ADULT HEKRINGS 177 



distinct stretches of coastal waters, one east of the Shetlands 

 and Orkneys and in the Pentland Firth ; another off Wick and 

 the east coast of Scotland ; another off Northumberland ; and 

 the fourth off the coast of East Angha. They maintain that 

 the herrings caught by the Norwegians are exactly the same 

 as those taken by our own boats, with the exception of Fjord 

 herrings, which they believe to be a separate race. Four causes 

 are believed to make the shoals swim at low levels. They are 

 always comparatively deep in the water when the sea is very 

 calm, when the fish are very young, when the weather is cold,^ 

 and when they are gravid with roe and sluggish in their move- 

 ments. Spent fish, on the other hand, are always more lively 

 and are found at the surface. Of course, when a drifter man 

 speaks of herrings being deep in the w^ater he does not mean 

 ' deep ' in the sense that a trawler man would. 



Now, some or all of this herring lore may be unscientific and 

 based on unsystematic observations. It may be that naturalists 

 could correct the fisherman's facts where he has misapprehended 

 them or his deductions from facts which he has correctly 

 observed. But by personal intercourse and discussion with 

 naturalists, and in no other way, will fishermen be taught to 

 think correctly and observe correctly — and it is idle to suppose 

 that their observations could not be of great use to men of 

 science. Some of them, as we have seen, have already been 

 confirmed by the researches of the past. Even when it is 

 encrusted with superstition, fisher-lore may be of great assistance 

 to research workers, just as folklore frequently helps the 

 archaeologist. It is just this mutual discussion and personal 

 demonstration which has been lacking in the past. Naturalists 

 may correct and edify each other by ' publishing results ' of 

 their researches in scientific journals. Not thus will they ever 

 reach the men whose livelihood may be affected by their work. 



1 Yet Mr. Morley's trawlers could only catch herrings on the South-west 

 Banks when the weather was very hot (see p. 117). 



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