12 
and sealed a sample at Downings in June, and forwarded the 
scales to me for age determination. On account of the nature 
of the fishery, the officers of the Fishery Board for Scotland were 
unable to obtain any samples from similar shoals from Scottish 
waters, and Mr. Brown, of Lerwick, for the same reason, was not 
able to send a sample from the west of the Shetlands in 1921. As 
herrings were sighted in June of this year, a trial was made in the 
waters to the west of the Shetlands, and owing to the keen interest 
which Mr. Brown has in these investigations it is possible to give 
some data regarding the herrings from these grounds. 
As in previous years the sampling of the shoals has been 
made possible by the help of friends in various fishing ports, and 
the opportunity is here taken of expressing my thanks to those 
who have helped, not only by forwarding samples but by supply- 
ing a great deal of information about the fisheries from the various 
ports. Mr. Beazor, of Yarmouth, has given samples for examina- 
tion; the Fishery Board for Scotland have, through their officers, 
forwarded samples and given information whenever requested 
to do so; to the Department of Agriculture and Technical 
Instruction for Ireland, Fisheries Branch, T am indebted for 
samples of Irish herrings ; the officials of the Ministry of Agri- 
culture and Fisheries at North Shields have shown their usual 
kindness and consideration. 
The amount of help received from Mrs. Cowan has been con- 
siderable, and it is difficult to express fully my indebtedness ; 
without this help the number of samples could not have been 
examined. 
A list of the samples is given below. For each fish the length, 
sex, development of gonads and the age have been recorded, and 
the yearly growth, obtained by expressing the length of the fish 
in terms of the scale, has been calculated. 
