Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 357 



twenty-four million, two hundred and thirteen thousand 

 (8.24,2 13^000) herrings were brought into the port of Great 

 Yarmouth, and nearly five hundred and thirty-seven millions 

 into the adjoining harbour of Lowestoft. This takes no 

 aecount of the seventy-five millions which were brought into 

 Grimsby Docks, or of the multitudes carried into Lerwick, 

 Stornoway, and various other places where the fisliery is 

 carried on. Having regard to such figures as these, who can 

 question there being enough fish in the sea for man and the 

 birds too? 



The fecundity which the herring, mackerel, whiting, sprat, 

 etc., display, is something altogether astounding ; in fact, the 

 process of thinning out their numbers which Gannets and 

 other sea-birds perform, should, as Mr. Pycraft has well 

 remarked, be regarded as beneficent rather than otherwise. 



Near the shore, and at or in the vicinity of river-mouths, 

 or near their breeding-places, it is conceivable that Gannets 

 and other sea-birds may be inimical to the interests of the 

 fishermen. That much may be admitted, but so long as 

 such vast numbers of fish continue to be netted in British 

 Seas, it is impossible to argue that Gannets, Cormorants, 

 Shags, Guillemots, and Puffins affect the fish supply, except 

 locally, and accordingly it is a wrong policy altogether to 

 destroy them. 



If Gannets do harm, why is it that the trawling grounds 

 ou the west Hebridean coast, all of them within easy flight 

 of St. Kilda, are among the best that are known to Scotch 

 fishermen? St. Kilda and adjacent islands are the largest 

 metropolis of Gannets and Puffins in the world, but it is 

 evident that the fecundity of herrings, mackerel, haddock, 

 coal-fish, etc. is more than equal to the consumption by 

 these birds, helped as they are by Guillemots, Razorbills, 

 Shags, and Gulls, which breed there in tens of thousands, as 

 many visitors to Borrera, Stack Armine, and Stack Lii 

 testify. 



J. H. GURNEY. 



Keswick Hall, Norfolk, 

 23 January, 1914. 



