398 rroceedings of the Eoyal Physical Society. 



Professor Cossar Ewart, in a paper read before the Eoyal 

 Physical Society ^ on the subject of the deserted spawning- 

 grounds of the herring, says : '' One of the best known banks 

 visited in the autumn is the Guillan Bank, while the bank 

 at Ballantrae is the most familiar resort during the spring ; 

 but in addition to these there are many others well known 

 to our fishermen. All these spawning-grounds are liable to 

 be deserted for longer or shorter periods, e.g., Guillan Bank 

 has practically been deserted during the last fifteen years ; 

 the bank off Dunbar has been deserted for a still longer 

 period ; the Ballantrae bank was all but deserted for several 

 years ; while the herring shoals left the Bohuslan grounds 

 in 1808, and did not make their appearance again in any 

 numbers until 1877." 



The desertion of the herring from the spawning-grounds 

 mentioned above, I am of oj^inion, may be partly, if not 

 wholly, attributed to the following causes. In the first place, 

 the fishermen have been complaining for several years of the 

 great numbers of sharks and dog-fishes which frequent, or 

 have remained, in certain localities known to be, or to have 

 been, spawning-grounds of the herring, and where immense 

 catches of herring were formerly taken ; but since the arrival 

 of the sharks, it is sure ruin to lay their nets, as they are 

 either lost altogether or torn to pieces by them. An illus- 

 tration of this presented itself during the cruise of the 

 "Energy" off the west coast of the Shetland Islands, once a 

 famous spawning-ground of the herring. Our nets, 70 in 

 number, were laid out after sunset in the usual way, and 

 during the night the piked dog-fish (Acanthias vulgaris) were 

 so numerous swimming near the ship, that any number 

 might have been caught by the trident or harpoon ; indeed, 

 the men could scarcely put over their hand-lines without 

 hooking one, and the sea for a considerable distance round 

 us seemed to be alive with them. The nets, in consequence, 

 had to be hauled on board much sooner than usual, the catch 

 at this time amounting to only three barrels, 80 per cent, of 

 which were so badly bitten, that they were of no use, and in 

 a great many cases only the heads of the herring remained 



^ Proc. Roy, Vhys. Soc, vol. viii., part 1. 



