EXTEACTS FROM LECTURE DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR T. H. HUX- 

 LEY AT THE NATIONAL FISHERY EXHIBITION, NORWICH, ENG- 

 LAND, APRIL 21, 1881.* 



THE HERRING. 



It is now nineteen years since my attention was first specially di- 

 rected to the natural history of the herring, and to the many im- 

 portant economical and legal questions connected with the herring- 

 fisheries. As a member of two successive Royal Commissions, it fell 

 to my lot to take part in inquiries held at every important fishing- 

 station in the United Kingdom between the years 1862 and 1865, and 

 to hear all that practical fishermen had to tell about the matter ; while 

 I had free access to the official records of the Fishery Boards. Nor 

 did I neglect such opportunities as presented themselves of studying 

 the fish itself, and of determining the scientific value of the terms by 

 which, in the language of fishermen, the various conditions of the 

 herring are distinguished. 



******* 



In 1864 we had to listen to dolorous prophecies of the coming ex- 

 haustion of the Scotch herring-fisheries. The fact that the returns 

 showed no falling off was ascribed to the improvement of the gear 

 and methods of fishing, and to the much greater distances to which 

 the fishermen extend their operations. Yet what has really hap- 

 pened? The returns of subsequent years prove, not only that the 

 average cure of the decade 1869-'78 was considerably greater than 

 that of the previous decade, but that the years 1874 and 1880 are 

 absolutely without parallel in the annals of the Scotch herring-fish- 

 ery, 1,000,000 barrels having been cured in the first of these years, and 

 1,500.000 in 1880. In the decade 1859-'68, the average was 670,000 

 barrels, and the highest 830,000. 



In dealing with questions of biology, a priori reasoning is some- 

 what risky, and, if any one tells me "it stands to reason " that such 

 and such things must happen, I generally find reason to doubt the 

 safety of his standing. 



It is said that " it stands to reason " that destruction on such a 

 prodigious scale as that effected by herring-fishers must tell on the 

 supply. But again let us look at the facts. It is said that 2,500,000,- 

 000, or thereabout, of herrings are every year taken out of the North 

 Sea and the Atlantic. Suppose we assume the number to be 3,000,- 

 000,000 so as to be quite safe. It is a large number undoubtedly, but 

 what does it come to? Not more than that of the herrings which 

 may be contained in one shoal, if it covers half a dozen square miles 



Republished from "Nature" in the Popular Science Monthly, (New York, 

 1881), Vol. XIX, p. 433. 



506 



