of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



11 



tag, suitably treated, and then liberating them, and over 500 

 herrings have been thus dealt with. The tag contains directions 

 to the finder and enables the particular herring to be identified. 

 So far, five of the marked herrings have been caught again, but as 

 they were caught within the loch, and not far from the place of 

 liberation, they do not afford evidence as to the route of the 

 herrings from the loch or their destination. The herring is much 

 more delicate than ordinary round fishes and flat fishes, as plaice 

 and cod, which are made the subject of similar experiments, and it 

 was found necessary to attach the tag to them while they were 

 still in the water within the bag of the seine-net. This method 

 will be persevered in, since the recovery of a single marked herring 

 at a distance from the place of liberation, particularly if it is 

 caught at a spawning-ground and about the spawning-time, affords 

 direct and conclusive evidence as to the migration of that particular 

 herring, and presumptive evidence as to the movement of the shoal 

 to which it belongs, since the individuals composing it are governed 

 by a common object, namely, reproduction. 



The second method consists in the attempt to identify a particular 

 shoal by a study of the characters of the herrings belonging to it. 

 It was applied in particular to the large and fine fish which loiter 

 till near the end of the year in the deep water of the upper loch, 

 which they quit by easy stages, and are believed, and probably 

 rightly, to make their way down Kilbrennan Sound to spawn in 

 the early months of the year somewhere off' the southern part of 

 Kintyre. Many hundreds of these herrings were examined at 

 different periods, weighed, various measurements tabulated, and 

 the condition and weight of the reproductive organs determined ; 

 the latter observations affording incidentally valuable information 

 as to the ripening process and its duration. These herrings were 

 traced down the loch at the end of the year, and they appear to 

 have gone down Kilbrennan Sound, but, owing to the absence of 

 the Fishery Officer at Campbeltown on other duties, sufficient 

 samples of the herrings being caught in the early part of the year 

 could not be procured. It is accepted as a working hypothesis 

 that these large herrings pass down Kilbrennan Sound, but there is 

 not conclusive evidence to show that they do so. 



In the meantime, it may be pointed out that in the past the 

 fluctuations in the yield of herrings in Lochfyne in different years 

 have been noteworthy, as the following Table, which covers the 

 long period of half a century, shows : — 



Ten Year Period. 



Average 

 Number 

 of Boats. 



Average 

 Number 



of 

 Barrels 

 Taken. 



A verage 

 Number 



of 

 Barrels 

 per Boat. 



Minimum Catch 

 in Decade. 



Maximum Catch 

 in Decade. 



1827-36, . 



300 



3,469 



11-5 



Barrels. 

 1,453 (1830) 



Barrels. 

 4,898 (1832) 



1837-46, . . . 



350 



7,388 



25-1 



3,225 (1839) 



9,400 (1846) 



1847-5(5, . 



396 



19,949 



50-4 



10,630 (1852) 



32,726 (1851) 



1857-66, . 



558 



33,096 



59-3 



16,151 (1864) 



79,893 (1862) 



1867-76, . 



479 



25,561 



53-4 



6,934 (1874) 



34,471 (1876) 



