of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 167 
so on, are very abundant, the numbers of sprats and young herring in our 
estuaries would very likely be much greater, although the actual total 
number of both fish in the sea would rapidly grow less. In this way, 
then, we may find a possible explanation of the occurrence of fat and lean 
fishing seasons in the various sprat fisheries round our coasts. 
In connection with the above ideas I interviewed several fishermen and 
buyers belonging to Dundee, Broughty-Ferry, and St. Andrews, and 
obtained information from them which went to support my theories. 
I found that very few sprats and young herring had been present 
in St. Andrews Bay during the autumn wonths of 1905, and that little or 
no cod were caught there during the same time. After, however, a week 
of storms in the North Sea, a large shoal of sprats, unmixed with young 
herring, made its appearance in St. Andrews Bay on the 2nd or 3rd of 
November, 1905, and large numbers of cod and whiting were being caught 
there at the same time. 
All the cod, the fishermen informed me, were simply gorged with sprats, 
and many of the cod were vomiting up the sprats whilst being hauled on 
board. 
This large shoal of sprats made its appearance in the Tay estuary about 
the same time as it did in St. Andrews Bay, and on the 6th of November 
the largest catch of the season—namely, 186? crans—was made by the 
Tay sprat fishermen. 
Another, if not greater, storm of easterly gales and rain took place on 
the 13th November, 1905, and caused great loss and damage to fishing 
apparatus in St. Andrews Bay. It also completely cleared out all the cod 
and codling as well as the sprats in the bay, and since that date, and 
until the close of the sprat fishing season towards the end of the following 
February, the fishing in St. Andrews Bay was a complete failure. 
This great storm caused little or no increase in the numbers of sprats in 
the Tay estuary, so that the bulk of the St. Andrews Bay sprats must 
have sought shelter elsewhere. 
Following closely upon the disappearance of the cod and codling from 
St. Andrews Bay, or in the course of the next two or three days after the 
storm, the Tay sprat fishing almost suddenly fell away and became a 
complete failure, and, further, it remained a failure along with the St. 
Andrews Bay fishing until the close of the Tay sprat fishing season, 
I aiso found, upon further inquiry, that the season of 1904-1905 was 
a poor cod and codling fishing season in St. Andrews Bay, and this, of 
course, entirely coincides with the poor and unproductive sprat fishing in 
the Tay estuary at the same time. 
With regard to the difference in the quality of the sprats during the 
two past seasons, it may be that owing to the mildness and exceptional 
dryness of the season 1904-1905 the younger forms of the sprat were 
enabled to remain much longer and much more constantly in the Tay 
estuary than usual, and that the cold and heavy spates of the past season 
1905-1906 drove the younger and smaller forms of sprats out into the 
sea. These and like questions, however, can only be answered by 
observations and experiments extending over a period of several years, and 
require very careful scientific study. 
Note ON THE ExTERNAL DIFFRBRENCBS BETWEEN THE SPRAT 
AND THE YOUNG OF THE HERRING. 
There is generally not much difficulty in distinguishing a sprat from a 
young herring, even when the external features are only taken into 
account and the internal structure left entirely alone. 
