April 2%, 1881] 



NA TURE 



61 



"great" herring, after being so extremely abundant, for 

 about sixty years, as to give rise to a great industry, dis- 

 appeared in the year 1S08, as suddenly as they made their 

 appearance, and have not since been seen in any number. 

 The desertion of their ordinary grounds by the herring 

 has been attributed to all imaginable causes, from fishing 

 on a Sunday to the offence caused to the fish by the 

 decomposing carcases of their brethren, dropped upon 

 the bottom out of the nets. The truth is that absolutely 

 nothing is known on the subject ; and that little is likely 

 • to be known, until careful and long-continued meteoro- 

 logical and zoological observations have furnished definite 

 information respecting the changes which take place in 

 the temperature of the sea, and the distribution of the 

 pelagic Crustacea which constitute the chief food of the 

 herring shoals. The institution of systematic ob.^ervations 

 of this kind is an object of international importance, 

 towards the attainment of which the British, Scandinavian, 

 Dutch, and French Governments might wisely make a 

 combined effort. 



.•\ great fuss has been made about trawlers working over 

 the spawning grounds of the herring. " It stands to reason," 

 we were told, that they must. destroy an immense quan- 

 tity of the spawn. Indeed this looked so reasonable, 

 that we inquired very particularly into a case of the 

 alleged malpractice which was complained of on the 

 east coast of Scotland, near Pittenweem. Off this place, 

 there is a famous spawning ground known as the Traith 

 hole, and we were told that the trawlers worked vigor- 

 ously over the spot immediately after the herring had 

 deposited their spawn. Of course our first proceeding was 

 to ask the trawlers why they took the trouble of doing 

 what looked like wanton mischief. And their answer 

 was reasonable enough. It was to catch the prodigious 

 abundance of flit-fish which were to be found on the 

 Traith at th-it time. Well, then, why did the flat-fish con- 

 gregate there ? Simply to feed on herring eggs, which 

 seem to be a sort of flat-fishes' caviare. The stomachs 

 of the flat-fish brought up by the trawl were, in fact, 

 crammed with masses of herring eggs. 



Thus every flat-fish caught by the trawl was an ener- 

 getic destroyer of herring arrested in his career. And the 

 trawling, instead of injuring the herring, captured and 

 removed hosts of their worst enemies. That is how 

 "it stood to reason" when one got to the bottom of the 

 matter. 



I do not think that any one who looks carefully into the 

 subject will arrive at any other conclusion than that 

 reached by my colleagues and myself : namely, that the 

 best thing for Governments to do in relation to the 

 herring fisheries, is to let them alone, except in so far as 

 the police of the sea is concerned. With this proviso, let 

 people fish how they like, as they like, and when they 

 like. At present, I must repeat the conviction we 

 expressed so many years ago, that there is not a 

 particle of evidence that anything man does has an 

 appreciable influence on the stock of herrings. It will 

 be time to meddle, when any satisfactory evidence that 

 mischief is being done is produced 



NOTES 

 The fifty-first Annual Meeting of thelBritish Association for 

 the Advancemeat of Science will commeace at York on Wednes. 

 day, August 31, 18S1. The Presilent-Elect is Sir John Lubbock,' 

 Bart, M.P., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents Elect : His Grace the Arch- 

 bishop of York, D.D., F.l^.S. ; the flight Hon. the Lord Mayor 

 of York ; the Ri^ht Hon, Lord Houghton, F.R.S. ; the Yen. 

 Archdeacon Creyke, M.A. ; the Ho.i. SirW. R. Grove, F.R.S. ; 

 Prof. G. G. Stokes, Sec. R.S. ; Sir John Hawkshaw; C.E., 

 F.R.S. ; Allen Thomson, MiD., F.R.S. L. and E. ; Prof. All- 

 man, M.D., F.R.S. L. and E. General Secretaries: Capt- 

 Douglas Gallon, C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S. ; Philip Lutley Sclater, 



Ph.D., F.R.S. Acting Secretary: George Griflith, M.A., 

 F.C.S., Harrow; General Treasurer : Prof. A. W. Will-amson, 

 F.R.S., Ui]iver.--ity College, London, W.C. Local Secretaries: 

 Rev. Thomas Adams, M.A. ; Tempest Anderson, M.D,, B.Sc, 

 York. Local Treasurer : \V. W. Wilberforce, York. The 

 Sections are the following : — A. — Mathematical and Physical 

 Science. — President ; Prof. Sir Wilham Thomson, F.R.S. L. 

 and E. Vice Presidents.— Prof. J. C. Adams, F.R.S. ; T. 

