17 



In August, owing to the war, many of the trawlers were obhged 

 to fish over ground in the vicinity of the herring boats, and quantities 

 of trawled herrings were occasionally landed. These, although 

 caught by the trawl, as will be seen from a consideration of the 

 age composition of sample 10 are, without doubt, the ordinary 

 summer herring of the Northumberland coast. 



Herrings from a more southerly ground than is usually fished 

 from North Shields are to be found in sample 1 1 . 



The trawled herrings which were landed at North Shields 

 during the autumn of 1914 were obtained off the Yorkshire coast, 

 and two samples of these, 12 and 13, were examined. 



The samples examined were as follows : — 



Size. — Particulars relating to the size of the herrings examined 

 will be found in Table I. As in 1913, the fish have been grouped 

 to the nearest centimetre, 20-6 to 21-5 cm. being counted as 21cm., 

 and the numbers obtained expressed in percentages.* 



In 1913, the length was measured from the snout to the middle 

 of the fork of the tail when in its natural position, whilst in 1914 

 the upper lobe of the tail was moved so that its upper edge was 

 parallel to the mid line of the body ; this gave a difference in favour 

 of the 1914 measurements of from 2 to 3 mm. in herrings from 22 

 to 25 cm. in length. 



The first sample consisted of fairly large fish, the majority 

 being from 25 to 26 cm. and more in length. 



Sample 2 has been referred to already as a sample of small 

 herrings, and as wdll be seen from the table, was composed mainly 

 of fish from 21 to 23 cm. long. 



* Report, 1914, New Series, III.; page 60, line 3, /or 20-5 to 21-4 cm. read 20-G to 21-5 cm. 



