17 



Herring Fisheries, ilated 1st March 1878, it is stated that there are five 

 Scottish breeding places for the Gannet, and Captain jM'Donahl, in a 

 letter to Lord Caithness, in Appendix No. II. of the Report, p. 171, 

 estimates the numbers annually breeding on the several stations to be 

 as follows (and from his long ex]XTience he is probably pretty correct) : — 

 Ailsa Craig, 12,000; Ikss Rock, 12,000; St Kilda, 50,000; the Stack, 

 off Cape Wrath, 50,000 ; and Sula Sgeir, 40 miles north-east of the 

 Butt of Lewis, 200,000 — in all, 324,000. Though no evidence appears 

 on the face of the Report as to Captain M'Donald having considered 

 the supply of fish on the Scottish coasts as in no way diminishing from 

 the superabundance of sea birds, still I know it to have been his 

 opinion, and this is borne out in the letter above alluded to, in which he 

 thus remarks : — " The Gidls, Cormorants, Hawks, Guillemots, Puffins, 

 and other birds prey upon the herring at every stage of their growth, 

 and must take a very large quantity, of which no one can pretend to 

 fonn an estimate, and I consider that the quantity taken both by men 

 and birds forms a very small proportion of what is destroyed in the 

 shape of spawn, herring fry, and full grown herrings by fish of all 

 kinds. I have, therefore, no fear about the herrings being fished-up 

 on the Caitliness Coast, or any other part of the coast they visit ;" and 

 in continuation, he gives expression of his being favourable to sea bird 

 protection, owing to " their marked decrease going on year after year ;" 

 and the late Mr Buckland, as one of the Commissioners, in his ^Natural 

 History of the Herring, in the same Appendix No. II. of the Report, 

 makes the following apt remark- — " It is finally to be observed that, in 

 spite of all the enemies which are continually preying on them, and 

 the enormous losses which they must suffer, Nature holds in her hand 

 the balance of compensation, resulting in the fact that annual fecundity 

 exceeds the total sum of the annual destruction." Lastly, in the 

 summary of the general conclusions arrived at by the Connnissioners, 

 they state in conclusion No. 1 : — " The Herring Fishery on the coasts 

 of Scotland, as a whole, has increased and is increasiivj ;" and in con- 

 clusion No. 3 — " Nothing that man has yet done, and nothing that 

 man is likely to do, has diminished or is lihely to diminish the general 

 stock of herrings in the sea." Is it not, therefore, somewhat surprising 

 that in the last of the conclusions. No. 13 (though there is nothing in 

 any of the previous ones shewing the birds to be so detrimental to the 

 fisheries as to require it, but rather an inference to the contrary) 

 the Commissioners should recommend the repeal of the Act in so 

 far as applies to Scotland 1 This naturally attracted the attention of 

 the Close Time Committee appointed by the British Association, in 

 which they gave it as their decided opinion — 



