CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Are there more Fish in the Sea than ever came out of it?—Modern

Writers on the Fisheries—Were Fish ever so abundant as is

said?—Salmon-Poaching—Value of Salmon—Sea-Fish—Destruction of the

Young—Is the demand for Fish beginning to exceed the Supply?—Evils

of Exaggeration—Fish quite Local—Incongruity of Protecting one Fish

and not another—Difficulties in the way of a Close-Time—Duties of the

Board of White-Fisheries—Regulation of Salmon Rivers—Justice to Upper

Proprietors—The one Object of the Fishermen—Conclusion.

The idea of a slowly but surely diminishing supply of fish is no

doubt alarming, for the public have hitherto believed so devoutly

in the frequently-quoted proverb of “more fish in the sea than ever

came out of it,” that it has never, except by a discerning few, been

thought possible to overfish; and, consequently, while endeavouring

to supply the constantly-increasing demand, it has never sufficiently

been brought home to the public mind that it is possible to reduce the

breeding stock of our best kinds of sea-fish to such an extent as may

render it difficult to repopulate those exhausted ocean colonies which

in years gone by yielded, as we have been often told, such miraculous

draughts. It is worthy of being noticed that most of our public writers

who venture to treat the subject of the fisheries proceed at once to

argue that the supply of fish is unlimited, and that the sea is a

gigantic fish-preserve into which man requires but to dip his net to

obtain at all times an enormous amount of wholesome and nutritious food.

This style of writing on the fisheries comes largely into use whenever

there is a project of a joint-stock fishing company placed before the

public. When that is the case obscure little villages are pointed to as

the future seats of enormous prosperity, just because they happen to be

thought of by some enterprising speculator as the nucleus of a fishing

town; and we are straightway told that Buckhorn or Kirksalt, or some

equally obscure place, could be made to rival those towns in Holland

whose wealth and prosperity originated in even smaller beginnings. We

are likewise informed, on the occasions of giving publicity to such

speculations, that “the sea is a liquid mine of boundless wealth, and

that thousands of pounds might be earned by simply stretching forth

our hands and pulling out the fish that have scarcely room to live in

the teeming waters of Great Britain,” etc. etc. I would be glad to

believe in these general statements regarding our food fisheries, were

I not convinced, from personal inquiry, that they are a mere coinage

of the brain. There are doubtless plenty of fish still in the sea, but

the trouble of capturing them increases daily, and the instruments of

capture have to be yearly augmented, indicating but too clearly to

all who have studied the subject that we are beginning to overfish.

We already know, in the case of the salmon, that the greed of man,

when thoroughly excited, can extirpate, for mere immediate gain, any

animal, however prolific it may be. Some of the British game birds

have so narrowly escaped destruction that their existence, in anything

like quantity, when set against the armies of sportsmen who seek their

annihilation, is wonderful.

The salmon has just had a very narrow escape from extermination. It

was at one time a comparatively plentiful fish, that could be obtained

for food purposes at an almost nominal expense, and a period dating

eighty years back is thought to have been a golden age so far as the

salmon-fisheries were concerned. But, in my opinion, it is more than

questionable if salmon, or indeed any of our sea or river animals, ever

were so magically abundant as has been represented. At the time, a

rather indefinite time, however—ranging from the beginning to the end

of last century, and frequently referred to by writers on the salmon

question—when farm-servants were compelled to eat of that fish more

frequently than seemed good for their stomachs, or when the country

laird, visiting London, ordered a steak for himself, with “a bit o’

saumon for the laddie,” and was thunderstruck at the price of the fish,

we must bear in mind, as a strong element of the question, that there

were few distant markets available; it was only on the Tweed, Tay,

Severn, and other salmon streams that the salmon was really plentiful.

No such regular commerce as that now prevailing was carried on in fresh

salmon at the period indicated. In fact, properly speaking, there was

no commerce beyond an occasional dispatch to London per smack, or the

sale of a few fish in country market-towns, and salmon has been known

to be sold in these places at so low a rate as a penny or twopence a

pound weight. Most of these fish, at the time I have indicated, were

boiled in pickle, or split up and cured as kippers. In those days

there were neither steamboats nor railways to hurry away the produce

of the sea or river to London or Liverpool; it is not surprising,

therefore, that in those good old times salmon could almost be had

for the capturing. Poaching—that is poaching as a trade—was unknown.

As I have already stated, when the people resident on a river were

allowed to capture as many fish as they pleased, or when they could

purchase all they required at a nominal price, there was no necessity

for them to capture the salmon while it was on the beds in order to

breed. Farm-servants on the Tay or Tweed had usually a few poached

fish, in the shape of a barrel of pickled salmon, for winter use. At

that time, as I have already said in treating of the salmon, men went

out on a winter night to “burn the water,” but then it was simply by

way of having a frolic. In those halcyon days country gentlemen killed

their salmon in the same sense as they killed their own mutton—viz. for

household eating; there was no other demand for the fish than that of

their own servants or retainers. Farmers kept their smoked or pickled

salmon for winter use, in the same way as they did pickled pork or

smoked bacon. The fish, comparatively speaking, were allowed to fulfil

the instincts of their nature and breed in peace: those owners, too, of

either upper or lower waters, who delighted in angling, had abundance

of attractive sport; and, so far as can be gleaned from personal

inquiry or reading, there was during the golden age of the salmon a

rude plenty of home-prepared food of the fish kind, which, even with

the best-regulated fisheries, we can never again, in these times of

increasing population, steam-power, and augmented demand, hope to see.

At present the very opposite of all this prevails. Farmers or cottars

cannot now make salmon a portion of their winter’s store: permission to

angle for that fish is a favour not very easily procured, because even

the worst upper waters can be let each season at a good figure; and

more than all that, the fish has become individually so valuable as to

tempt persons, by way of business, to engage extensively in its capture

at times when it is unlawful to take it, and the animal is totally

unfit for food. A prime salmon is, on the average, quite as valuable

as a Southdown sheep or an obese pig, both of which cost money to rear

and fatten; and at certain periods of the year salmon has been known to

bring as much as ten shillings per pound weight in a London fish-shop!

There have been many causes at work to bring about this falling-off

in our supplies; but ignorance of the natural history of the fish,

the want of accord between the upper and lower proprietors of salmon

rivers, the use of stake and bag nets, poaching during close-times,

and the consequent capture of thousands of gravid fish, as well as the

immense amount of overfishing by the lessees of fishing stations, are

doubtless among the chief reasons.

