106 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with its two men or boys and one or two nets. All were successful, 

 and the earnings were very large, for it was a veritable harvest 

 to the fishermen, with a minimum of trouble or hardship, so 

 different from the bay fishing. 



In the season of 1905 the Herrings came into the estuary 

 about Sept. 7th, and were taken in very large numbers nearly 

 every night up to Nov. 27th, when they left the estuary with 

 a heavy gale from the north-west. The Herrings enter the 

 estuary evidently for the purpose of spawning, and remain for 

 some time afterwards, as if the feeding was better inside than in 

 the bay ; and they were also safer from their usual enemies, 

 which did not follow the schools into the estuary from the bay. 



It was strange that the best fishing took place on the ebb 

 tides, very few being taken on the flood, apparently showing that 

 during the flood and high tide the fish spread in to feed over 

 the shallow parts of the estuary, and then on the ebb collected 

 in the deeper water of the channel where they were taken. 



The chief fishing-ground was the open reach of the river 

 between Moy View and Eoserk, extending from Goose Island to 

 some distance above Castleconnor. It was a most interesting 

 sight on a calm evening to see the smooth surface of this wide 

 sheet of water ruffled by the rising fish, giving it an appearance 

 as though a heavy shower of rain was falling, while the sound 

 caused by the Herrings striking the water was quite similar to that 

 of a heavy shower. I used frequently to walk down to the shore 

 to look at the boats, some taking the fish within fifteen and 

 twenty yards of the beach ; and one evening when the fish were 

 near the bank, one of the boats left their nets anchored, and rowed 

 close along the shore, beating the water, so as to drive the fish 

 from the shallow water into their nets, a plan that succeeded, and 

 they got a fine haul, for on being alarmed the Herrings all 

 rushed for the deeper water where the nets were stretched. Some 

 of the large boats used to take from three to five thousand, and the 

 smaller boats in proportion to the number of the nets. I saw 

 one small boat with only three nets bring in two thousand five 

 hundred Herrings for one shot of their nets. The earnings of 

 the fishermen were very considerable, one man, the owner of a 

 large yawl and six nets, told me that during the run of Herring he 

 received £154 for the fish taken inside the estuary, but then he 



