90 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



Whether there is any reason to fear that the 

 margin is insufficient ; and to add to the ten 

 millions multiplied into all the cod that swim the 

 sea, a few millions more, is very doubtful. Possibly 

 any alarm in the matter is premature, and the 

 anxiety wears a certain external resemblance to 

 the act of Mrs. Partington and her broom. But, 

 with a praiseworthy foresight, precautions are being 

 taken. 



As a development of the marine laboratory, an 

 experimental breeding station has been started at 

 Dunbar, where the eggs of the fishes chiefly the 

 plaice as yet are passed through the earlier critical 

 stages, and finally dropped into the sea. With what 

 result to the yield of St. Andrews Bay, and the 

 Firth of Forth, which have been the chief bene- 

 fiters, it will probably remain to the end hard to 

 determine. Upwards of thirty-eight million plaice 

 eggs, and two million cod, have been distributed 

 this year. 



The main exception to all this is the herring. 

 These gather to the banks from the north, south, 

 east, and west, at the early and late spawning 

 seasons. In summer they form such immense 

 shoals, and are swept into the nets in such amazing 

 quantities, as to make them the food of the poor. 



