92 MB. p. BAT ON THE MARINE FAUNA 



I would also briefly allude to another point, which is : — If 

 herrings have, due to changes in our fishery laws, been unduly 

 interfered with, so that the shoals are now further out to sea 

 than was formerly the case, thus necessitating the employment 

 of larger boats, has such occasioned, or been instrumental in 

 occasioning, an increased loss of fishermen's lives? 



That going further out in order to find and capture these fish 

 is a necessity is now admitted, while the harbour accommodation 

 remains unchanged : thus the larger boats now employed are 

 unable to enter during storms, and a considerable sacrifice of 

 life is the result. 



If it had not been for the increased facilities of transit due to 

 our railways, the cost of these fish must have risen. If the present 

 migrations of the fish continue and they go still further off" our 

 coasts, steamers will be necessary to bring the fish in good con- 

 dition on shore, or they must be salted on board. It is also 

 questionable whether, the herrings being further out, this may 

 not have been one reason why the haddock and inshore fisheries 

 are likewise receding from the shore. 



An important zoological question here arises, which may be 

 briefly disposed of as follows. 



It would appear from the Commissioners' report that young 

 herrings along the east coast of Scotland were first permitted to 

 be captured in small-meshed, sprat- or garvie-nets in 1868 — the 

 true garvie being the sprat (^Clupea sprattus), and the young 

 herring or whitebait belonging to C. harengus. Some of the 

 witnesses averred that when the garvies are scarce many young 

 herrings are sent away with them, while it is impossible to take 

 garvies vsdthout taking the young herring. One witness (p. 14) 

 asserted that he had purchased thirty barrels of garvies in one day, 

 and found they were all young herrings. My only personal 

 experience consists of some garvies from the north-east coast, 

 most of which were undoubtedly young herrings. They were 

 about three inches each in length, requiring 288 to weigh a 

 pound, or 645,120 to the ton. In the report already referred 

 to, we are told that 800,000,000 of herrings must be annually 

 taken by Scotch fishermen alone, or equal to a little over 1240 

 tons of garvies, or young herrings, such as I have described ; 

 whilst from Inverness we are informed that in three years 

 ending 1876-77 the Highland railway carried on an average 

 267 tons of garvies annually to London. 



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