81 
has coincided with Atlantic water activity. Whilst the high 
number of herrings of the 1917 year-class in the June sample 
of this year indicates a change in the drift of larval herrings, 
another sample examined in early July points to other factors 
influencing the fishery. The mixed nature of the sample as regards 
development of gonads and growth (page 66) points to the shoal 
from which it was taken as having a composition which could be 
brought about by migrations only. 
One of the striking things in connexion with our herring 
fisheries of 1920 and 1921 was the poor quality of the herrings, 
and Mr. Beazor, of Yarmouth, informs me that in the whole of 
his twenty-six years’ experience he has not known herrings so 
bad as they were in 1921. He emphasised also the difference, 
to which attention has been drawn on page 23, between the Clyde 
herrings and those of the North Sea, and stated that during last 
season Clyde herrings were brought to Yarmouth and there cured. 
That this difference between the Clyde and the North Sea was so 
marked denotes probably a difference in time or intensity of the 
flow of Atlantic water into the Clyde area, as the poor quality of 
North Sea herrings coincided with an abnormal invasion of 
Atlantic water into the North Sea. 
It has not been possible to obtain any data relating to the 
quality of herrings over a number of years, but Hjort* gives some 
facts in connection with the condition of Norwegian cod. It was 
found that the quantity of liver obtained from Lofoten skrei 
(large cod) varied considerably from year to year, and a com- 
parison was made with the number of sun spots to see if there 
was an agreement between the two phenomena. Now, the sun- 
spot period during the years under consideration was approxi- 
mately a thirteen-year period, and no relation between the two 
curves is apparent. But if the cusps of the liver curve be con- 
sidered they will be found to fall in the years 1890, 1899 and 1908, 
showing clearly: a nine-year period. The years for the least 
amount of liver do not fall so regularly, but they tend to come 
midway between the maxima and to follow what have been stated 
to be years when the tide generating force of the moon approaches 
a maximum. 


* Pluctuations in the Great Fisheries of Northern Europe. 
