xiv 



Second Animal Report of the 



Scientific 

 Investigations. 



Crustacea chief 

 food of Her- 

 ring. 



Nature of 

 Herring Ova. 



Essay on 

 Herring by T)r 

 Walker. 



Ballantrae 

 Bank and 

 Trammel Nets. 



English 

 Stations given 

 up. 



Brand Fee 

 instituted. 



Inquiries by 

 Dr Ballot and 

 by Board of 

 Trade. 



Complaint 

 against 

 Trawling 

 on Spawning 

 Grounds. 



tions made it was ascertained that the food of the herring consisted 

 chiefly of small crustaceans ; unfortunately the inquiry was discon- 

 tinued when Mr Goodsir joined the ill-fated Franklin, expedition. 

 The work of investigation was taken up, some time afterwards, 

 by Mr James Wilson, who prepared a careful account, with illustra- 

 tions, showing how sprats differed from young herrings. From the 

 Eeport of 1846 it is evident the Commissioners were familiar with the 

 fact that herring ova sink, and adhere to whatever they come in con- 

 tact with at the bottom. This important fact was certainly known 

 at the beginning of the century, for Dr Walker, Professor of Natural 

 History in the University of Edinburgh, in an essay published in 

 The Transactions of the Highland Society in 1803, points out that 

 the herring selects a bottom ' neither rocky nor sandy,' but 

 consisting ' of gravel more or less coarse,' at a depth usually of 

 10 to 12 fathoms, and that the fry ' are known to be between one 

 ' and two inches long in the month of June ' and about three or four 

 inches long in September, when they ' desert the places where they 

 ' are bred.' Dr Walker, however, adds that ' the manner in which 

 ' they deposit their spawn is unknown,' and that ' they are 

 ' not known to spawn anywhere in shallow water/ or at any time 

 from the beginning of March till after the beginning of October, 

 and further that ' the spawn deposited between the 1st of 

 ' November and the 1st of March comes to life in the end of April 

 ' or beginning of May.' In 1846 it was believed that the spawn 

 lay on the Ballantrae Bank 'to a very great depth,' and the 

 Commissioners then not only believed the bank should be pro- 

 tected, but that the trammel net fishing, so destructive to the spawn, 

 should be prohibited. But the trammel net fishing they had no 

 power to prevent, and it was only with difficulty that in 1847 they 

 succeeded in arresting what was considered a great destruction of 

 young herring in the Firth of Forth. 



In 1850 the English stations were discontinued, and in 1859 a 

 charge of 4d. a barrel was made for branding ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing this charge, the brand was quite as much taken advantage of 

 as before. 



In 1856 another step in the right direction was taken, at the 

 request of Dr Buys Ballot, who invited those engaged in the great 

 herring fishery to make observations, in order, if possible, to 

 ascertain the circumstances likely to lead to the most profitable 

 fishing, as well as to enable them to make a herring chart. This 

 was followed by the Board of Trade issuing instructions for the 

 collection of herring from all parts of the coasts of Scotland 

 whenever they could be fallen in with, at different periods of the 

 year, observations being noted with each sample according to a 

 form which had been revised by Professor Huxley, F.R.S. 

 Twelve boxes of samples were in this way collected and forwarded 

 to the Board of Trade, along with the relative observations ; but 

 there is no record of the samples having been submitted to 

 examination. 



A new form of complaint reached the Commissioners in 1860, 

 from the Pittenweem, Anstruther, and other fishermen, who pro- 

 tested against the trawling for white fish on the spawning ground 

 lying off their shores. The Board caused the ground opposite 



