a fleet of 140 Scotch and English drifters landing at ports 

 like Mulroy, Eathmullan, Buncrana, and Londonderry. The 

 application of steam and motor power to drifters, in fact, re- 

 sulted in the fact that herrings came to be landed nearly all the 

 year round. 



More than 85 per cent, of herrings landed in England, and at 

 least 95 per cent, of the others, were pickled and exported, 

 chiefly to Eussia and Germany ; and much of the export to 

 Germany found its way to Eussia. Inasmuch as sophisticated 

 people in this country refuse to eat pickled herrings, and as 

 under no conceivable circumstances could a market be found 

 for the immense British catch in a fresh or smoked condition, 

 the herring industry is, as this is written, passing through 

 troublous times, which are likely to last until Eussians can once 

 more import (and pay for) its chief product. But this com- 

 mercial problem cannot here be more than indicated. 



Fluctuations in the Catch 



Eight through the history of European fisheries, shoals of 

 herring have been wont suddenly to desert waters which they 

 have frequented for centuries. The classical example is the 

 failure of the Baltic herring-fishery at Scania — the foundation 

 of the wealth and naval power of the Hanseatic League — in the 

 fifteenth century. 



A hundred years later the Bohuslan fishery in Sweden failed, 

 and remained barren for some seventy years. ^ The herring 

 fishermen of the day were, no doubt, prepared to explain these 

 ' caprices '. In later times it was stated that the gun-fire at 



1 The Sovereignty of the Seas (Fulton), p. 62. Also, The Sea Fisheries, 

 pp. 131, 132. 



