[17] THE FISH SUPPLY OP LONDON. 659 



same thing- goes on in the sea, and the minute forms of life upon which 

 the fish feed are afl'ected by the warmth or cold of particular years. 

 When there is a defective production of these forms of alimentary life 

 the fish are obliged to scatter in search of food, and are not collected to- 

 gether so as to be easily caught by the net or trawl. In conclusion, 

 Mr. Walpole pointed out that, although man is singularly deficient in 

 statistics bearing upon fish, it is possible to reason in some measure 

 from the particular to the universal by examining the details of the her- 

 ring fishing, with which we are more or less acquainted. 



" We know," he continued, " that the Scotch fishermen on an aver- 

 age take one thousand million herrings a year. We know also that the 

 iSTorwegian fishermen take from the ISTorth Sea another one thousand 

 million herrings per annum, while I am sure that other fishermen who 

 work the North Sea take at least another one thousand million. There- 

 fore we may assume that the fishermen of Europe draw three thousand 

 millions of herrings annually from the North Sea. I think it beyond 

 doubt that the predacious fish and birds kill as many herrings annually 

 as fishermen do, and therefore man and other enemies draw six thou- 

 sand millions of herrings a year from the North Sea. Now I do not sup- 

 pose that any one with the least acquaintance with the subject would 

 say that all these enemies of the herring catch one in every hundred ; 

 but, to i3ut myself beyond all possibility of error, I will assume they 

 catch one in every two. Then at the end of the year the account must 

 be, six thousand millions of herrings taken and six thousand millions 

 left. Assuming that of those left half are females it is obvious that to 

 maintain the stock these females must produce two herrings apiece to 

 make twelve thousand millions next year. But a female herring does 

 not lay two eggs ; she lays from 20,000 to 30,000. Assuming that she 

 lays 10,000 eggs, it is obvious that nature intends out of every 5,000 she 

 lays that 4,909 should die. If it were not so the whole sea would be 

 full of herrings." 



The conclusion at which Mr. Walpole arrived is that " the North Sea 

 is practically inexhaustible." These are encouraging words, and they 

 are borne out by the evidence of Mr. Robert Hewett, who is the man- 

 aging director of Hewett & Co., a limited company which owns eight 

 steamers and sixty fishing smacks of its own, and has in addition nearly 

 one hundred other fishing smacks under mortgage, and about thirty 

 more associated with it. Mr. Hewett deposed that since 1864 the com- 

 pany which he manages — 



" Have brought much more wet trawl fish to Billingsgate than any 

 other firm or company ; that the fleet under his control consists of 183 

 smacks ; that the fleet fish during the night and in the morning put 

 their catch, which is packed in boxes containing about ninety pounds of 

 fish each, on board the steamers which wait upon them ; that the boxes 

 when taken on board the steamers are immediately put into the hold 

 and buried in ice, and are thus brought direct to Billingsgate; that on 



