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Part III. — Tenth Annual Report 
* Sardine de rogue,' — must be dependent upon their food, and it would 
seem thus that : ' at Concarneau, there are (stomach contents), according 
* to the season, copepoda, embryos and eggs of small Crustacea, annelids, 
■ infusoria, radiolaria, everywhere low class plants, such as diatomacea.' 
The special interest attaching to the viscera collected in Galicia consists in 
the enormous quantity of infusoria which were found in them. ' Accord- 
' ing to the calculation of two assistants, the contents of one of the 
1 intestines (not including the oesophagus, the stomach, and its cul de sac), 
1 might be taken as twenty millions of peridinea of a single species 
' (Peridinium polyedricum, Pouchet).'* 
We have unfortunately not such a series of investigations into the 
sardines of Galicia as into those of France, nor have we sufficient 
knowledge of the temperatures and bathymetrical data from which to 
draw conclusions. But the variety of temperatures, owing to the great 
depths outside, and the gulf stream closely impinging upon the Galician 
coast, enabling the fishes which are delicate to escape from unsuitable 
conditions within a very short distance, must have some influence. 
The principal fishery under the Cornish system, of great seines for enclos- 
ing, and small tuck seines for capturing afterwards, we were unable to see in 
its full strength in Coruna. Indeed, this fishery must be considered to be 
in its decline, and scarcely suitable for the modern conditions of the Bay of 
Coruna, at the very head of which it was carried on. The fishery could 
only be conducted when the shoals of sardines had reached the inner 
portion of the bay where the depth was suitable for the nets employed, 
and this naturally would only take place where they were not broken up 
on the way thither. But of recent years the bay seems to have become 
much more frequented by steamers, and whether from this cause or some 
other more natural, the great shoals seem to have ceased entering to the 
proper position. The result of this is, that in place of nine factories as 
hitherto, this year all have ceased operations but two — being those of 
wealthy firms of old standing, capable of tiding over a few years of 
depression. These establishments, both of which we visited, and of which 
we saw the equipments, are very large, and the mode of conducting the 
business is such as to require very large captures of fish to suitably 
remunerate the investors. The main seines are very extensive, piled up 
in huge barges, manned by crews of men paid partly by wage, partly by 
share in the produce. They are said in Coruna to hang about the public 
houses waiting for the order to embark, and to be of no very good type ; 
but they seemed to us fairly stout, and well-clad men, of by no means a bad 
type. About five in the evening, they may be seen embarking on the barges 
moored off the factories, with the nets on board, and rowing off for the 
fishing ground, where they watch all night. The best portion of the bay 
is buoyed off into four portions where the seines can be handled satisfac- 
torily, and the owners of the factories have the right to draw the seine on 
these time about. Now that they have been reduced to two, the difficulty 
of arranging is greatly reduced, and all the vessels (barges and boats) go 
off together to the fishing ground. The barges may be seen moored 
during the day with the net under a covering. The main barges contain 
the seine net, the reserve seine, and the tuck seine separately ; smaller 
vessels carry the equipment — such as the hauling ropes each nearly a mile 
and a half in length, — and are afterwards employed to carry ashore the catch. 
When the fish are sighted the great seines are set as on our own coast, 
the tow ropes carried ashore to the capstans up the beach, and when the 
fish are properly surrouuded the nets are anchored, and the fish sometimes 
kept in them with a cordon of boats around for a week or two, until the 
* Prince Albert de Monaco, op. cit. , p. 7. 
