Professor Gossar Evjart on Whitehait. 81 



Hitherto our supplies of whitebait have, to a great extent, 

 come from London. While bringing, at a considerable cost, 

 whitebait from London during the winter of 1883-84, we 

 were spreading tons of absolutely fresh whitebait taken from 

 the Forth on our fields, and sending still larger quantities 

 from the Tay to be manufactured into manure at Montrose. 

 From Mr Matthews' inquiries, published in the Fishery 

 Board Eeport for 1883, it seems, of the 43,000 crans of sprats 

 captured on the east coast during the winter of 1883-84, 

 over 23,000 crans were sold for manure. Of sprats captured 

 in the Tay, 21 per cent, were young herring; but the herring 

 in the Moray and Beauly Firths only formed 8 per cent, of 

 the takes, while the Forth sprats only contained 1 per cent, 

 of herring. 



If one-fourth of the sprats had been taken in whitebait 

 nets, we could have sent over 5000 crans of whitebait into 

 the market during the winter of 1883-84. Further, Mr 

 Matthews discovered that there ate sprats on the Ayrshire 

 coast, and this discovery I have placed beyond doubt during 

 the present winter. The sprat shoals visit the Ayrshire 

 coast in October; hence we might begin to send whitebait 

 into the market in October, and keep up the supply for four 

 or five months. 



While utilising the small fish captured for whitebait, we 

 should certainly either leave the large sprats in the sea 

 (when unable to use them fresh), or preserve them as sar- 

 dines. Sprats are extensively preserved as sardines in 

 Canada, and I understand we sometimes send consignments 

 of sprats to France, to have them returned to us in tins aS 

 sardines. At Eide, on the Hardanger Fjord, there is a large 

 factory for preserving sprats as anchovies. It is to be hoped 

 that in future both the large and small sprats captured may 

 be utilised as food. 



I am much indebted to Mr Duncan Matthews for much 

 valuable assistance rendered during this inquiry, especially 

 for assisting in the extremely difficult work of identifying 

 the small scaleless specimens, of which the best whitebait is 

 chiefly composed. 



VOL. IX. F 