If these misfortunes occur with an important and individually valuable

fish like the salmon, which is so well hedged round by protective

laws, and which is so accessible that we can watch it day by day in

our rivers—and that such misfortunes have occurred is quite patent to

the world, indeed some of the best streams of England, at one time

noted for their salmon, are at this moment nearly destitute of fish—how

much more is it likely, then, that similar misfortunes may occur to

the unwatched and unprotected fishes of the sea, which spawn in a

greater world of water, with thousands of chances against their seed

being even so much as fructified, let alone any hope of its ever being

developed into fish fit for table purposes? In the sea the larger fish

are constantly preying on the smaller, and the waste of life, as I

have elsewhere explained, is enormous: the young fish, so soon as they

emerge from their fragile shell, are devoured in countless millions,

not one in a thousand perhaps escaping the dangers of its youth.

Shoals of haddocks, for instance, find their way to the deposits of

herring-spawn just as the eggs are bursting into life, or immediately

after they have vivified, so that hundreds of thousands of these

infantile fry and quickening ova are annually devoured. The hungry

codfish are eternally devouring the young of other kinds, and their own

young as well; and all throughout the depths of ocean the strong fishes

are found to be preying on the weak, and a perpetual war is being waged

for daily food. Reliable information, it is true, cannot easily be

obtained on these points, it being so difficult to observe the habits

of animals in the depths of the ocean; and none of our naturalists can

inform us how long it is before our white fish arrive at maturity, and

at what age a codfish or a turbot becomes reproductive; nor can our

economists do more than guess the percentage of eggs that ripen into

fish, or the number of these that are likely to reach our tables as

food.

As has been mentioned in a previous chapter of this volume, the supply

of haddocks and other Gadidæ was once so plentiful around the British

coasts, that a short line, with perhaps a score of hooks, frequently

replenished with bait, would be quite sufficient to capture a few

thousand fish. The number of hooks was gradually extended, till now

they are counted by the thousand, the fishermen having to multiply the

means of capture as the fish become less plentiful. About forty years

ago the percentage of fish to each line was very considerable. Eight

hundred hooks would take about 750 fish; but now, with a line studded

with 4000 hooks, the fishermen sometimes do not take 100 fish. It was

recently stated by a correspondent of the _John o’ Groat Journal_, a

newspaper published in the fishing town of Wick, that a fish-curer

there contracted some years ago with the boats for haddocks at 3s. 6d.

per hundred, and that at that low price the fishing yielded the men

from £20 to £40 each season; but that now, although he has offered the

fishermen 12s. a hundred, he cannot procure anything like an adequate

supply.

As the British sea-fisheries afford remunerative employment to a

large body of the population, and offer a favourable investment for

capital, it is surely time that we should know authoritatively whether

or not there be truth in the falling-off in our supplies of herring

and other white fish. At one of the Glasgow fish-merchants’ annual

soirees, held a year or two ago it was distinctly stated that all

kinds of fish were less abundant now than in former years, and that in

proportion to the means of capture the result was less. Mr. Methuen

reiterated such opinions again and again. “I reckon our fisheries,”

said this enterprising fish-merchant on one occasion, “if fostered

and properly fished, a national source of wealth of more importance

and value than the gold-mines of Australia, because the gold mines are

exhaustible; but the living, propagating, self-cultivating gift of God

is inexhaustible, if rightly fished by man, to whom they are given

for food. It is evident anything God gives is ripe and fit for food.

‘Have dominion,’ not destruction, was the command. Any farmer cutting

his ripe clover grass would not only be reckoned mad, but would, in

fact, be so, were he to tear up the roots along with the clover,

under the idea that he was thus obtaining more food for his cattle,

and then wondering why he had no second crop to cut. His cattle would

starve, himself and family be beggared, and turned out of their farm

as improvident and destructive, who not only beggared themselves, but

to the extent of their power impoverished the people by destroying the

resources of their country. The farmer who thus destroys the hopes of a

rising crop by injudicious farming is not only his own enemy, but the

enemy of his country as well.” Such evidence could be multiplied to

any extent if it were necessary, but I feel that quite enough has been

said to prove the point. It is a point I have no doubt upon whatever,

and persons who have studied the question are alarmed, and say it is

no use blinking the matter any longer—that the demand for fish as an

article of food is not only beginning to exceed the supply, but that

the supply obtained, combined with waste of spawn and other causes,

is beginning to exceed the breeding power of the fish. In the olden

time, when people only caught to supply individual wants, fish were

plentiful, in the sense that no scarcity was ever experienced, and the

shoals of sea-fish, it was thought at one time, would never diminish;

but since the traffic became a commercial speculation the question has

assumed a totally different aspect, and a sufficient quantity cannot

now be obtained. Who ever hears now of monster turbot being taken by

the trawlers? Where are the miraculous hauls of mackerel that used to

gladden the eyes of the fishermen? Where are now the waggon-loads of

herring to use as manure, as in the golden age of the fisheries? I do

not require to pause for the reply—echo would only mock my question

by repeating it. Exhausted shoals and inferior fish tell us but too

plainly that there _is_ reason for alarm, and that we have in all

probability broken at last upon our capital stock!

What then, if this be so, will be the future of the British fisheries?

I have already, and more than once, in preceding pages, hinted my

doubts of the existence of the enormous fish-supplies of former days;

in my opinion the supposed plentifulness of all kinds of fish must in

a large degree have been a myth, or at least but relative, founded in

all probability on the fluctuating demand and the irregular supply.

Were there not an active but unseen demolition of the fish-shoals, and

were these shoals as gigantic as people imagine them to be, the sea

would speedily become like stirabout, so that in time ships would not

be able to sail from port to port. Imagine a few billions of herrings,

each pair multiplying at the rate of thirty thousand per annum! picture

the codfish, with its million ratio of increase; and then add, by way

of enhancing the bargain, a million or two of the flat fish family

throwing in their annual quota to the total, and figures would be

arrived at far too vast for human comprehension. In fact, without

some compensating balance, the waters on the globe would not contain

a couple of years’ increase! If fish have that tendency to multiply

which is said, how comes it that in former years, when there was not

a tithe of the present demand, when the population was but scant, and

the means of inland carriage to the larger seats of population rude and

uncertain, the ocean did not overflow and leave its inhabitants on its

shores?

