492 



Thh; Review of Reviews. 



THE BRITISH HERRING FISHERY. 



Just now, as an article by Mr. W. A. Dutt, 

 in Cdssi-ll's Magazine for November, reminds us, 

 it is tbc herring season on the east coast, when 

 " Yarmouth bloaters " and kippers are being pre- 

 pared. Herring-fishing is a very old industry. 

 So long ago as Richard II. 's time it was so 

 well established as to win exemption from feudal 

 service for those engaged in it. With the opening of 

 railways and the adoption of steam navigation it 

 entered on a new phase, for much more fish could be 

 delivered to markets before it had time to become 

 tainted. Moreover, the picturesque wooden sailing 

 vessels of the fishermen began to be superseded by 

 far less picturesque but more serviceable steamers, 

 more serviceable because independent of tide and 

 weather. A Yarmouth or Lowestoft fishing steamer 

 costs from ;^2,5oo to ^3,500, and the fishing gear 

 another ;^i,ooo. There is a curious system of 

 apportioning the profits of the Lowestoft fishing 

 season. They are divided into 23^ shares, the owner 

 of the boat receiving 14-^ and the crew the rest, in 

 certain fixed proportions, from ij for the master to 

 one-half for the cook. The Yarmouth and Lowestoft 

 fishing season begin in October and ends about the 

 middle of December, about ten weeks' fishing, during 

 which a boat has been known to earn as much as 

 ^2,300. 



Herrings, of course, are caught not only oft" these 

 two ports, but also off the Shetlands, and the north- 

 east coast of Scotland in spring and summer, and 

 later on at Scarborough and Grimsby; but most are 

 taken during the " home fishing " off the east coast 

 of England.' Off Inverness, Fraserburgh, Kirkcaldy, 

 and other Scotch ports herrings are also caught. At 

 a busy fishing port during the herring season there is 

 no talk of working only an eight hours day. Kipper- 

 girls, gutters, and others often work till midnight. 

 The fish are measured by the " cran," which dispenses 

 with the men who used to be known as " tellers " or 

 counters. Quarter-cran baskets are generally used. 

 each containing from 250 to 300 fair-sized herrings^ 

 Thousands of girls are employed, both in Scotland 

 and England, to " rive " the fish for making bloaters, 

 s[)lit them for kippering, and gut and prepare them 

 for export. These girls become very quick and 

 expert at their work, and with their sharp little 

 gutting-knives can gill and draw a fish at one stroke. 

 Until a few years ago the Scottish girls, both at 

 Yarmouth and Lowestoft, did nearly all their work 

 m the open air, no matter how bad the weather, but 

 lately wooden shelters have been provided for them 

 to work in while riving the herrings. Refreshment 

 rooms are also specially provided for them, and 

 trained nurses are in attendance to dress the severe 

 cuts which arc often inflicted by the sharp gutting- 

 knives. 



It never happens now that an immense catch of 

 herrings can be sold only for manuring land, for the 

 foreign buyer is present at the Yarmouth and Lowes- 



toft markets during the .season, as well as the British 

 buyer, and what the latter leaves the former generally 

 takes. As recently as 1907, however, when more 

 than 80,000 crans (about 106,986,000 herrings) were 

 landed in one day at the two east coast ports, a good 

 many could not be sold, but had to be thrown back 

 into the sea. Comparatively few of the herrings 

 caught, however, are sold while fresh, the majority 

 being pickled for export, preserved or " cured " in one 

 way or another for home use. 



THE BEST TIME TO BECOME A PARENT. 



In the Evgenics Rcvirw for October Dr. R. y. 

 Ewart gives a summary of his investigations into 

 the vital statistics of the population of Middlesbrough, 

 made to ascertain the influence of parental age on 

 offspring. He devotes his attention to the children 

 of the working classes only, and bases his conclusions 

 on their respective measurements, taking it as a rule 

 tliat the taller class is a better human specimen than 

 the less tall. 



He finds that the mother produces her best girl 

 before^her twenty-fifth year, and her best boy in the 

 twenty-six to thirty age period ; the average being a 

 little over half an inch above the mean height for boys. 

 and a little under that figure for girls. The father 

 has the best sons during the thirty to thirty-five age 

 period, and not in the twenty-five to thirty period, as 

 with the mother. In respect to girls, the results are 

 not so uniform, though the same trend can be seen. 

 With a fether between thirty-one and thirty-five, and 

 a mother between twenty-five and thirty, we get a boy 

 41 '87 inches in height, an excess of nearly two inches 

 over the|mean of those born before the twentieth year. 



Among the very poor, in the middle and the most 

 fertile of the reproductive period, the children tend 

 to fall below the average. The reason he finds in 

 the fact that the birth interval is shortest at the time 

 of greatest fertility. He mentions that under proper 

 conditions of rest, etc., " the majority of women, bar- 

 ring accidents, are in every way improved by child- 

 birth. It appears as though the exuberant vitality 

 of the growing offspring pervades through the tissues 

 of the mother herself and makes for her wellbeing." 

 He says that the expectancy of life of those born at 

 maturity of parents is about fifty years, and at the 

 extremes is about half that figure. 



In a natural state, the season of the year most 

 favourable fo/ conception seems to have been the 

 spring, with the birth occurring in the following 

 January, February, or March, and the writer thinks 

 that much benefit would accrue if the habit could 

 i)e re-established through the agency of the will. A 

 child so born has two summers to one winter, and 

 has a better chance of life, 



A MOST interestmg feature m the United Empire iox 

 October is the sketch of the hi.story of British diplomacy 

 in Canada, in connection with the Ashburton Treaty. 

 There are most striking reproductions of the maps 

 used at the time. 



