328 DEEP-SEA FISHING. 



81 using drift-nets, but by tlie end of July there were 

 364 boats using drift-nets, and only 102 using (sean) 

 trawl-nets. At this period the drift-net boats were 

 having fair success, but the (sean) trawl-boats not ; yet 

 while the fishing was thus chiefly in the hands of drift- 

 net fishermen, it fell off quite unexpectedly." 



With these facts before us — and they are by no 

 means novel ones — it is difficult to believe that either 

 sean-trawl or drift-nets can have much effect on the 

 movements of the herrings in or into Lochfyne. Had 

 the proportion of sean-trawl to drift-nets at the begin- 

 ning and end of the fishery of 1871 been reversed, it 

 might, and probably would, have been said by many 

 that the evil effect of sean-trawling was unmistakably 

 shown by the sudden disappearance of the fish ; but 

 under the actual circumstances it would have been as 

 reasonable to condemn drift-net fishing. That such has 

 been done by some few people appears to show that 

 hasty conclusions on the subject may be drawn by any- 

 one, and that the fishermen of Lochfyne have as much 

 to learn about the habits of the herrings as those who 

 have been catching these fish for the last forty or fifty 

 years all round our coasts, and yet cannot tell whence 

 they come or what influences their movements. 



Other suggestions, however, have been made to 

 account for the recent failure in Lochfyne. It is said 

 that the excessive wetness of the season has caused a 

 great drainage of fresh water from the hills into the 

 loch — that this water, objectionable in itself, has been 

 made further injurious by the guano and artificial 

 manures applied to the land, and which in rainy 

 seasons are washed into tlie loch ; and that besides the 

 direct influence of this water in keeping the fish away, 

 it also affects them indirectly by poisoning the food 