It seems perfectly clear that we have hitherto seriously exaggerated

the stock; it could never have been of the extent indicated, because

then no draughts could have had any great effect, no matter how

enormous they might have been. From various natural causes, some of

which I have indicated in a former chapter, the stock has been kept

in balance; and it seems now perfectly clear that by a course of

fishing so excessive as that carried on at present, coupled with the

destruction incidental to unprotected breeding, we must at all events

speedily narrow if not exhaust the capital stock. We have done so in

the case of the salmon; and the best remedy for that evil which has yet

been discovered is cultivation—pisciculture, in fact—which science, or

rather art, I have already treated of on its own merits. In ancient

days the land yielded sufficient roots and fruits for the wants of its

then population without cultivation; but as population increased and

larger supplies became necessary, cultivation was tried, and now in all

countries the culture of the land is one of the main employments of the

people. The sea, too, must be cultivated, and the river also, if we

desire to multiply or replenish our stock of fish.

As to the introduction of strange fishes, either sea or river, I for

one will be glad to see them, if they are suitable. It would of course

be a great misfortune to introduce any fish into our waters that

would only become fat by preying on those fishes which are at present

plentiful. Some naturalists think that the introduction of _Silurus_ is

a misfortune; I am not of that opinion, because in the kind of water

suitable for the growth of _Silurus glanis_ no other fish of any value

is to be found, so that no ill could be done. The introduction into our

British waters of another fish has been advocated—viz. the _Goorami_.

It is a Chinese fish and has been introduced with great success into

the Mauritius, and M. Coste is of opinion that it may be acclimatised

in France, indeed he is trying the experiment. The Goorami, it seems,

is a delicious fish, so far as its flavour is concerned, and grows to

a great size in a short time. I need not say any more on this part of

my subject. If the man is a benefactor to his country who makes two

blades of grass grow where only one grew before, what shall be said of

the man who introduces to us a new food-fish?

Were we better acquainted with the natural history of fish, it

would be easy to regulate the fisheries. The everlasting demand for

sea-produce has caused the sea-fishing, like the salmon-fishing, to be

prosecuted at improper seasons, and fish have been, indeed are daily,

to a large extent, sold in a state that renders them quite improper

for human food. Another cause of the constantly-lessening supplies

may be also mentioned. Up till a recent period it was thought _all_

fish were migratory, and the reason usually assigned for unsuccessful

fishing was that the fish had removed to some other place! Thus the

fact of a particular colony having been fished up was in some degree

hidden, chiefly from ignorance of the habits of the animal. This

migratory instinct, so far as our principal sea-fish are concerned,

is purely mythical. The rediscovery of the Rockall cod-bank must tend

to dissipate these old-fashioned suppositions of our naturalists. All

fish are local, from the salmon to the sprat, and each kind has its

own abiding-place. The salmon keeps unfailingly to its own stream, the

oyster to its own bank, the lobster to its particular rock, and the

herring to its own bay. Fishermen are beginning now to understand this,

and can tell the locality to which a particular fish belongs, from

the marks upon it. A Tay salmon differs from a Tweed one, and Norway

lobsters can be readily distinguished from those brought from Orcadia.

Then, again, the fine haddocks caught in the bay of Dublin differ much

from those taken in the Firth of Forth, whilst Lochfyne herrings and

Caithness herrings have each distinct peculiarities.

In regard to the enormous waste of spawn which I have chronicled,

what more can I say? I have in various pages of this work shown how

fish-roe is wasted, and at the risk of censure for again repeating

myself (I have already more than once done so purposely), I must once

more ask attention to the millions of cod ova criminally wasted in the

French sardine-fishery. I am presuming, in making this allusion, that

cod are expressly caught with full roes for the purpose of supplying

this bait. The English fishermen can hit on the sprat shoals without a

ground-bait; surely the French fishermen can do what we do.

The regulation of the herring-fisheries (and the proper protection

of the herring) is surrounded with innumerable difficulties, because

of our scant knowledge of the natural history of the animal. I have

already, and more than once, in the preceding pages of this work,

alluded to the striking incongruity of protecting one fish during its

spawning time, and yet making the same time in the life of another fish

the legal period for its capture. But a close-time for the herring,

from the fact of that fish breeding on some part of the coast all the

year round, although not impossible, will be difficult to arrange. If,

as is pretty certain, there be races of herring that breed in every

month of the year, would it be advisable to shut up the fisheries?

and if, as some writers on the natural history of the herring assert,

that fish only collects into shoals at the time it is called on to

obey its procreative instinct, at what other period of its existence

could it be captured, even admitting that at that time of its life

it is least fitted to become the food of mankind? True, we have only

gone on fishing for herrings in a routine way at particular seasons of

the year, and, were the experiment tried, we might hit on the shoals

at a more congenial time. The shoals of particular districts—if, as I

assume, the herring is very local—will have each their own spawning

time, and there might be a few weeks’ close season then—not so much

to save the taking of the gravid fish, as to allow them a quiet

interval, during which they might deposit their spawn. The period of

the herring’s reproduction might, I think, be easily determined by

constructing a sea-pond, where a few of these fish could breed, and the

growth of the young fish be carefully watched.

In the case of the salmon there is no difficulty about a close-time,

because we know the breeding seasons of each river; but it would

be difficult to divide the sea into compartments; and even if we

could, and a close-time were to be instituted, would not the strict

logic of the position dictate that the close-time should be for the

protection of the fish during their breeding season? But again, if it

be granted that the breeding season is the only time that we can take

the fish, would not such a close-time be practically putting an end

to the fishing? It is a curious fact, as well as a curious fishing

anomaly, that we have had a close-time for herrings on the west coast

of Scotland but not on the east coast! And I can trace no good that

the close-time has accomplished; it is not known that it increases

the supply of fish, but it is known that a close-time impedes the

prosecution of the other fisheries by depriving the poor men of a

supply of bait. The fishermen often use the herring as a bait for other

fishes.

Although Scotland is the main seat of the herring-fishery, I should

like to see statistics, similar to those collected in Scotland, taken

at a few English ports for a period of years, in order that we might

obtain additional data from which to arrive at a right conclusion as

to the increase or decrease of the fishery for herring. So far as the

capture and cure of herrings are concerned, we have in Scotland, what

ought to be in every country, an excellent fishery police. The Hon. Mr.

