SEA FISHERIES 127 



put to it to live. Such a failure sets those whose 

 livelihood is threatened, thinking. The fishermen 

 seek a sign, usually an obvious one, and in the 

 present case the bad season was attributed to 

 the presence of certain Norwegian whaling com- 

 panies, which a few years ago established them- 

 selves in the Shetlands, and are vigorously 

 destroying all the whales they can find in the 

 neighbouring seas. These are killed for their 

 blubber, the flesh is made into sausages, which 

 go to make up the deficiency of meat then so 

 widely felt in central Europe, and the bones 

 are ground up and used as manure. It is, how- 

 ever, doubtful if the whaling is responsible for 

 the scarcity of the herrings. 



According to the evidence collected by Mr. 

 Donald Crawford's Committee on this subject 

 in 1904 it would appear that practically the only 

 point on which the fishermen were then agreed 

 was that the spouting of the whales was often a 

 good guide as to the position of the herring shoals. 

 But the whales do not bring the herrings. It is 

 probable that the general migrations and shoaling 

 habits of the herrings are far more dependent 

 on the physical character of the water, a relation 

 which is particularly clear, as the International 



