THE HERRING FISHERY. 19 



food and shelter to the young whiting, and dies on the 



approach of winter. A warm summer must therefore, as I A warm 



said before, have a beneficial influence on the fishing, as it is beneficial. 



generally the end of summer when herrings become " prime." 



If, however, the herrings cannot get this food, which appears Other food. 



to be specially prepared for them, they will take shrimps or 



other small fish. It is in August that our lochs teem with Deep-water 



herrings, especially our deep-water lochs, and it is there 



that herrings get that fine flavour for which Loch Fyne 



herrings are so much famed. When fishing in Loch Fyne 



I have seen the nets lowered twenty, forty, and even fifty 



fathoms below the surface to get these fine herrings. In 



Loch Hourn and all other deep-water lochs along our 



coasts the herrings improve in quality very rapidly. About 



August herrings gather into large bodies, and if broken up Density of 



they immediately close again so as to protect themselves 



against their enemies. These shoals can only be attacked 



on the flanks, as when alarmed the body becomes so dense 



that the assailant is in danger of being choked by the 



multitudes. It is for such shoals that trawlers naturally The shoals 



J and the 

 watch. If they are not seen in the daytime by the trawlers. 



appearances I have already described there are other ways 

 of finding them at night. If it is a moonlight night 

 fishermen watch eagerly for them rushing or " putting up " "Putting up.' 

 on the surface of the water. 



But when the night is dark, a man is stationed on the A dark 

 look-out, and by striking on the gunwale of the boat, the ' 

 herrings can easily be seen moving by means of the 

 phosphorus that is in the water. If herrings are plentiful Phosphorus, 

 they will make such a flame that it will light up all around 

 the boat when a heavy stroke is given on the gunwale. I 

 saw a statement by one of our professors, to the effect that 

 he had examined the head of a herring and that it con- 



