242 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
The Committee made reference to the herring and sprat 
or garvie fishery of the Firth of Forth, which has recently 
excited so much interest, and upon which so much contra- 
dictory has been said and written. Certain members of the 
Committee devoted much time and attention to the subject, 
examining separately the product of the fishery in the boats 
and in the fish-carts since the 4th of the current month of 
January, when the Fishery Commissioners withdrew the 
prohibition against sprat-fishing ; and the result of close in- 
vestigation of large masses of fry at various times has been, 
that the proportion of herring, Clupea harengus^ less than 
6 inches long, taken among the sprats, Clupea sprattus, is 
very small ; one of the examiners found on an average only 
one herring fry among a hundred sprats over a very exten- 
sive field of investigation ; others found the proportion of 
herrings rather larger ; but they all concurred in thinking 
that the comparatively small quantity of herring fry caught 
with the sprats could not in any sensible degree afPect the 
former ; and when it is considered that the roe of a single 
herring contains such an enormous quantity of ova (32,000), 
and that the fish spawns upon our shores in countless mil- 
lions annually, the sensitiveness which has been shown as 
to the taking of even a few tens of thousands of young her- 
rings among the sprats seems to be without foundation. A 
limited close-time, or protection in a limited area, would 
probably do infinitely more towards the protection of the 
fishery than any needless and unpopular prohibition of 
sprat or other fishing. Specimens of the smallest size of 
herring and the largest size of sprat ordinarily occurring 
amongst the masses caught were exhibited ; and, although 
the distinguishing marks were very apparent, even to the 
ordinary spectator accustomed to the appearance of the fish, 
there seemed to the Committee to be no mode of accounting 
for the outcry, so far as honest, which has been made about 
the destruction of herring fry, but upon the supposition that 
the two descriptions of Clupea, the herring and the sprat, 
have not been accurately recognised, and that well-grown 
herrings have been denominated fry. The abiding scientific 
distinctions are so well known that they need not be 
