216 
MR. T. SOUTHWELL ON THE HERRING FISHERY. 
twenty years watching the reports of the Herring voyages, I have 
learned singularly little else, and I believe ruy statistics, such as 
they are, are the only ones published. From time to time I have 
called attention to the lamentable ignorance which exists with 
regard to all that it seems so desirable we should know as to the 
habits, food, distribution, and reproduction of these valuable 
fish ; the causes which govern their movements, the influence of 
temperature in expediting or retarding their approach to the 
coast ; the much vexed question of the spring fishery ; whether 
it is desirable to commence the autumn fishery always on the same 
date ; or if it would be to our advantage, occasionally, to defer 
the voyage till the fish were in finer condition, or the weather 
more suitable for handling them ; the all important question of 
the size of the mesh in the nets used ; and the not less serious 
questions of over-production, and the utilisation of unsaleable fish, 
with a view to prevent the waste which follows, in some seasons, 
the too frequent gluts, when many tons of valuable food fish have 
been cast back into the sea, or spread in a crude state on the land 
for manure, as well as the utter absence of any competent authority 
to collect information on these and many other important points 
connected with this great industry. With such admirable examples 
before us as the Scotch Fishery Board and the United States Fishery 
Commission, this is really lamentable, and it behoves the Fishery 
Department of the Board of Trade to justify its existence by at 
once taking steps to remove such a reproach. 
The figures previous to the opening of the Yarmouth and Lowestoft 
Fish Wharfs, the former in 1867, are, I believe, not much to be relied 
on, but looking back over the past twenty years, 1871, 1873, 1883, 
1884, 1886, and 1889, have been the most productive. Taking 
successive periods of five years, they have averaged as follows : 
for the period ending 1875, 27,154 lasts per annum; 1880, 
21,240 lasts; 1885, 28,537 lasts; and 1890,30,184 lasts. The 
average annual return for the first decade has been 24,199 lasts, 
and for the second 29,360 lasts ; while the annual average over 
the whole period, from such figures as I have been able to obtain, 
has been 26,780 lasts per annum. Estimating the weight of each 
last of Herring to be one and three-quarter tons, and the value 
at only £6 per last, the total annual contribution to the food 
supply of the nation by this branch of the great harvest of the 
