8 



THE SCIENTIFIC AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS 



which material was derived were the product of the ordinary 

 drift fishery. The comparative irregularity of seining, etc., 

 rendered the process of obtaining fish from other sources an 

 uncertain one, and as the taking of small examples is only 

 occasionally effected by indirect means, the food conditions 

 to be described relate solely to the sexually unripe fish which 

 form the subject of the Cornish fishery. The ordinary average 

 length attained by such individuals does not appear to vary to 

 any considerable extent, probably due to the fact that a moder- 

 ately constant diameter of mesh is employed in their capture. 



The following table compiled from a series of fish 

 measured in August, 19 13, shows the extent of length varia- 

 tion occurring in an ordinary catch. But it may here be 



TABLE NO. I. 

 Mounts Bay, August 18th — 21st, 1913. 

 table showing percentages of sizes in summer fish. 



Length* in m.m. 



208 



209 



211 

 215—220 

 221—225 

 226—230 

 231—235 

 236—240 

 241—245 

 246—250 

 251- 255 



257 



258 



Number of Fish. 



1 



2 



1 



5 



7 

 11 

 14 

 17 

 13 

 17 



9 



2 



1 



Total 100 fish. 



* Notie. — Measurements in every case were taken 

 from the lip of the snout to the extremity of the 

 upper lobe of the tail. 



remarked that fishermen and fish packers and curers, interro- 

 gated on the subject, agree in stating that the size of the summer 

 pilchard has materially increased within the last decade, and 

 that this condition is contemporaneous with the present decline 

 in the fishery. One curer of forty years' experience seemed 

 to sum up the general opinion in stating that twenty years 

 previously fish were altogether more numerous, but inferior in 

 size and quality to those of the present day. 



An examination of the " Sea Fisheries Statistical Tables " 

 serves to demonstrate the fact that although pilchards are 

 marketed in appreciable quantity from july to January, the 



