172 ADULT HEKKINGS 



the composition of the shoals ' after such a period of com- 

 parative rest as that produced by the war '. He wrote to the 

 Editor of the Fish Trades Gazette, who put him into communica- 

 tion with business men in Stornoway, Lerwick, Wick, Peterhead, 

 Scarborough, Grimsby, and Great Yarmouth. Mr. Storrow 

 and Mrs. Cowan were, of course, already as well known on the 

 quay at North Shields as any owner or skipper or salesman. 

 There they needed no introductions. From each port samples 

 of ordinary catches were obtained. In each case a note was 

 made of the date on which the sample was caught, of the bear- 

 ings of the ground on which the ' shot ' was made, of the total 

 catch of which the sample formed a portion, and of the number 

 of fish examined, in the following form : 



Date of Number 



Port. capture. Origin. Catch. examined. 



Stornoway 27th May 1919 20 miles north of Butt 25 crans 226 



of Lewis 



„ 10th Feb. 1920 Off Tiumpan Head 10 „ 212 



Each sample consisted of a quarter of a cran of herrings, 

 taken without selection from the catch, very carefully packed, 

 and sent to Cullercoats. ' By the examination of samples taken 

 at the beginning and about the middle of the summer fishery, 

 of full or spawning fish, and also of spent fish, it was hoped to 

 get sufficient evidence to show if there was any connexion 

 between the summer shoals and the shoals of spring spawners 

 which it was intended to sample in the early part of 1920.' 



The two indomitable investigators examined 6,848 herrings. 

 For each fish they recorded the length, the sex, the state of the 

 reproductive organs, and the number of winter rings on the 

 scales ; the yearly growth, as recorded on the scales, was also 

 calculated. But .the age of the fish is not given, nor do they 

 commit themselves to an opinion as to the season (spring or 

 autumn) in which it was born. 



The first part of the report consists of six pages devoted to 

 a detailed and very excellent review of the grounds fished on 

 the west coast of Scotland, in the Minch, to the north-westward 

 of the Lewis, the north coast of Scotland, round the Orkneys, 

 round Fair Isle, round Shetland, and offshore from the Cromarty 

 Firth and Peterhead. Information, furnished by the leading 

 men in the herring trade, is given as to when and where maiden 

 fish, full fish, ripe fish, and spent fish are caught in each of these 

 distant grounds, and more than one case is cited in which 

 herrings have deserted certain waters or appeared unex- 

 pectedly in others. In this connexion Mr. Storrow was told by 



