369 
IX. 
NOTES ON THE HEiaUNG FISHERY OF 1881. 
IjY T. Southwell, F.Z.S. 
Read 28th February, 1882. 
Our over-watchful Secretary thinks it would be desirable to put on 
record some notes on the Herring Fishery of 1881, which has in 
some respects been an exceptional season ; ami although I possess 
110 special information on the subject, I am happy at his request to 
l)lace at the disposal of tlie Society such memoranda as I have from 
time to time made on the progress and results of the fishery as they 
came under my notice. 
The spring fishery was commenced, or first assumed importance, 
at Lowestoft in 1873, and since that year has been prosecuted with 
varying success from that port. Yarmouth has not made a feature 
of the spring fishery; at least, I have no return till 1879, when 
only 112 lasts were taken, and in 1880 there were 226 lasts: in 
the past season 236 lasts were taken. 
The sjiring season opened at Lowestoft in the second week in 
!March. The fish were found fifty miles aw'ay, but the catches were 
very fair, the boats for the first three weeks averaging something 
like three lasts each, and the price varying from £10 to £12 per last. 
Tlie first and second weeks of April were very stormy, and the 
fishing unsatisfactory. On the 8th a boat arrived with half a last, 
which fetched nineteen shillings a long hundred (132 fish), or at 
tlie rate of £95 per last. On the same evening two other boats 
arrived with two or three lasts, which brought the price down to 
tlie still high figure of fifteen shillings and threepence per 132. On 
tlio 11th, being ^londay, and tlie fish “second day,” the price was 
down to three shillings to four and threepence per 132, thus showing 
the violent fluctuations Avhich the prices are subject to, and how 
