51 
a regular boat-building industry. Vessels ‘were réitt 
specially for it.. But more than thirty years since the 
herring deserted the bay. Why, no one knows. Old 
fishermen say the artillery practice at Fleetwood’ and 
Morecambe was the cause. Certainly herring and mackerel 
are very timid fish. I have been out in Morecanibe Bay, 
off King’s Scarr; lying at anchor with a large ‘shoal ‘of 
mackerel playing on the surface ’and almost close to the 
boat. At thé boom of a gun fired from Fleetwood they all 
instantly disappeared, and I-saw no more of them, > I 
hardly think, however, that if food was plentiful the her- 
rings would desert, though firing late in the evening would 
probably make them very timid and spoil the night’s 
fishing. I fancy it is a question of food. The herrings 
have not absolutely deserted the bay. A few are caught 
in stake nets every year on Pilling Sands, and their fry, 
in the shape of ‘‘ whitebait,” exists in large numbers, 
Before the bye-laws were passed, I often made test draw- 
ings along the coast, with specially-constructed nets, to 
ascertain the state of things. These nets could-never 
have been used commercially. No fisherman would have 
helped me and taken part of the catch as his share of the 
day’s work. They could do no possible harm, and_ they 
yielded valuable results, but to prevent anything being 
known by the public except through such information as 
they edited and often misinterpreted, these drawings were 
