of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



65 



Scottish Coast during the winter and spring months of 1884 and 1885, and 

 the summer months of 1885. They were procured and forwarded while 

 perfectly fresh by the officers of the Scottish Fishery Board stationed at 

 the several Fishery districts, they having been requested to send the fish 

 as samples of the takes generally, and not as specially selected for size or 

 otherwise. 



Before stating the actual size of the fish received, the details of localities 

 from which they came, &c., it is necessary to make some qualifying 

 remarks as to how far these samples are a fair representation of the actual 

 size and condition of the fish frequenting the Scottish coasts. They do 

 represent the size of the fish actually caught. Do they cover fairly the 

 sizes of the fish either in their fullest extremes absolutely, or in the pro- 

 portion in which the varieties of these are present among the whole mass % 

 Now it has to be noted that the size of the fish sent to me for investiga- 

 tion or, to speak more generally, of all the fish brought ashore, is rather 

 an evidence of the size of mesh of the nets employed for their capture 

 than a criterion of the actual size of the herring in the sea ; and according 

 to the prevailing size of mesh we shall be liable to misjudge the actual 

 size of the fish. I feel sure that the want of sufficient consideration of this 

 fact, and especially of the circumstance that change of size of mesh has 

 occurred for any period or at any place, has given rise to erroneous ideas 

 as to the preservation or decline of the general or natural size of the 

 herring ; for, of course, it must be remembered that a particular size of 

 mesh only takes those fish which fit it, that is to say, does not merely 

 allow the smaller fish to escape by passing through its meshes while 

 sweeping in all the larger, as in a salmon net or seine trawl, but the 

 large fish also to a great extent escape by not getting their heads into the 

 mesh. Leaving out of consideration here the few recorded examples of 

 herring of extraordinary magnitude, most, if not all, of which probably were 

 shad, references to previous observations on the size of the Scottish and 

 North Sea herring do not lead me to think that our herring have retro- 

 graded in size. J. Mackenzie, t writing over eighty years ago, divides the 

 Scottish herring into three races — those giving by measurement 800, 1000, 

 and 1500 to the barrel. Valenciennes X gave 10 inches and 10 J inches as 

 the largest, but says North Sea herring may reach 13 J inches long. 

 Mitchell,§ writing twenty years ago, gives the length as 8 inches to 12 

 inches, — all sizes which, as respects the herring I have examined, appear 

 to be still commonly maintained. Although, however, it is improbable 

 that larger herring than those are represented in any quantity among the 

 shoals which frequent our coasts, I have not much hesitation in saying 

 that a greater number of the larger class of fish are present in the shoals 

 than the takes would lead us to suppose. Some of the largest fish which 

 I received were ^scummed' at Lybster; they averaged 12 inches long, 

 and the means by which these are taken shows how many may escape of 

 similar size, and how almost certain it is that the largest fish seldom 

 become properly meshed. These scummed fish are the large fish which 

 fall out of the net partly from their weight, but often from being insuSi- 

 ciently meshed, and are scummed up by a boy, such fish being generally 

 lost and left dead on the fishing grounds. 



A further excellent example, and not the only one, of the influence which 



* I have to thank the Fishery officers for the regular way in which they have sent 

 me samples of herrings, and many of them for the suggestive information which 

 accompanied them. 



t 'Prize Essays,' vol. ii. Highland Soc, 1803. 



X Cuv. and Valenc, Histoire des Poissons, vol. xx. 



§ Nat. Hist, of the Herring, 1864. 



E 



