CHAP, vi.] NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE HERRING. 283 



left iii the water, would have caught as many herring as a 

 number of fishermen equal to all those in Scotland, and six 

 thousand more, in the same year ; and as the cod and ling 

 caught were certainly not one tithe part of those left behind, 

 we may fairly estimate the destruction of herring by these 

 voracious fish alone as at least ten times as great as that 

 effected by all the fishermen put together." As to only one 

 of the numerous land enemies of the herring, the late Mr. 

 Wilson, in his Tour round Scotland, calculated that the gan- 

 nets or solan geese frequenting one island alone St. Kilda 

 picked out of the water for their food 214 millions of herrings 

 every summer ! The shoals that can withstand these destruc- 

 tive agencies must indeed be vast, especially when taken in 

 connection with the millions of herrings that are accidentally 

 killed by the nets, and never brought ashore for food purposes. 

 The work accomplished by these natural enemies of the her- 

 ring, which has been going on during all time, does not how- 

 ever affect my argument, that by the concentration on one 

 shoal of a thousand boats per annum, with an annually- 

 increasing net-power, we both so weaken and frighten the 

 shoal that it becomes in time unproductive. As the late Mr. 

 Methuen said in one of his addresses : " We have been told 

 that we are to have dominion over the fish of the sea, but 

 dominion does not mean extermination." 



Although Scotland is the main seat of the herring-fishery, 

 I should like to see statistics, similar to those collected in 

 Scotland, taken at a few English ports for a period of years, 

 in order that we might obtain additional data from which to 

 arrive at a right conclusion as to the increase or decrease of 

 the fishery for herring. It is possible to collect statistics of 

 the cereal and root crops of the country ; it was done for all 

 Scotland during three seasons, and it was well and quickly 

 accomplished. What can be done for the land may also, I 

 think, be done for the sea. I believe the present Board for 



