THE BRITISH HERRING FISHERY 



fisherman is an ass and he is not or that luck is always 

 with the fleet. The herring fisherman, especially he of 

 the North, is an exceedingly astute person, and will not 

 risk his valuable tackle unless there is reasonable hope of 

 gaining something thereby. True, there are times when 

 he comes back with an almost empty boat, but such 

 a calamity is more often than not due to some unforeseen 

 accident, such as a trawler's having split up a shoal ; and 

 it is made up for by the next lucky night. He has very 

 reliable indications of a shoal being in the vicinity the 

 systematic flight of the sea-birds, a peculiar boiling up of 

 the sea in isolated patches, the presence of porpoises or an 

 occasional whale ; perhaps his wife or children have spent 

 half the day watching for the appearance of such signs ; 

 or he has done well at a certain spot on the previous 

 night and means to try his luck again at the same place ; 

 in any case he will not go unless there is something 

 to go for. 



Sometimes a shoal moves from district to district with 

 such rapidity that only the boat which happens to be on 

 a certain spot at a given moment stands the least chance 

 of making a capture ; other craft that have put off a 

 little later will come up to find that the coveted shoal 

 has swept onwards from say the Firth of Clyde, south- 

 wards ; and to-morrow one or two fortunate Manx or 

 Irish crews will have netted the fish that to-day have cir- 

 cumvented the Scotchmen ; what remains of them being, 

 perhaps, snapped up by the Devon men a night or 

 two later. 



When the " signs " are sufficiently promising, the boats 



