and not a local failure, and from no waters have we records of 
shoals of mattie herrings being abundant, and some interesting 
information on this point has been forwarded to me by Mr. Moore, 
of Buncrana. When the fishermen of the north-west of Ireland 
are lying at the nets, it is their custom, as in other parts, to fish 
with lines for cod and coalfish. Mr. Moore examined these fish, 
and wrote me as follows :—‘‘ In past seasons these fish would 
have anything up to a score of herrings in their bellies from ones 
newly swallowed to others half digested. This season I did not 
see a dozen herrings in the bulk of 1,000 fish gutted by my men, 
and noticed that the fish in general, and especially the coalfish, 
were very badly matured, very small in size, and more the appear- 
ance of spent or slinky fish,” Had the herrings been present, 
but at a greater depth than the nets, it is reasonable to suppose 
that the cod and coalfish would have captured them as in other 
years. 
Good fisheries are determined chiefly by the presence of good 
year-classes, and these are hatched three years before they enter 
the shoals in sufficient numbers to influence the fishery. Hydro- 
graphic conditions may, and possibly do, influence migrations 
and the quality of the fish caught. The summer fishery last 
year was not poor, it was a failure, and from no waters have we 
records of large catches. Dutch luggers fishing in waters much 
further from the shore than do our vessels made very poor catches, 
The only area known which could be cited as giving a compara- 
tively good fishery, whilst the neighbouring fisheries were poor, 
is the Firth of Clyde, and the age composition of these fish will 
be seen from Table I. to be altogether different from that of other 
shoals. 
The age composition of the samples of spring spawning 
herring in February and March of 1921* showed that a number 
of young herrings at the end of their third year had joined the 
shoals. The joining of spawning shoals by fish so young is not 
unusual, but the numbers which did so appear to be greater than 
one would expect, especially for the waters of the Firth of Forth, 
Broad Bay and the north coast of Sutherlandshire. As the 
greater part of our summer feeding shoals of developing herring 
consists of fish in their fourth year the entering into spawning 

* Report, New Series X., page 90. 