 Archer Hirst, Ph.D., V.P.R.S. Secretaries: Prof. W. E. 

 Ayrton ; Oliver J. Lodge, D.Sc. ; Donald McAlister, B.A., 

 B.Sc. (Recorder). B. — Chemical Science. — President: Prof. 

 A. W. Williamson, For. Sec. R.S., V.P.C.S. Vice-Pre.-idents : 

 F. A. Abel, C.B., F.R.S. ; Prof. Odling, F.R.S. Secretaries : 

 Harold B. Dixon, M.A. ; P. Phillips-Bedson, D.Sc. (Recorder). 

 C. — Geology. — President : Andrew Crombie Ramsay, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United 

 Kingdom and of the Museum of Practical Geology. Vice-Presi- 

 dents:Prof. Prestwich, F.R.S.; Prof. W.C.Williamson, F.R.S.; 

 Secretaries : W. Topley, F.G.S. (Recorder) ; W. Whitaker, F.G.S. 

 D.— Biology.— President : Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S. Vice- 

 Presidents: Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S.; Prof. J. S. Burdon 

 Sanderson, F.R.S. Secretaries: G. ^V. Bloxam, M.A., F.L.S. ; 

 W. L. Distant ; W. A. Forbes, F.Z.S. ; Prof. M'Nab, M.D. ; 

 John Priestley; Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Department 

 of Zoology and Botany.— Richard Owen, C.B., F.R.S. (Presi- 

 dent), will preside. Secretaries: Prof. M'Nab, M.D. (Recorder) ; 

 Howard Saunders, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Department of Anthro- 

 pology.— Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S. (Vice-President), will 

 preside. Secretaries: G. W. Bloxam, M.A., F.L.S. (Recorder); 

 W. L. Distant. Department of Anatomy and Physiology. — 

 Prof. J. S. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S. (Vice-President), will 

 preside. Secretaries : John Priestley (Recorder) ; W. A. Forbes, 

 F.Z.S. E.— Geography.— President : Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 KC.S.L, C.B., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Francis Galton, 

 F.R.S.; Prof. Sir C. Wyville Thomson, F.R.S. L. & E. 

 Secretaries : H. W. Bates, Assist. -Sec.R.G.S., F.L.S. ; E. C. 

 Rye, Librarian R.G.S., F.Z.S. (Recorder). F.— Economic 

 Science and Statistics.— President : The Right Hon. M. E. 

 Grant Duff, M.P., F.R.S. Vice-Presidents: Sir George Camp- 

 bell, K.C. S.I. , M P. ; James Heywood, F.R.S. Secretaries: 

 Constanline MoUoy (Recorder) ; J. F. Moss. G.— Mechanical 

 Science.— President : Sir W. G. Armstrong, C.B., F.R.S. 

 Vice P■■e^idents : W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., Pres.Inst.C.E. ; C. 

 W. Siemens, D.C.L., F.R.S. Secretaries: A. T. Atchison, 

 M.A. (Recorder); H. Trueman \Vood, B.A. Tickets for the 

 meeting may be obtained of the Local Secretaries at York, and 

 at the Office of the Association, 22, Albemarle Street, London, 

 W. ; or on application by letter, from August 17 to August 24, 

 to the General Treasurer, Prof. A. W. Williamson, British 

 Associa'ion, University College, London, W.C. The First 

 General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 3:, at 

 8 p.m. precisely, when A. C. Ramsay, F.R.S., V.P.G.S., 

 Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kuig- 

 dom, and of the Museum of Practical Geology, wdll resign the 

 chair, and Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.R.S., President- 

 Elect, will assume the presidency, and deliver an address. On 

 Thursday evening, September I, at 8 p.m., a soiree ; on Friday 

 evening, September 2, at 8.30 p.m., a discourse by T. H; 

 Huxley, LL.D., Sec.R.S., Professor of Natural History in the 

 Royal School of Mines ; on Monday evening, September 5, at 

 8.30 p.m., a discourse by W. Spottiswoode, D.C.L., LL.D., 

 Pre-ident of the Royal Society; on Tue.-day evening, September 

 6, at 8 p.m., a soink ; on Wednesday, September 7, the con- 

 cluding general meeting will be held at 2.30 p.m. No report, 

 paper, or abstract, can be inserted in the Report of the Associa- 

 tion unless it is given in before the conclusion of the meeting. 

 Excursions to places of interest in the neighbourhood of York 