Bouverie Primrose, when giving evidence before a fishery commission,

described the official duties of the Board of Scottish White-fish

Fisheries as being:—“To give clearances to herring-fishery vessels

going out to sea, and to receive notices from curers on shore of their

intention to cure; to see to the measures for the delivery of fresh

herring, as between buyer and seller; to the size of the barrel for

British white cured herring, and to the quality of the cure, branding

the first quality, and collecting the fees for the same; attending

on the exportation; to inspect the exports in order to see that they

were in proper order; preventing the use of such nets as Parliament

had declared to be illegal; protecting the sprat fishermen in their

rights of boundary; maintaining order on the fishery grounds, and in

connection therewith carrying out the police regulations for naming and

numbering boats and their sails; receiving and restoring lost fishing

property; building fishery piers and harbours; protecting the spawn

of herring and the herring-fisheries generally, according to Act of

Parliament; maintaining herring close-time as fixed and appointed by

Parliament; furnishing returns and statistics of the herring-fisheries

of Scotland and the Isle of Man, and aiding in maintaining the fishery

convention with France. The functions of the Board extended over the

whole coast of Scotland, and in regard to statistics to the Isle of

Man, and in respect to the branding of herring over the northern

portion of the coast of Northumberland.”

Might not the functions of the Board be so extended as to embrace a

statistical inquiry into the capture of haddocks, cod, and ling (other

than those to be cured), turbot, etc., in Scotland? We all agree

heartily enough in Scotland with the Board’s functions of harbour

improvement and fishery police, and we do not grudge, therefore, in any

degree, the £15,000 which are expended for its maintenance. Scotland

gets so small a portion of the public money in proportion to what it

contributes to the revenue that no one would desire to see it deprived

of this small grant. The only question connected with it is its proper

expenditure. I object entirely to a portion of the duties of the

Board—_i.e._ certifying the quality of the cure. Government might as

well step in to certify the manufacture of Dunlop cheese or Glasgow

cotton. True, the brand has now to be paid for, and moreover is not

at all compulsory, so that curers may trade on their own name if they

please, and it is satisfactory to think that they are now doing so in

an annually increasing degree.

The salmon-fisheries may be left to their proprietors; the county

gentlemen, and others who own salmon-fisheries, seem now to be

thoroughly alive to the great danger of overfishing, which has hitherto

been the bane of this valuable animal. The chief requisites for a

great salmon river and a series of healthy and productive fisheries

are—first, a good spawning ground and a provision for the fish

attaining it with the least possible trouble; second, a long rest

during the spawning season; as also, third, a weekly close-time of

many hours. To insure protection to the eggs and to the young fish

during the tenderest period of their lives, I would have, as an aid

to the natural spawning-beds, artificial breeding-ponds and egg-boxes

on every large river; and it would be well if the proprietors of all

our larger salmon streams would agree to work their fisheries, as was

long ago proposed, on the plan of a joint-stock company, the shares

to be allocated on some equitable plan so that both lower and upper

proprietors would share in the produce of the river. It is needless to

point out to owners of salmon properties the advantages and saving that

would at once accrue from such a mode, and such a plan would especially

be the best way of settling the existing differences between the upper

and lower holders. It was well said by the Commissioners appointed to

inquire into the salmon-fisheries of England and Wales, that “it has

been found by experience in all the three countries that the surest

way to increase the stock is to give the upper proprietors an interest

in preserving them. The upper waters are, in fact, the nursery of the

fish; it is there that the breeding operations take place, it is there

that the wasteful destruction committed by poachers and depredators,

if suffered to have their way, is carried on. It lies with those to

whom the rights of fishing, and the lands adjacent to those parts of

the streams belong, either to permit the ruinous waste of the breeding

fish to go on, or to take measures for protecting them. They cannot

take either course without in the one case conferring a benefit, and

in the other permitting an injury, to all the parties lower down. But

it is almost needless to say that they _will_ not make exertions or

incur expense to preserve the fish, unless encouraged to do so by being

allowed to reap some share of the produce of the waters.”

The laws of Scotland as to her salmon rivers are confessedly

defective—confessed by the constant efforts to amend them, often ending

in only making them worse. This will be eternal if some attempt be not

made to act according to the reason of the thing; clearing the ground,

and starting on a new and rational principle, instead of tinkering or

trying to tinker what is past mending, and never ought to have been.

Rivers are subjects entirely different in their nature from lands. A

man, having secured a patch of land, may (as is generally understood)

do anything he pleases with what he calls “his own” but render it a

nuisance. This is wrong; for his obligation to the country, if not

to himself, is to use it to the best advantage for the public good.

As to rivers, this obligation is more distinct. They are more of the

nature of public property, both as regards the public generally and

those holding property on their banks and so having private interests

in them. No man at the mouth of a river has any moral or legal right

to stop the fish from ascending to their breeding-places. This, clear

as it may seem, is not generally recognised, and hence the loss to the

country, and misery to the useful and valuable animals bred in them, or

that might be bred in them, from the ignorant and reckless self-seeking

of some, and the negligence or pointed disregard of all interests

displayed by others.[22]

I have not in the course of this work intruded many of my own theories

as to fish and fishing upon the reader; but I have not been studying

the subject for twelve years without theorising a little, and when

the proper time comes I shall have a great deal more to say about the

natural history of our food-fishes than I have said in the present

volume. In the meantime I am anxious, as regards the whole of the

sea fisheries, to inculcate the duty of collecting more and better

statistics than we have ever yet obtained.

Our great farm, the sea, is free to all—too free; there is no seed

or manure to provide, and no rent to pay. Every adventurer who can

procure a boat may go out and spoliate the shoals; he has no care for

the growth or preservation of animals which he has been taught to think

inexhaustible. In one sense it is of no consequence to a fisherman that

he catches codlings instead of cod; whatever size his fish may be,

they yield him what he fishes for—money. What if all the herrings he

captures be crowded with spawn? what if they be virgin fish that have

never added a quota to the general stock? That is all as nothing to

the fisherman as long as they bring him money. It is the same in all

fisheries. Our free unregulated fisheries are, in my humble opinion, a

thorough mistake. If a fisherman, say with a capital of £500 in boats,

nets, etc., had invested the same amount of money in a breeding-farm,

how would he act? Would he not earn his living and increase his capital

by allowing his animals to breed? and he would certainly never cut

down oats or wheat in a green state. But the fish-farmers do all these

things, and the Fishery Board stamps them with approval. We must

look better into these matters; and I would crave the expenditure

by government of a few thousand pounds definitely to settle, by

well-devised experiments, all those points in the natural history of

the herring and other white fish which clog the prosecution of these

particular fisheries. Surely it would not be difficult, as I have

already suggested, to construct a sea-pond where we could observe

the spawn from the time of its deposit till the period at which it

quickened into life; and we could note the growth of the fish and so

fix beyond cavil the period at which our most important food fishes

become reproductive. Further, could not the fisherman be made to pay a

small sum of money annually by way of licence, he being bound at the

same time to give in a schedule to a registrar, or some other officer

to be appointed, of the number and gross weight of the different kinds

of fish caught, the number of lines and hooks used in the capture, and

the time taken to capture them? Many other changes might be made in

the machinery and time of capture; these, however, I will take another

opportunity to point out; my present purpose has simply been to bring

into a focus our various fishing industries and describe to the public

the HARVEST OF THE SEA.

