118 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



engaging the attention of the fishermen. But the subject 

 is receiving more consideration than it did a few years 

 ago, and a winter herring fishery is now regularly 

 carried on from Wick, the largest station on the east 

 coast of Scotland, as well as at the entrance to the Firth 

 of Forth, and on the west coast. 



The great herring harvest is everywhere gathered 

 in during the second half of the year, and it may be 

 "useful to give a short notice of the seasons at which the 

 fishery is worked on different parts of the coast. The 

 months to be mentioned are those in which the herrings 

 are looked for ; but the catches are generally small at 

 first, and sometimes the shoals remain a long time at a 

 considerable distance from the land. 



The herring fishery is carried on at the Shetlands 

 and Orkneys from July to September, but it is not 

 of great importance at the former group of islands. 

 The tides run with great strength there, and make 

 drift-fishing hazardous and uncertain. It is continued 

 during the same months with more or less success along 

 the eastern coasts of Scotland and England nearly 

 down to the Humber, but about Flamborough Head the 

 fish are later than farther north ; and the home fishery 

 at Yarmouth and Lowestoft is from Se|)tember to the 

 end of November. In the Channel the general fishery 

 is still later, although small fat herrings are often taken 

 by the Hastings boats during the mackerel season in 

 June ; at Ramsgate it is during October and November, 

 but in the far west it lasts till the end of the year, 

 or even to January or the beginning of February, 

 running into the period when the regular winter 

 fishery, as distinct from the autumn one, takes place on 

 both coasts of Scotland. 



It might be supposed that as the herrings ap2:»ear on 



