^6 HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE 



the spawning of tlie herring. It is quite true that a great 

 many of the objections which have been made to the 

 operation of certain modes of fishing have been entirely 

 due to mistaken ideas as to natural history^ as, for instance, 

 the supposed loss caused to the spawn of the herring by 

 the system of fishing known as trawling. A good number 

 of my own people have been for centuries almost entirely 

 dependent upon the herring, and, strange to say, within 

 the last twenty years the shoal of herring have almost 

 deserted the upper poi^tion of Loch Fyne, where there had 

 been for generations most lucrative fishing. The poor 

 fishermen hold that this desertion is owing to the employ- 

 ment of a special mode of fishing, but it really arises from 

 causes which no man knows, as yet. These poor people 

 believe that this decline in the yield of the herring is due 

 to the new mode of fishing introduced twenty-five years 

 ago, and which is locally termed '^ trawling, ^' though 

 totally different from what is termed trawling in England. 

 It is really fishing by the use of a seine net. The fisher- 

 men think that trawling breaks the shoals, scaring the 

 herring and intercepting their passage to Loch Fyne. 

 Another objection is, that a seine net drags up quantities 

 of spawn, but this is found to be impossible, for the spawn 

 shed on a stone adheres firmly to it, and the action of the 

 trawl net cannot possibly disturb the spawn, which has 

 been discovered clearly to be deposited by the female fish 

 so as all to adhere to the bottom. 



I am strongly of opinion that, in starting our Society, we 

 should in the main look to the interests of biology as a 

 science. For my own part, I can sincerely say that I came 

 here to move this resolution as a means of promoting 

 biological research. I look upon biology as by far the 

 highest of all the branches of natural science. I know 

 that there are some persons who will not accept that pro- 

 position. Some prefer the more exact sciences, in which 

 they can obtain results supported by positive demonstration, 

 and capable of methodical proof. There are many persons 

 who decry researches in biology on the ground that they 

 are less certain and exact, and that they are accompanied 