APPENDIX.

I. OBSERVATIONS ON FISH-GUANO.

“The importance of this field of industry has been fully appreciated

in France, and a factory has been established at Concarneau, in the

department of Finisterre. A full report of a visit to the factory

having been made by the distinguished chemist M. Payen, and the

well-known agriculturist M. Pommier, to the French Agricultural

Society, we purpose presenting our readers with the chief points

contained in that report, in the hope that another year may not pass

over without some attempt of the like kind being made upon our coasts.

“The experiments which led to the establishment of the factory, of

which we are now to speak, were made by a M. de Molon, and have

extended over a period of four years. On several occasions he had

employed the offal obtained in the preparation of sardines, on the

coast of Brittany, to manure his land in Finisterre. The results which

he obtained led him to imagine that this offal, and a multitude of

marine fish of little commercial value, might furnish an important

resource to agriculture. This fact, observed since a long time,

especially in countries where deep-sea fishing is a permanent industry,

was not new; but such a manure was by its very nature restricted to the

agriculture of the coasts—fish or fish-offal not being capable of being

economically transported more than short distances. It is also evident

that these materials should be immediately employed—that they are not

susceptible of preservation, and that the manure not admitting of

being applied to the soil, except at certain seasons, it must at once

be evident that the employment of fish-offal, spite of its richness

in fecundating elements, could never be generalised, or offer large

resources to agriculture.

“M. de Molon, however, conceived that a far vaster and more

advantageous agricultural resource might be drawn from this

inexhaustible wealth of the ocean, by so treating the offal of the

coast fisheries, and the immense quantities of common fish which are of

no use to the fishermen, as to ensure their preservation, concentrate

their fecundatory properties, and render them as transportable as

Peruvian guano—to do, in fine, what we have shown to be practicable in

our former article.

“M. de Molon made a number of experiments from this point of view,

and finally settled upon this plan: To boil the fish; to extract as

much as possible of the water and oil which they contain; dry them and

reduce them to powder. After he had obtained this powder in a perfectly

dry state he had it analysed, first by M. Moride, at Nantes; then at

Rennes, by M. Malaguti; and finally, by M. Payen, in Paris.

“These analyses, several times repeated, yielded as a mean the

following percentage as results:—

Water 1·00

Nitrogenous organic matter 80·10

Soluble salts, consisting principally of chloride of sodium,

carbonate of ammonia, and traces of sulphate 4·50

Phosphate of lime and magnesia 14·10

Carbonate of lime 0·06

Silica 0·02

Magnesia and loss 0·22

—————-

100·00

“In other words, these repeated analyses indicate that dried

fish-powder would contain about—

12 per cent of nitrogen, and

14 ” of bone earth—

that is to say, it would be nearly as rich as the best Peruvian guano.

(According to the results of analyses made on herrings, an average

manure made from that fish, and containing 10 per cent of water,

would contain about 13½ per cent of nitrogen, and between 11 and

12 per cent of bone earth. The small fish containing but little bone

earth accounts for the difference in both cases.) To the scientific

analysis M. de Molon wished to add the sanction of practice; he

applied 400 kilogrammes (880·8 lbs.) per hectare (2 acres, 1 rood,

and 35 perches), or 3 cwts. 0 qr. 20 lbs. per statute acre, of the

fish-powder, half in autumn and half in spring, as a top-dressing to

wheat. The results which he obtained were so evident that his doubts

were dissipated, his conviction became full and entire, and he resolved

to make every effort to discover a means of rendering as economical as

possible the manufacture of a manure equally powerful, and which should

advantageously compete with Peruvian guano.

“Having made his calculations, his ideas were at once directed to

Newfoundland, where the produce of the cod-fishery in a fresh condition

amounts to more than 1,400,000 tons annually.

“The cod, previous to being salted and dried, is deprived of its head,

its intestines, and the backbone, which together make about one-half of

its total weight. This offal, which amounts to at least 700,000 tons,

is thrown into the sea, or is lost without utility.

“In 1850 M. de Molon fitted out a vessel, and confided his project to

one of his brothers, furnishing him with the utensils necessary to

experiment upon and manufacture the fish-powder. The results of this

voyage confirmed his anticipations, and M. de Molon junior brought back

to France a certain quantity of fish-manure, which was found to be

identical in composition with that manufactured in France.

“In 1851 M. de Molon junior again departed for Newfoundland, taking

with him all the means of manufacturing, the materials necessary to

construct a factory, and houses for one hundred and fifty workmen, whom

he also took with him; finally, all the means necessary to found a

permanent establishment. He fixed himself at Kerpon, at the extremity

of the island, near the Strait of Belle-isle, on a creek which was

visited every year by a great number of fishing vessels, and whose

shores abound in fish. At present this establishment is in regular

work, and has, we believe, sent within the last two or three months a

considerable quantity of fish-manure to France.

“Whilst his younger brother was thus establishing himself in

Newfoundland, M. de Molon wished to have in France an establishment of

the same kind placed immediately under his own eyes, which would serve

to perfect the process of manufacture, and offer to all the practical

confirmation of facts, the importance of which had long since been

indelibly fixed upon his own mind. It was at this epoch that M. de

Molon associated himself with a M. Thurnyssen, who understood the vast

field of enterprise which was thus opened up.

“This factory was erected by them at Concarneau, between Lorient and

Brest, in the department of Finisterre. This is a mere fishing village,

not far from the town of Quimper, containing scarcely two thousand

inhabitants, and built upon a rock in the middle of a bay formed by

the ocean. The catching and preparation of the sardine, which employs

about three hundred to four hundred boats annually, is almost the only

industry of the district, if we except a factory for the manufacture of

iodine.

“The factory of MM. de Molon and Thurnyssen is placed at the end of

the port, and the boats come and discharge their fish under its walls.

In its actual condition this factory is capable of manufacturing

daily about 4 to 5 tons of fish-manure, in a perfectly dry condition,

which represents 16 to 20 tons of fish or of fish-offal in its fresh

state. The proprietors receive all the offal of the curing-houses of

Concarneau and those of Lorient; and in addition all the coarse fish

which were previously thrown into the sea, or which were even abandoned

on the very quays of Concarneau, to the great detriment of public

health.

