134 
REPORT—1854. 
cent. Of 8500 young persons (under 21) out of employ, only 86 were committed to 
prison. During the strike, the lessened expenditure in public and beer-houses was 
a trifle more than .£1000 per week. 
The general conclusions from the above are, that hard times may add a few cases 
to the calendars, and that good times greatly tend to increase summary convictions. 
The increase to the sessions consists of the young, thrown into idleness; the in¬ 
crease of summary cases arises from the intemperance encouraged by high wages. 
On the Fluctuations in the Herring Fisheries. 
By John Ci.eghorn, Wick. 
The author had his attention culled to this subject by the notorious fact, that 
districts once prominent for their fishing stations ore so no longer, and that fluctua¬ 
tions in the produce of this fishery form a striking feature in its history, and 
never been satisfactorily accounted for. The assigned causes for the decay of fishing 
districts, and for thu fluctuations in the produce of the fishery, he found were mora 
as well as physical, and the physical were generally as untenable as the moral, and 
the whole a jumble of contradiction. . 
To ascertuin if there was a uniform law governing the whole, and what that law 
was, he tried to make himself acquainted with the natural history of the H«mng- 
From the reports of the Board of Fisheries, and from other sources, lie endeavours 
to ascertain if there was unything like uniformity in the rise and fall of station*. 
in the fluctuations to which the fisheries arc subject. The result of hi* iDvcstig* 
tions are— ..... ^ 
I. That the herring is not migratory, but a native of the waters in wnicn i 
found : that within very narrow limits races exist distinct in size, quality, ai 
time of spawning, and always maintain their distinctive features: that in co 
gregating for spawning the herring is brought within the scope of those age n *'.. 
ployed for their capture, and those agents he found are, 10,974 boat5 '. ,V. t 
Bcamcn, employing 81,934,330 square yards of netting, an extent of netting « 
would cover an area of 26| square miles, or, if extended lineally, would rcacti 
miles. 
II. He found, that about twenty-five years ago the extent of netting was far 
than that now used, and the produce of the fisheries nearly as great as at l ,rcsc ‘ ’. 
that the increase of the herrings taken bears no proportion to the extended new 
III. In the rise and fall of stations, he saw in the statistics a steady *®cre 
their produce up to a culminating point, then violent fluctuations, and nnai 
tmction. 
IV- ..He found that the races nearest the large seats of population, and in the 
accessible waters, have first disappeared ; and that in districts where , the 
rapid, as among islands, and in lochs, where the fishing-grounds arc c,r * un V 
the fishmgs a rc precarious nnd short-lived ; while on the other hand, exteos ^ 
boards, having slack tide*, with little accommodation for boats, were surer, 
longer continuance as fishing districts. , 
from these premise* he concludes, that the extinction of districts as 
flucIua, ' ona 'n the fisheries generally, are imputable to /"Tl 3 j,,nf 
n hat we are now doing for the cast coast fisheries what has already , ts0C u* 
for those on the west const: that, therefore, the attention of the British j, 
tion. and through it the Government, should be called to the subject, 
arrangements may be adopted as will make the Herring Fisheries a perennial ** 
of wealth to the nation. 
°n the Current Price ami the Cost Price of Corn in England dtin>'9 * 
last Ten } cars, as illustrating the Value of Agricultural Statistics. 
John Towne Dan son . J ^ 
I,apw wa * to 8how the extent of the fluctuations of U* ’JJJ. 
as compared wiU. the co*/ price of corn, and particularly of wheat, and their 
.. r on *?j e ca P ,ta i employed in agriculture. f ;mportr‘ i 
JnTr?n G ? U !" 8 of I ,rice8 « and the Board of Trade returns of >njP°. d 
grain, Mr. Danson had formed a series of tables, showing the prices actual > 
