1/6 MARKETABLE BRITISH MARINE FISHES 



five to seven inches long, and there is no regular succession of 

 sizes as the season advances. The latter fact is not surprising 

 when we consider the long spawning period, and the rapid 

 movements of the shoals. Early in the season, in May, for 

 instance, the fish caught may be those which were hatched in 

 the early part of the preceding season, while in the next month 

 shoals may appear which were hatched in September or October, 

 and are therefore very much smaller. At the same time it has 

 been observed that the sardines of the latter end of the season 

 are larger on the average than at the beginning. The facts here 

 mentioned concerning French waters are obtained from the 

 observations of the late Professor Pouchet, who studied the 

 natural history of the sardine at Concarneau on the coast of 

 Brittany. In the years 1887 to 1890 there was a serious crisis 

 in the sardine industry of France, the fish having failed to 

 appear on the coast in their usual abundance. The Government 

 were anxious, as usual in such a case, to obtain as much accurate 

 information as possible from scientific men, concerning the life, 

 reproduction, and history of the fish, and Professor Pouchet on 

 the west coast and Professor Marion at Marseilles endeavoured 

 to obtain the information, which as usual was not available and 

 not energetically sought until a special demand arose. The 

 Cornish industry has recently suffered from a depression caused 

 more by the failure of the market than of the supply of fish. 

 The natural history of the pilchard was investigated at Plymouth 

 from 1889 to 1894, and the credit of having carried the inquiries 

 to a successful conclusion and solved the problems which in 

 France were declared to be insoluble in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the coast, belongs to the Plymouth Laboratory. 



Hitherto naturalists have not had the opportunity of studying 

 the occurrence of yearling pilchards on the coasts of Devon and 

 Cornwall in summer time, although there is every reason to 

 believe that they occur there in numbers. But at the end of 

 1891 a fleet of small-meshed nets, intended to capture anchovies, 

 was shot frequently, and took considerable numbers of small 

 pilchards. These were taken in November and December in 

 numbers varying from 8 to 500. Their lengths were from 5 to 

 6\ inches. With them were taken others larger and older. The 

 small fish must have been just over a year old, hatched late in 

 the preceding season. 



