84 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



be a failure. The rough weather has evidently a tendency 

 to break up and scatter the shoals of sprats in the shallow 

 water where the work is carried on. A favourable change in 

 the weather conditions took place in December, and frost 

 set in with very little wind. This allowed the fish to congregate, 

 and large catches began to be reported. Some of the boats 

 were landing nearly 100 boxes each by the middle of December. 

 Temporary packing houses were established so that the catches 

 could be more rapidly dealt with. There the fish were gone 

 over and packed into boxes for despatch by rail to various 

 centres where a certain amount of curing has been done in 

 the past. In conversation with the men, one finds that the 

 general expression with regard to the fishery now is the hope 

 that curing houses will be established in Morecambe in the 

 near future. This is a matter that depends largely on them- 

 selves. Some of the more enterprising may yet take the matter 

 up and perhaps be able to do so with slight financial assistance 

 from the Government. The sprats could then be cured im- 

 mediately on being landed instead of having to be sent away 

 fresh to distant places for that purpose, as at present. 



The condition of the fish caught in 1916 was similar to 

 our previous experiences. A few small herring and half-grown 

 whiting were present in every haul. These whiting are attracted 

 by the food supply in the shape of shoals of sprats, and have 

 to be removed by the packers. The more rapid decomposition 

 of the whiting would soon spoil the condition of the sprats 

 if left amongst them. The stomach of every whiting examined 

 was tightly packed with sprats in various stages of digestion. 

 In some cases the half of a freshly captured sprat was even 

 projecting out of the whiting's mouth, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the stomach was already filled. 



Estimations of the oil and water contained in the muscle 

 substance were made in mature sprats and immature herring 

 of nearly similar size. The results show that in the case of the 



