SOME BRITISH SEA FISHES AND FISHING 231 



have occupied a space stretching from Kensington 

 Palace to Blackfriars Bridge on the one hand 

 and from Victoria Station to Portland Road 

 Station on the other. Assuming the shoal to 

 be only twenty feet deep, and giving to each 

 herring the very liberal allowance of 72 cubic 

 inches, we get the astounding number of about 

 20,000,000,000 individuals. And this was but 

 one shoal out of, for alL we can tell, hundreds 

 and thousands. Battalions of dog-fish and endless 

 multitudes of gannets could make little impression 

 upon such hosts, and if every boat in our combined 

 herring-fleets (i.e., in the north-east coast fishery), 

 caught 20 crans, or 160,000 mature herrings, the 

 shoal 1 have described would be diminished by 

 barely i per cent. 



At Aberdeen the herring-boats leave the harbour 

 pretty early in the afternoon, fish all night, and, 

 when possible, return the following morning. A 

 few years ago I was fortunate enough to be on 

 the spot when the fleet arrived — a pretty and 

 interesting sight. Scores of smacks with their 

 official number and the letter " A " stamped on 

 their tan-coloured sails drifted in with the in- 

 coming tide, the light breeze having failed, each, 

 however, striving hard to get alongside the quay 

 first ; while dealers, old fishermen, helpers, and 



