LORD OF THE FISHES 119 



the delivery of these good and useful things, and they 

 were refused, the discomfited sheriffs apparently retiring, 

 baffled and pieless. 



In his report on the Norfolk fisheries Buckland 

 said it would be well within the mark to declare that 

 every favourable night during September, October, and 

 November there were fishing for herrings in the North 

 Sea between 5000 and 6000 miles of netting. Writing 

 of the enormous shoals, he said that Captain M' Donald, 

 of the cruiser Vigilant, informed the commissioners ap- 

 pointed to inquire into the Herring Fisheries of Scotland 

 (of whom Buckland was one) that at the end of August 

 1877 he fell in with a shoal of herrings at a depth of 

 1 08 ft. The shoal extended for 4 miles in length 

 along the coast, and was 2 miles broad. In order to 

 get some idea of this shoal, Buckland scaled out its 

 dimensions on a map of London. Supposing one end 

 of the shoal to be at the Marble Arch on the west, the 

 other end on the east, extending in a straight line, 

 would reach the London Docks beyond the Tower, and 

 the width would be from the House of Commons to 

 Euston Square Station. Captain M 'Donald stated that 

 the shoal was a solid mass of herrings. Buckland came 

 to the conclusion that the progress of an army of herrings 

 through the water might be illustrated by the observa- 

 tion of a flock of rooks or starlings flying through the 

 air. Supposing a net were floated haphazard in the 

 air, on the chance of catching a flock of rooks, the birds 

 might strike the net in a body at the middle of the net, 

 while the portions of the net to the right and left of it 

 would catch only comparatively few birds. So it is with 

 the herrings. If there is no indication of their where- 



