CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 241 



stated that " a light appeared to the fishermen which 

 greatly annoyed them ; it appeared like a furnace standing 

 in the water, and the glare of the light stood to a great 

 height; it vanished by daylight, and appeared tw^o nights ; 

 it stood so near some of the boats, that the men thought 

 of cutting from their nets to get out of its way." There 

 can be no doubt whatever that this brilliant appearance 

 emanated from a large shoal of herrings near the surface. 

 Indeed, old fishermen on the south-east coast are quite 

 accustomed to the sight, but perhaps not to such a great 

 degree of intensity as arose from the peculiar state of the 

 sea and the atmosphere on the occasion mentioned. 



In 1841 the herrings were rather abundant in several 

 of the bays or lochs on the West Coast of Scotland. At 

 Loch Carron there was a considerable quantity fished of 

 full-sized herrings, and at Loch Torridon the quantity 

 caught in July was considerable, first at Garvelean Island, 

 and then the shoal of herrings proceeded gradually higher 

 up. Such was the abundance of the shoal at Garvelean 

 Island that the nets of one boat took 120 crans in one 

 night. At Loch Sunart the fishing was also very large, and 

 the quality of the herrings was superior to that of some 

 of the neighbouring lochs ; but at several other of these 

 lochs the fishery w^as also equally productive. 



On the East Coast of Scotland the quantity taken was 

 generally satisfactory, and at Cromarty, where the herrings 

 are very uncertain, the fishery was so abundant that the 

 boats averaged 300 crans each. 



Mr James Wilson, the naturalist, who accompanied Sir 

 Thomas Dick Lauder in an excursion round the Scottish 

 coasts in 1841, thus describes the fishery of Wick in that 

 year : — 



" In the gray of the morning we found ourselves in the 



