242 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



The Committee made reference to the herring and sprat 

 or garvie fishery of the Firth of Forth, which has recently 

 excited so much interest, and upon which so much contra- 

 dictory has been said and written. Certain members of the 

 Committee devoted much time and attention to the subject, 

 examining separately the product of the fishery in the boats 

 and in the fish-carts since the 4th of the current month of 

 January, when the Fishery Commissioners withdrew the 

 prohibition against sprat-fishing ; and the result of close in- 

 vestigation of large masses of fry at various times has been, 

 that the proportion of herring, Clupea harengus, less than 

 6 inches long, taken among the sprats, Clupea sprattus, is 

 very small ; one of the examiners found on an average only 

 one herring fry among a hundred sprats over a very exten- 

 sive field of investigation ; others found the proportion of 

 herrings rather larger ; but they all concurred in thinking 

 that the comparatively small quantity of herring fry caught 

 with the sprats could not in any sensible degree affect the 

 former ; and when it is considered that the roe of a single 

 herring contains such an enormous quantity of ova (32,000), 

 and that the fish spawns upon our shores in countless mil- 

 lions annually, the sensitiveness which has been shown as 

 to the taking of even a few tens of thousands of young her- 

 rings among the sprats seems to be without foundation. A 

 limited close-time, or protection in a limited area, would 

 probably do infinitely more towards the protection of the 

 fishery than any needless and unpopular prohibition of 

 sprat or other fishing. Specimens of the smallest size of 

 herring and the largest size of sprat ordinarily occurring 

 amongst the masses caught were exhibited ; and, although 

 the distinguishing marks were very apparent, even to the 

 ordinary spectator accustomed to the appearance of the fish, 

 there seemed to the Committee to be no mode of accounting 

 for the outcry, so far as honest, which has been made about 

 the destruction of herring fry, but upon the supposition that 

 the two descriptions of Clupea, the herring and the sprat, 

 have not been accurately recognised, and that well-grown 

 herrings have been denominated fry. The abiding scientific 

 distinctions are so well known that they need not be 



