of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



49 



quantity the herring have to seek other food. This, from the month of 

 August, consists chiefly of schizopods, a group of shrimp-like Crustacea. 

 The chief food form is Nydiphanes norvegica, but there is an admixture 

 of Boreophausia Raschii, Siriella, and other forms. A more detailed 

 account of the food of the herring in the Loch Fyne district will be 

 found in the report devoted to that subject. One point is, however, 

 worthy of note, namely, the marked contrast between the food on the 

 East Coast and that on Loch Fyne. 



On the East Coast most food is found in the herrings' stomachs during 

 the winter and spring. The crustacean food is certainly the most 

 important, and consist mainly of two species, Hyperia galha and 

 Nydiphanes norvegica. The copepods do not contribute an important 

 part of the food. This is partly to be accounted for from the fact that 

 when the copepods are most abundant — viz., in the summer — the fish 

 take little or no food. In Loch Fyne Hyperia galha is certainly rare, 

 and I have never met with it in the stomachs of herring from that dis- 

 trict. The period of growth is there during the summer months, and the 

 sole food worthy of consideration consists at that time of copepods. 

 Temora longicornis, Pseudocalanus, Dias, and other genera are common, 

 but these sink into insignificance when compared with the teeming 

 myriads of Calanus jinmarchicus which, during the summer, are so rich 

 in brilliant red fat globules, that each shoal may be readily seen from a 

 boat. 



Quality of Loch Fyne Herring. 



This difference in diet appears to me to account for the difference in 

 quality of the herring from the two districts. The East Coast herring are 

 mostly cured, and are admirably suited for the purpose, as they are not 

 over-rich in fat. The Loch Fyne herring, on the other hand, are nearly 

 all sold fresh. Their large size and rich flavour has obtained for them 

 the highest place amongst fresh herring in the kingdom. The flesh is 

 extremely oily, so much so, that in the summer months they are quite 

 unfit for curing. This amount of fat gives the herring another character 

 altogether. To be thoroughly appreciated they require to be eaten the 

 day they are captured, and are like mackerel in this respect. [Inci- 

 dentally it may be remarked that mackerel feed on the same forms as the 

 herring in Loch Fyne. In both cases the oiliness is probably due to the 

 food]. If the herring are not cooked until a day or two after they were 

 captured their flavour is quite different. The fat in the meantime seems 

 to turn somewhat rancid, and the whole delicacy is lost. The Loch Fyne 

 fish are on this account so easily distinguished that many fishermen 

 regard them as a distinct species, or more properly speaking, as a well 

 defined race. The flavour of these fish, and to a great extent their size 

 also, appears to be due to the rich supply of copepoda in Loch Fyne. 

 Curing operations usually commence in September. The supply of cope- 

 pods having practically ceased in August, the fish feed on schizopods and 

 annelids. In the course of a month their flesh has lost so much of its 

 oily nature that the fish are then suitable for salting. 



Gut-Poke. 



Almost all the herring in Loch Fyne are subject to a complaint known 

 as the gut-poJce. In the month of June the majority of the herring were in 

 this condition. I am told, however, that the duration of the period during 

 which gut-poke herring are captured in Loch Fyne varies in different 

 seasons. The disease, if indeed it may be so called, appears to me to 