“The factory is entirely constructed of deal planks—that is to

say, with all the economy possible, and contains the following

articles of plant: A steam-engine of ten-horse power, and a boiler

of eighteen-horse power; two boiling-pans _à la bascule_, with

steam-jackets for boiling the fish at the temperature of a water bath;

twenty-four screw presses to press the material when boiled; a rasp

exactly similar to those employed in beet-sugar factories; a large

stove; a Chaussenot’s coccle-furnace, for heating the stove; a conical

iron mill, similar to a coffee-mill.

“The following is the mode of employing these various utensils: The

fish or the offal is introduced by the upper part of the boiling-pans

into the interior, one of which is capable of containing about 10

cwts., and the other from 16 cwts. to one ton. The vessel is then

hermetically closed, and steam of about 50 to 55 lbs. pressure

admitted into the steam-jacket, the steam-room of which is about two

inches wide, and into a tube nearly eight inches in diameter, placed

vertically in the interior of the pan. The boiling is completed in an

hour; then by a simple movement the pan may be made to swing upon its

bearings, the steam allowed to escape, and the cover being removed, the

boiled fish is allowed to fall into a receptacle. Workmen then convey

it in baskets to the presses placed alongside the boilers.

“The great difficulty was to find a means of submitting this fish-magma

to the action of the press without losing the fine portions. This

was accomplished in this way: Under each of the presses is placed a

cylinder of sheet iron open at both ends, about twenty inches high, and

twelve inches in diameter. This cylinder is strengthened by four small

iron rings or hoops, and is pierced with a number of very fine holes.

A loose bottom or wooden plate is fitted into this cylinder, which is

then nearly filled with the boiled fish, and upon this is laid another

plate of wood similar to the bottom. One or two blocks are then laid

upon this cover, and when all the cylinders are filled, a man turns

alternately the screw of each press. In proportion as the pressure

operates, the water and oil contained in the fish is seen to exude

from the perforations of the cylinder. These liquids flow into gutters

which conduct them to a common channel by which they flow into barrels

placed underneath, and so graduated that when the first is filled, the

overflow passes into the second, and so on in succession, without the

intervention of any workman. After reposing for some time, the oil

floats on the surface, and is collected and stored in barrels in the

cellar. The average quantity of fish-oil thus extracted represents very

nearly 2½ per cent of the fresh fish.

“When the boiled mass is sufficiently pressed, the presses are

loosened, and the cylinders removed and turned upside down, close

to the reservoir, to allow any liquid which may have mounted to

the surface to flow away; on then tapping the bottom wooden plate,

the pressed mass may be taken out of the cylinder in the form of

two compact cakes about four inches in thickness. These cakes are

immediately conveyed by a workman to the hopper of the rasp, placed

close at hand; this rasp, set in motion by the steam-engine, reduces

the cakes to a sort of pulp, which is carried by children as fast as

formed to the stove.

“The stove, situate on the first floor, is externally 20 metres long

(65 feet 7½ inches), and 5 metres (16 feet 5 inches, nearly) wide;

it is divided lengthwise into five chambers, 85 centimetres (2 feet

9½ inches, nearly) wide. Each of these chambers contains in its

length twenty frames or trays, 1 metre (3 feet 3⅓ inches) long, and

85 centimetres (2 feet 9½ inches, nearly) wide, having a bottom

of coarse linen. These trays rest upon two bars, which run the whole

length of the chamber. Five series of such trays are superimposed in

each chamber, which makes one hundred in each chamber, or five hundred

in the whole stove. At each end of these chambers is a number of

openings, which can be closed by a door; each opening corresponds with

a series of trays.

“When the rasped fish-cake is put upon a frame, it is introduced into

the stove through one of the openings just mentioned; a second is then

introduced, which causes the first to slide along the bars; then a

third, and so on until twenty have been placed. The second series of

trays is then introduced in the same way by the opening next above.

The operation is proceeded with in this way until the five series are

introduced into each of the five chambers. It takes about two hours

to two hours and a half to fill the stove with the five hundred trays

which it is capable of receiving.

“A current of air heated by the coccle-oven of Chaussenot to a

temperature of from 140° to 158° Fahr., circulates through the five

chambers, according as each is filled with the trays of fish, the draft

being maintained by a chimney.

“As soon as the last tray is introduced into the stove, the first is

fit to be withdrawn. This is effected in the simplest manner; a child

placed at one extremity of the stove introduces a tray freshly charged,

this pushes without any effort the whole series ranged upon the bars,

and causes the last in the series at the lower end of the stove to

slide out, where it is received by another child; a fresh tray is again

introduced, and another is pushed out, and so on for the whole stove.

In this way the action of the stove is constant, being filled as fast

as it is emptied, without the workpeople being exposed to the action

of the heat, and without suffering in the least from it, and being

nevertheless able to communicate to one another the details of the

work, the chambers acting as conductors for the voice.

“This stove constitutes one of the most important features in

the system of M. de Molon; it dries rapidly, regularly, and with

comparatively small expenditure of heat, since 100 kilogrammes (220

lbs.) of coal a day are sufficient for heating the coccle; and the

continuity of its action is perfect.

“According as the dried fish is withdrawn from the chambers it is

thrown into a heap, on a board close by, from which it is put with

a shovel into the mill-hopper by a child. The mill reduces it to a

sufficiently fine and perfectly dry powder, which is at once put in

sacks or casks, and sealed in order that there may be no means of

adulterating it.

“To any one acquainted with the processes and machinery employed

in the manufacture of beet-sugar, it will at once be evident that

the organisation of the process just described was the result of an

acquaintance with that manufacture. This is another instance of the

benefits conferred upon France by the beet-sugar industry, for to

that branch of manufacture it may be truly said to owe the rise of

its present manufacturing system. A branch of industry requiring a

combination of chemical and mechanical skill carried on in the midst of

a rural population, especially if connected with agriculture, has far

more influence upon the permanent prosperity of a people materially and

intellectually, than the greatest branch of industry entirely confined

to the civic population.

