of the Longstoiie, were pickled. It is generally held that these 

 herrings now rarely visit the coast, the last record of them previous 

 to 1915 being some ten or twelve years ago. Towards the end 

 of August spent fish became numerous, and the shoal departed to 

 be replaced by a September shoal of smaller but full herrings. 

 The fishermen at Beadnell are of the opinion that the herrings 

 came to Craster Smooth from the north-east. After spawning, 

 the fish moved quickly eastwards, and in such numbers as to 

 occasionally take away the nets. The surface of the water when 

 this movement was in progress was highly phosphorescent, and the 

 path of the departing fish could be seen some time before they 

 struck the nets. 



Messrs. R. Boston & Sons, fish curers, of Spittal, have supplied 

 the following interesting information regarding the herring shoals 

 fished in former years. 



" It was in the year 1901 that the last herring shoals visited 

 Berwick Bay. The chief fishing w^as during the month of August, 

 and more particularly towards the end of the month. The class 

 of herrings caught w^ere principally mat-fulls, and about ten inches 

 in length. The greater part of them were salted and exported to 

 the German and Russian markets. We always looked for the fish 

 getting spent towards the end of the month, but after three or 

 four days another school took their place, but did not stay so 

 long on the ground, and generally disappeared about the first 

 week in September. The shoals at the Longstone and Craster 

 Smooth were fished at the same time, but a few days after they 

 set in ' The Smooth,' they became softer and the women experi- 

 enced difficulty in gutting them without tearing. These herrings 

 were almost without exception mat-fulls. The herrings in Berwick 

 Bay invariably set in at Burnmouth, and worked south to Holy 

 Island Head. Berwick Bay was fished from two to five miles 

 out." 



The general opinion in connexion with the large shoals of 

 adult spawning herrings, which used to visit the Northumberland 

 coast, is that they came from the north-east, and that they did 

 not reach this district until August, or at the earhest the latter 

 part of July, 



