of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 11 
tag, suitably treated, and then liberating them, and over 500 
herrings have been thus dealt with. The tag contains directions 
to the finder and enables the particular herring to be identified. 
So far, five of the marked herrings have been caught again, but as 
they were. caught within the loch, and not far from the place of 
liberation, they do not afford evidence as to the route of the 
herrings from the loch or their destination. The herring is much 
more delicate than ordinary round fishes and flat fishes, as plaice 
and cod, which are made the subject of similar experiments, and it 
was found necessary to attach the tag to them while they were 
still in the water within the bag of the seine-net. This method 
will be persevered in, since the recovery of a single marked herring 
at a distance from the place of liberation, particularly if it is 
caught at a spawning-ground and about the spawning-time, affords 
direct and conclusive evidence as to the migration of that particular 
herring, and presumptive evidence as to the movement of the shoal 
to which it belongs, since the individuals composing it are governed 
by a common object, namely, reproduction. 
The second method consists in the attempt to identify a particular 
shoal by a study of the characters of the herrings belonging to it. 
It was applied in particular to the large and fine fish which loiter 
till near the end of the year in the deep water of the upper loch, 
which they quit by easy stages, and are believed, and probably 
rightly, to make their way down Kilbrennan Sound to spawn in 
the early months of the year somewhere off the southern part of 
Kintyre. Many hundreds of these herrings were examined at 
different periods, weighed, various measurements tabulated, and 
the condition and weight of the reproductive organs determined ; 
the latter observations affording incidentally valuable information 
as to the ripening process and its duration. These herrings were 
traced down the loch at the end of the year, and they appear to 
have gone down Kilbrennan Sound, but, owing to the absence of 
the Fishery Officer at Campbeltown on other duties, sufficient 
samples of the herrings being caught in the early part of the year 
could not be procured. It is accepted as a working hypothesis 
that these large herrings pass down Kilbrennan Sound, but there is 
not conclusive evidence to show that they do so. 
In the meantime, it may be pointed out that in the past the 
fluctuations in the yield of herrings in Lochfyne in different years 
have been noteworthy, as the following Table, which covers the 
long period of half a century, ‘shows :— 
| | 
Average Average 
j rerao’ i y - 
Gun: Vere Period ee alae ae Lee) Minimum Catch Maximum Catch 
of Boats.| Barrels | Barrels mm Decade: an Decade, 
| Taken, |per Boat. 
ianens Barrels. Barrels, 
1827-36, 300 | 3,469 lie 1,458 (1830) 4,898 (1832) 
1837-46, . 350 | 7,388 25°1 3,225 (1839) 9,400 (1846) | 
| 
1847-56, . 396 | 19,949 50-4 10,6380 (1852) 32,726 (1851) | 
1857-66, . 558 | 33,096 59°3 | 16,151 (1864) 79,893 (1862) 
1867-76, . 479 | 25,561 53°4 | 6,934 (1874) 34,471 (1876) | 