“To carry on all the operations just described, only six men are

employed at Concarneau, who receive about 1s. a day, and ten children,

who receive from sixpence to sevenpence. Under those conditions,

and without working at night, this factory is capable, as we have

already remarked, of producing from four to five tons of dry manure

a day, representing about eighteen to twenty tons of fish or offal;

that is, one hundred parts of fresh fish yield about twenty-two parts

of fish-powder. By working at night, which will be done during the

ensuing year, when the fishery shall have been better organised,

this establishment will be able to produce from eight to ten tons of

manure. M. de Molon estimates the number of days in the year during

which the fishermen could fish at from 200 to 250. In only counting

200 working days, the establishment at Concarneau could thus produce

from 1600 to 2000 tons of manure annually, which, at the rate of three

cwts. per statute acre, would suffice to manure from 10,000 to 13,000

acres of land, and would represent, at 22 per cent of dried manure,

a fishing of 9000 to 10,000 tons. The sardine-fishery and the offal

of the curing-houses, formerly lost, would furnish about one-half

of that quantity; but M. de Molon has pointed out a fact from which

would appear to result the incontestable facility of obtaining at

Concarneau far greater quantities of fish than those mentioned above,

by the fishery of the coal-fish, which is sometimes found in immense

quantities on the coast, but which the fishermen do not often take, as

they could find no sale for them.

“The factory of Concarneau, with the organised fishery which M. de

Molon intends to establish (sixty to seventy-eight well-equipped

boats), and by doubling its present plant, which is also intended, will

quadruple the quantity of dry manure which is now produced in working

only ten hours per day.

“In addition to the 180 kilogrammes of coal burned in heating the

stove, we may add that 130 more (286½ lbs.) are consumed by the

steam-engine, making a total of 230 kilogrammes, or little more than

four and a half cwts., or about one cwt. of coal to one ton of manure.

“The fish-manure fetches about 8s. per cwt. in the locality, and is

eagerly sought after by the farmers, who expect the most signal results

to agriculture from the extension of the manufacture; while the oil

which, as already remarked, constitutes about 2½ per cent of the raw

fish, would be worth from 3s. to 3s. 4d. per gallon. These figures show

at once that the manufacture must be profitable—a fact which is fully

guaranteed by Messrs. Payen and Pommier, who, as a commission sent from

the Agricultural Society in order to report upon the project, had the

privilege of examining the books of the concern, and of thus satisfying

themselves of its commercial success.

“The factory of Concarneau, as we have already noticed, was only

founded in order to serve as a model, not alone for those which may

be established on different points of the French coast, but also in

foreign countries. In addition to the factory established under the

superintendence of M. de Molon junior, in Newfoundland, and which in

its actual condition is capable of furnishing from 8000 to 10,000 tons

of manure annually, it is proposed to establish others on the same

coast, and also on the coasts of the North Sea, on such a scale as

will furnish sufficient manure to completely replace the guano now

imported from Peru.

“When we recollect what a large amount of offal has hitherto been

wasted upon our coasts, the vast quantity of coarse fish which have

been rejected and thrown again into the sea; but above all, when we

consider the enormous extent of ocean, teeming with animal life, which

has contributed so little to the sustenance of mankind, we cannot help

thinking that at Concarneau has been laid the foundation of a great

branch of industry, which is destined to renovate the worn-out soils of

the richly-populated countries of Europe.”

II. LIST OF AUTHORITIES.

Having been frequently asked by correspondents for a list of the chief

authorities on fish, I beg to subjoin the titles of a few of the works

I have had occasion to consult while preparing this volume:—

A Review of the Domestic Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, by

Robert Fraser, Esq. Edinburgh, 1818.

A Short Narrative of the Proceedings of the Society appointed to

manage the British White Herring Fishery, etc., by Thos. Cole. London,

1750.

A Treatise on Food and Diet, by Jonathan Pereira, M.D., etc., 1843.

London: Longman and Co.

A Treatise on the Management of Fresh-Water Fish, by Gottlieb Boccius,

1841. London: Van Voorst.

An Account of the Fish-Pool, etc., by Sir Richard Steell. London, 1718.

An Account of Three New Specimens of British Fishes, by Richard

Parnell, 1837. Royal Society, Edinburgh.

An Essay towards a Natural History of the Herring, by James Solas

Dodd, Surgeon. London, 1752.

Angler’s and Tourist’s Guide, by Andrew Young, Invershin, 1857. A. and

C. Black, Edinburgh.

British Fish and Fisheries. Religious Tract Society.

Ceylon, Notes on, by James Steuart, Esq. of Colpetty. Printed for

Private Circulation, 1862.

Couch’s Fishes of the British Islands, 1865. Groombridge.

Directions for Taking and Curing Herrings; and for Curing Cod, Ling,

Tusk, and Hake, by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart. Edinburgh 1846.

Elements de Pisciculture, par M. Isidore L’Amy. Paris, 1855.

Evidence of the Royal Commission on the operation of the Acts relating

to Trawling for Herring on the Coasts of Scotland. Presented to both

Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1863.

Experimental Observations on the Development and Growth of Salmon Fry,

etc., by John Shaw, 1840. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black.

Fish and Fishing in the Lone Glens of Scotland, by Dr. Knox, 1854.

Routledge and Co.

Fish-Hatching, by Frank T. Buckland, 1863. Tinsley Brothers.

Fisheries, The, considered as a National Resource, etc., 1856.

Milliken, Dublin.

Forrester’s Fish and Fishing in the United States, 1864. Townsend, New

York.

Guide du Pisciculture, par J. Remy, 1854. Paris: Lacroix.

Guide Pratique du Pisciculture, par Pierre Carbonnier, 1864. Paris:

Lacroix.

Herring-Fishery, on the Existing State of the, 1854. Herald Office,

Aberdeen.

Howitt’s Angler’s Manual, 1808. Liverpool.

Ichthyonomy, 1857. Swinnerton and Brown, Macclesfield.

Illustrated London Almanac, 1864. London.

Irish Quarterly Review. W. B. Kelly, Dublin.

L’Alienation des Rivages, par M. Coste. Paris, 1863.

La Pêche en Eau Douce et en Eau Salée, par Alphonse Karr, 1860. Paris:

Michel Levy Freres.

Letter to a Member of Parliament recommending the Improvement of the

Irish Fishery. Dublin, 1729.

Multiplication Artificelle des Poissons, par J. P. J. Koltz. Paris:

Lacroix.

Natural History and Habits of the Salmon, etc., by Andrew Young, 1854.

Longman and Co.

Natural History of the Salmon, as ascertained at Stormontfield. By

William Brown, 1862. Glasgow: Thomas Murray.

Naturalist’s Library, by Sir William Jardine, 1843. Edinburgh.

Notice Historique sur L’Etablissement de Pisciculture de Huningue,

1862. Strasbourg: Berger Levrault.

Note sur les Huitrieres Artificelles de Terrains Emergents, par M.

Coste. Paris.

Observations on the Fisheries of the West Coast of Ireland, etc., by

Thomas Edward Symons, 1856. London: Chapman and Hall.

