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On the Occurrence of large Numbers of Larval 

 Herring at the Surface. 



A Letter from 

 Mr. Matthias Dunn, 



"Mevagissey, 2Qth January, 1898. 



" It may interest you to know that on Friday, 14th January, the 

 weather being very fine, and the wind from the S.E., as the fishing-boat 

 Sea Belle (Mr. Blamey, master), was proceeding to the pilchard ground 

 some four or five miles south of the Deadman headland, when about 

 two miles from land they fell in with masses of muddy brown matter 

 in strings, some of which were three or four hundred yards long and 

 from two to seven feet wide, floating quite on the surface. They had not 

 proceeded far along these lanes or path-like forms on the sea before 

 they observed that pilchards were feeding on them ravenously ; so they 

 tacked their boat among them for a mile or more, and the further they 

 went the more abundant were the pilchards. About four miles from 

 land and in thirty fathoms of water the anxious gulls indicated the 

 outmost limit of these strangely coloured bands, and here the pilchards 

 were the most plentiful, almost rabid in their mad rush on the lessen- 

 ing streaks, causing the water to boil and whirl violently. Certainly 

 some of the shoals of pilchards could not have had less than thirty to 

 sixty thousand fish in them, for they coloured the water a dark red 

 when concentrated on the brown matter. 



" Of course our fishermen expected a more than ordinary catch 

 of pilchards when setting their nets; but, strange to tell, with the 

 decline of the light, having fed to repletion, they sank down below the 

 nets, and the catch was a small one, amounting to some two or three 

 thousand fish. 



" Mr. Blamey, being anxious to know what the pilchards had been so 

 fond of, brought me in a quantity of this floating matter, wliicTi proved 

 to be young herrings in their first stage, with the yolk still large. In 

 the bucket they were quite transparent, although, as already stated, of a 

 decided brown colour when packed together in millions, and crowding 

 in long lanes. Several other of our fishermen, although some miles 

 from the Sea Belle, saw these young herrings with pilchards feeding on 

 them under like conditions. 



"Matthias Dunn." 



