LORD OF THE FISHES 121 



ride serenely ; and the sight is one to gladden the heart 

 of the superficial and impressionable onlooker. The 

 full moon is shining placidly, and there is perfect 

 and rare peace on the North Sea yet the constant 

 war is going on, for the floats and corks around 

 us indicate the miles of nets that are hung down 

 in the water, and in the meshes of which already 

 scores of thousands of herrings must be imprisoned. 

 The fishers may or may not have luck. So far the 

 season has not been good. It began badly, with small 

 catches, but big prices ; then came heavy catches, with 

 such a glut of the markets that there was not in some 

 cases any sale at all, and the fishermen had to take 

 thousands of crans of herrings back to sea and throw 

 them overboard. 



The first attempt to hatch the herring at Grimsby 

 was made in 1889 by the attendant of the Grimsby 

 Marine Fisheries Society Ltd. J. Epton. He went 

 off in herring-boats three times for the purpose of 

 getting herring ova ; but he was not very successful. 

 On one of his excursions he found only one ripe herring. 

 As the herring-fishing is done at night, and the ova 

 must be procured while the herring is still alive, the 

 work of getting it was difficult, especially as a good 

 light is needed and appliances must be at hand. The 

 ways of herring-boats are almost as erratic as those 

 of the fish itself. The attendant was landed on one 

 occasion at Scarborough, at another time he was 

 taken to Lowestoft, so that by the time he reached 

 Grimsby the eggs had suffered considerably. The 

 eggs, which are adhesive, had been collected on sheets 

 of glass at sea. For some time there was hope of 



