14 



Part III. — Twenty-fifth Annual Report 



CONTENTS — Continued. 

 Tables {continued) : — page. 

 VI. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month in the Ballantrae District, 1863-1906, . Ill 



VII. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month in the Campbeltown District, 1863-1906, . 112 

 VIII. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month in the Inveraray District, 1854-1906, . 113 



IX. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 

 Month in the Districts of Inveraray and Campbel- 

 town, 1854-1906, . . . . .114 

 X. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month in the Greenock District, 1855-1906, . .115 

 XI. Showing the Numbei of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month in the Rothesay District, 1854-1906, . . 116 



XII. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed per 



Month for the whole Clyde Area, 1854-1906, . 117 



XIII. Showing the Number of Crans of Herrings landed 



Yearly at each District in Clyde Area, 1854-1906, . 118 



XIV. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Ballantrae District, 1863-1906, . . .119 



XV. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Campbeltown District, 1863-1906, . . 120 



XVI. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Inveraray District, 1854-1906, . . .121 



XVII. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Inveraray and Campbeltown Districts, 1854-1906, 122 

 XVIII. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Greenock District, 1855-1906, . . .123 



XIX. Showing the Number of Boats per Month Fishing in 



the Rothesay District, 1854-1906, . . .124 



XX. Showing the Number of Boats Fishing per Month in 



the whole Clyde Area, 1854-1906, . . .125 



XXI. Showing the Number of Boats Fishing in the] whole 



Clyde Area in each Year, 1854-1906, . . .126 



XXII. Showing the Weekly Catch of Herrings in the Firth of 



Clyde Districts from 1854-1901, . . .127 



XXIII. Weekly Returns of Boats Fishing and Herrings Landed 



in Inveraray and Campbeltown Districts, 1854-1906, 179 



XXIV. Showing the Relation of the Phase of the Moon to the 



Catch of Herrings in Loch Fyne, 1860-1900, . .190 



During the last few years, as mentioned in previous Annual Reports, 

 an enquiry has been in progress with respect to the herring fisheries in 

 the Firth of Clyde, and especially in Loch Fyne. Those fisheries, like 

 the herring fishery on other parts of the coast, are subject to considerable 

 fluctuations from year to year ; and from the circumstance that they are 

 carried on in comparatively confined and narrow waters and by several 

 methods of fishing, they have given rise at various times of scarcity to 

 controversy concerning usually either the alleged injuriousness of one or 

 other of the modes of capture, or of the fishing being pursued at an 

 improper season at a particular place. Of late years such complaints have 

 been accentuated owing to the failure of the fishing in Loch Fyne. In 

 that important area the yield has declined gradually since 1897, the year 

 in which the maximum quantity recorded was obtained, and a very low 

 point was reached in 1905 and 1906. It will be shown later that the 

 recent diminished productiveness of the herring-fishing in Loch Fyne is 

 an almost exact repetition of what occurred in the period 1868-1874, 

 when even a lower point was reached. 



The objects of the enquiry were to ascertain the nature and extent of 

 the fluctuations, and as far as possible their causes ; to throw light on 

 the movements of the shoals into and out of the Loch in relation to the 



