270 
MR. 6. H. HARRIS ON THE HERRING FISHERY. 
inexperienced eye from fine Yarmouth Herring. Both the 
Norwegian and the Yarmouth Herring are large fish. But the 
Norwegian fish do not eat well, indeed, so little are they liked, that 
they are rapidly falling into disrepute on the Continent. If that 
were all, their competition would he easy to meet. But they carry 
with them in their fall all large Herring, with the result that the 
undiscriminating folk of the Continent look with suspicion on 
everything in the way of Herring unless it be small. 
Now the Yarmouth boats fish with a net of a large mesh, and 
therefore catch large fish ; hut the Scotch with a net of a small 
mesh, and therefore catch small fish. The Scotch are therefore in 
the happy position of being able to evade the suspicion of 
Continental consumers toward large fish, and to satisfy the 
demands of the Continental markets for Pickled Herring, whilst 
Yarmouth owners are suffering severe reverses from an unjust 
cause. Again, Yarmouth boats go out to the deep sea for their 
fish ; the Scotch boats are satisfied with not going so far. This 
again gives the Scotch a double advantage. In the first place, 
they make quicker voyages, and in the second place they do not 
need to salt their fish. The latter consideration is an important 
one. Salt costs about 25s. to each last a boat has on board. 
Now a last in such a season as 1896, would often fetch no more 
than £5. It is a common thing in the best of seasons, for the 
supply of fresh and salt fish to be so ill-regulated, that fresh 
shall always get sold over the head of salt, although fresh costs less 
to catch. But it must be remembered that a glut of fresh would 
bring the selling value down to zero, as they are perishable 
and difficult to deal with. Moreover, over-day fish are worth 
hardly anything, and there is always the risk of too much or 
too little wind preventing the cargo reaching port in a saleable 
condition. 
In 1896 the total catch landed at Yarmouth Wharf was 19,250 
lasts, meaning, at 13,200 fish per last, two hundred and fifty-four 
millions one hundred thousand fish. Of this number of lasts, 
14,420 were caught by Yarmouth boats, 4830 by Scotch boats. 
145 Yarmouth boats were engaged, and probably caught about 80 
lasts to the boat. 129 Scotch boats were employed, giving rather 
more than 37 lasts to the Scotch boat. That the Scotch boat- 
owners went home rejoicing, whilst the Yarmouth boatowners 
