10 THE GANNET 



55 millions. The total for this season (the best the Yar- 

 mouth men had had up to that date) was subsequently 

 published as 631,578,800 herrings. The next year it was 

 525,056,400, and in 1904 it was returned at 540,685,200 for 

 this port alone, and be it remembered that a vast number 

 of herrings were also landed at Lowestoft, Grimsby, Whitby, 

 and other places. The year 1907 was again a very good one. 

 In that season, on a single day — October 22nd — the North 

 Sea Herring Fleet brought into Great Yarmouth between 

 5,000 and 6,000 " lasts." ^ Well might it be described in 

 the " Eastern Daily Press " of October 23rd, and other 

 newspapers, as an unparalleled delivery, nor was this glut of 

 fish wasted, for, owing to the German trade, there was a 

 brisk sale at once. 



(4) It must also be put down to their credit that Gannets 

 are not infrequently of value to fishermen by pointing out 

 the whereabouts of shoals of fish, which their marvellous 

 sight enables them to detect with far greater quickness than 

 our fishermen, who then shoot their nets accordingly. I 



* "Herrings are counted by the long hundred (132), therefore 0,000 lasts 

 of 10,000 each would be 13,200 x 6,000 = 79,200,000 " (T. Southwell in Hit.}. 

 " The toll taken by predacious fishes and birds," adds Mr. Southwell, who 

 has long joaid attention to the ichthyology of the east of England, " may be 

 taken as the natural check to overproduction ; the herring is so wonder- 

 fully productive that without these checks tliey would eventually fill the 

 sea, the fish -eating birds are therefore a positive benefit ! " 



