of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 75 



TABLE (IV.) of percentage of Herrings arranged according 

 to length of Body. 



Length of fish to end 



170 



180 



190 



200 



210 



220 



230 



240 



250 



260 



270 



280 



290 













to 



to 



to 







to 



to 





to 



to 





of scales in mm. 



179 



189 



199 



209 



219 



229 



239 



249 



259 



269 



279 



289 



300 



Percentage of | 1884 

 fish in Jan. A 

 Feb., March,) 1885 



•3 



•9 



3-5 



8-2 



13-0 



10-0 



10-2 



13-7 



16-0 



12-0 



8-2 



3-0 



•9 



3-0 













15-3 



18-7 





14-0 



9-0 







•6 



2-3 



2-9 



6-3 



9-7 



9-7 



6-8 



1-7 





























Percentage of fish) 1884 





2-6 



8-8 



18-4 



220 



15-0 



16-6 



7-0 



8-0 



1-7 









ia April, May. >- 















15-0 















June, :) 1885 







5-6 



15-0 



24-5 



17-0 



17-0 



3-8 



2-0 









Percentage of fish in 





























July, August, Sept- 





























ember, 1885 





1-7 



3-5 



12-0 



17-7 



21-8 



19-4 



12-0 



7-8 



1-7 



1-5 



•6 



•3 































Here it will be seen again that the fish examined were found of all sizes, 

 irrespective of the season of the year, the summer and winter herrings both 

 ranging, though in different proportions, over nearly the whole scale — i.e., 

 from 170 mm. to 299 mm. in length. But it also shows more clearly 

 than the other tables that the majority of the herrings taken during the 

 winter months fell within the limits of 210 mm. to 270 mm. (there is a 

 slight difference between the percentages in 1884 and 1885, the majority 

 of the latter being condensed into a smaller area, 220 to 269, than the 

 former, but this does not alter the result otherwise), while the majority 

 of the summer fish, larger even than that of winter, measured from 200 mm. 

 to 249 mm. The percentage of the spring fish {i.e., those taken at the 

 end of the winter or beginning of the summer fishing), agree most nearly 

 with the latter, the percentage of the smaller fish being even greater ; 

 which probably means that most of them were lately immature, and thus 

 early on the spawning banks, — though not necessarily to immediately 

 spawn, for all the fish in these tables are fish in every stage of ripeness, 

 from the early to the full condition, including also a few spents, but no 

 immature fish. I have, however, received information from the Fishery 

 officers as to the number of meshes per yard in the nets principally in use 

 during the fishing seasons, and from which the herring samples were 

 procured for me, and although the size of the mesh appears often to be the 

 same both in winter and summer, it is the custom in many places to use 

 a larger mesh in winter (except at Anstruther, where the reverse was the 

 case), due generally to the fact of the nets being at that season new and 

 not shrunk by barking. This consideration reduces rather further the slight 

 difference in size which appears between my winter and summer samples. 



The immature fish which are not included in these tables, but most of 

 which were caught in the regular herring fishing along with the mature, 

 were not very numerous. Those taken during the early months of 1884 

 varied in length from 142 mm. to 203 mm. ; during the same period of 

 1885 only half a dozen were received from 174 mm. to 205 mm. long; 

 the length of those caught during April, May, and June 1884 and 1885 

 was from 162 mm. to 229 mm. ; those caught in the summer of 1885 

 measured from 154 mm. to 219 mm. 



It will be seen that some of these immature fish exceed in length a few 

 of the actual spawning fish. While these immature fish, however, are 

 found as much as 230 mm. in length, in the large spawning shoals of 

 herring it is only a very small percentage that are so large, the great pro- 

 portion being less than 210 mm. long. 



The maties, using the term as including the smaller sexually mature 

 fish, range in length from 170 mm., of whidi size there are extremely few, to 

 a size which, of course must be fixed quite artificially, and there can be no 



