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Part III. — Eighth Annual Report 
The Burghead, Cromarty, and Lybster officers reported that none had 
apparently been captured by the fishermen of these places. Fishermen 
at Helmsdale reported having caught two or three strange fish among the 
herring about the middle of January, * more like a trout than a herriug ' ; 
on being shown the drawing of the anchovy they said ' it was like the 
'tish they got.' On cooking one of them it gave forth 'a strong peculiar 
' smell, different from either trout or herring.' None appear to have been 
caught by Wick fishermen off that coast ; but on 1st March a few were 
caught by a Wick boat in the Minch, between Stornoway and Cape 
Wrath. 
West Coast. — Anchovies were caught in considerable numbers in the 
Minch. Mr Ingram, the Fishery Officer at Stornoway, states, on 23rd 
January, that the herring fishing had just begun, and that anchovies were 
detected among the herrings. On 29th January he reported that ten of 
the herring boats had each caught about half a dozen anchovies, all before 
22nd January, from 3 to 8 miles from shore. The next was caught on 
13th February, 5 miles off Chicken Head, in 80 fathoms. Others were 
caught on 27th February, one boat catching 8 about the middle of the 
Minch. The largest of those sent to me from Stornoway was five and 
three quarter inches long. At Castlebay, Barra, none were reported. 
None were reported to the fishery officers at Ullapool, Loch Broom, 
Broadford, Skye, Oban, Campbeltown, Girvan, Ardrishaig, or Rothesay; 
conference was held with the fishermen, and the sketch of the anchovy 
shown to them, but none had ever caught or seen a similar fish. A para- 
graph in the newspapers states they were captured in the Solway Firth 
in May 1890.* 
Thus anchovies were captured in Scotch waters apparently from the 
middle of November to at least 1st March; an examination of the dates 
and places shows that they probably appeared almost simultaneously at 
various parts of the coast. 
The great fisheries for anchovies are carried on off the Mediterranean 
coasts of France, Italy, and Spain, on the Atlantic coasts of Portugal 
and Spain, and in the estuary of the Schelde in the Zuider-Zee, Holland. 
It appears also, from Mr Cunningham's inquiries, that anchovies are taken 
every winter in greater or less abundance by the sprat and pilchard fisher- 
men on the Southern coasts of England. Their appearance in the waters 
off the Scotch coast, however, is very rare. Day mentions t that Peach 
obtained a specimen caught in the herring-nets off Wick. So far as I can 
learn it has not previously been recorded from the west coast of Scotland, 
where, perhaps, it was most abundant. 
It would be difficult to explain the cause of the incursion of anchovies 
into Scotch waters last year. Mr Cunningham thinks that they are per- 
manent residents in the North Sea, and that those which appeared in the 
Moray Firth in December did not migrate very far. The results of 
modern research certainly tend to discredit the old theory of the migra- 
tion of sea fishes for long distances. But the capture of anchovies off the 
Hebrides forms a possible difficulty. There are three hypotheses : (1) That 
the anchovies caught off the Scottish coast were derived from the shoals 
frequenting their normal habitat many hundreds of miles away ; (2) that 
the anchovy is a permanent resident off the Scotch coast, but only appears 
in Scotch waters in years when they happen to be very abundant ; (3) 
that they are normal inhabitants and that their presence was discovered 
only when special attention was drawn to the subject. 
* The fishery officer at Greenock states that several fishermen in the Firth of Clyde 
informed him that every season they captured one or two of the fishes described, 
t British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 207. 
