CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 293 



and spawners come together. Till now they were bent on 

 individual preservation — each was on his own hook ; they 

 avoided nets and other dangers ; now all sense of danger 

 is lost, — their only aim is now the preservation of the race ; 

 and when in this state sudden destruction comes upon 

 them in a cloud of nets. 



" We have on our shores races of herrings that we know 

 come to maturity in July, Augnist, and September. Up 

 to 1851 we took yearly, on an average, 20,000 barrels, 

 but in July 1851 we took 30,000 barrels. Tliis seems to 

 have been their culminating point, for in July 1852 we 

 took only 7618 barrels ; in July 1853, 7829 ; in July 1854, 

 2396 ; in July 1855, 2664 ; and in July 1856, 2977 barrels. 



" Our July races, then, are done ; we have fished them 

 up ; we have all but extinguished them. We are now 

 doing for the August and September races what we have 

 already done for the July ones. Of these, in 1856, we 

 were only able to take 90,000 barrels, although we brought 

 to bear on them 19,000,000 square yards of netting, the 

 greatest extent of netting ever used here. In 1855 they 

 afforded us 135,000 barrels. 



" If the herrings belong to the waters in which they 

 are fished, my conclusion that we are extinguishing the 

 races, or reducing them so low that the produce of the 

 fishery will be less than the outfit, is not so absurd as some 

 would insinuate ; but it may be made more apparent when 

 I tell you, that the space over which our boats here fish is 

 from the Pentland Skerries to Clythness, about thirty 

 miles, and seaward about five miles, or 150 square miles. 

 On this portion of sea our 1051 boats every night during 

 the fishing spread 19,000,000 square yards of netting, or 

 nets 500 miles long. The wonder is, not that we are ex- 

 tinguishing the races, but that they should have lasted so 