Oyster, The, where, how, and when to find, breed, cook, and eat it.

Trubner and Co.

Pisciculture, Pisciculteurs, et Poissons, par Eugene Voel, 1856.

Paris: F. Chamerot.

Pisciculture et la Production des Sangsues, par Auguste Jourdier,

1856. Paris: Hatchette and Co.

Pisciculture et Culture des Eaux, par P. Trigneaux. Paris: Libraire

Agricole de la Maison Rustique.

Pisciculture Pratique et sur l’Eleve et la Multiplication des

Sangsues, par Quenard, 1855. Paris: De Dusacq.

Propagation of Oysters, by M. Coste and Dr. Kemmerer. Brighton, 1864.

Pearce.

Proposals for Printing by Subscription a Complete Natural History of

Esculent Fish, etc., by James Solas Dodd.

Report by the Commissioners for the British Fisheries of their

Proceedings in the Year ended 31st December 1862, being the Fishing of

1862.

Ditto for the years 1863-64.

Reports of the Commissioners of Crown Lands of Canada, 1863-64-65.

Report of the Royal Commissioners on the operation of the Acts

relating to Trawling for Herring on the Coasts of Scotland. Presented

to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 1863.

Salmon and other Fish, Propagation of, by Edward and Thomas Ashworth,

1853. E. H. King, Stockport.

Sea-Side and Aquarium, by John Harper, 1858. Nimmo, Edinburgh.

Sea-Side Divinity, by the Rev. Robert W. Fraser, M.A., 1861. J. Hogg

and Sons.

Shetland, Description of the Island of, etc., 1753. James, London.

Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent,

1861. London: Longman and Co.

The Field, the Country Gentleman’s Newspaper.

The Herring, its Natural History and National Importance, by John

Mitchell, F.R.S., etc. Edinburgh, 1864.

The Interest of Scotland Considered, etc. Edinburgh, 1733.

The Structure and Physiology of Fishes Explained, etc., by Alexander

Monro, M.D. Edinburgh, 1785.

The Young Angler’s Guide, etc., 1839. J. Cheek, London.

Tweed Fisheries Acts, 1857-59. Eyre and Spottiswoode.

Vacation Tourists, 1862-3. London: Macmillan, 1864.

Voyage d’Exploration sur la Littoral de la France et de L’Italie, par

M. Coste. Paris, 1861, Imprimerie Impériale.

Yarrell’s British Fishes. London: Van Voorst.

⁂ Various numbers of _Macmillan’s Magazine_, the _Cornhill Magazine_,

etc., have also been consulted, and quoted from, by permission of the

publishers.

III. WICK HERRING HARVEST OF 1865.

┌───────┬──────┬───────┬───────┬────────┬────────┬─────────┬───────────┐

│Date. │ Boats│ Daily │ Daily │Season’s│Season’s│ Quality.│ Weather. │

│ │ out. │ Ave- │ catch.│average.│ catch. │ │ │

│ │ │ rage. │ Crans.│ Crans. │ Crans. │ │ │

│ │ │ Crans.│ │ │ │ │ │

├───────┼──────┼───────┼───────┼────────┼────────┼─────────┼───────────┤

│Jun 23│ 19 │ 5 │ 97 │ 0 │ 126 │ Good │Wet. │

│ ” 24│ 14 │ ½ │ 7 │ 0 │ 133 │ Do. │Cold and │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ blowy. │

│ ” 27│ 25 │ 2 │ 50 │ 0 │ 183 │ Do. │Changeable.│

│ ” 28│ 25 │ 2 │ 50 │ 0 │ 233 │ Do. │Thick. │

│ ” 30│ 30 │ 6 │ 180 │ 0 │ 413 │ Do. │ Do. │

│July 1│ 34 │ 3 │ 102 │ ½ │ 515 │ Do. │Mild and │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ clear. │

│ ” 4│ 75 │ 0 │ 10 │ ½ │ 525 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 6│ 48 │ 0 │ 3 │ ½ │ 528 │ Do. │ Do.—rains.│

│ ” 11│ 120 │ 1¾ │ 188 │ ¾ │ 716 │Excellent│ Do. │

│ ” 12│ 200 │ ½ │ 100 │ ¾ │ 816 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 13│ 50 │ 1 │ 50 │ ¾ │ 866 │ Do. │Wet. │

│ ” 14│ 20 │ 1 │ 20 │ ¾ │ 886 │ Do. │Wet. │

│ ” 15│ 100 │ 0 │ 10 │ ¾ │ 896 │ Do. │Fine. │

│ ” 18│ 20 │ ½ │ 10 │ ¾ │ 906 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 19│ 30 │ 0 │ 0 │ ¾ │ 906 │ │ Do. │

│ ” 20│ 56 │ 0 │ 0 │ ¾ │ 906 │ │ Do. │

│ ” 21│ 120 │ ¼ │ 30 │ ¾ │ 936 │ Mixed │ Do. │

│ ” 22│ 200 │ 0 │ 20 │ ¾ │ 956 │ Do. │Mild. │

│ ” 25│ 500 │ 0 │ 40 │ 1 │ 996 │Excellent│Calm and │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ clear. │

│ ” 26│ 500 │ 0 │ 80 │ 1 │ 1,076 │ Large │ Do. │

│ ” 27│ 500 │ 0 │ 40 │ 1 │ 1,116 │ Mixed │ Do. │

│ ” 29│ 60 │ 2 │ 120 │ 1⅓ │ 1,236 │Excellent│Breezy. │

│Aug. 1│ 900 │ ¾ │ 750 │ 2 │ 1,986 │ Do. │Mild and │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ clear. │

│ ” 2│ 950 │ ½ │ 500 │ 2½ │ 2,486 │ Do. │Very wet. │

│ ” 3│ 970 │ ¾ │ 750 │ 3 │ 3,236 │ Do. │Heavy rain.│

│ ” 4│ 970 │ 1 │ 970 │ 4 │ 4,206 │ Do. │Calm. │

│ ” 5│ 970 │ 1 │ 970 │ 5½ │ 5,176 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 8│ 976 │ 2½ │ 2,440 │ 8 │ 7,616 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 9│ 970 │ 12 │11,640 │ 20 │ 19,256 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 10│ 976 │ 7 │ 6,832 │ 27 │ 26,088 │ Do. │Very clear.│

│ ” 11│ 970 │ 6 │ 5,820 │ 32½ │ 31,908 │¼ spent │Wet and │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ rough. │

│ ” 15│ 50 │ 1 │ 50 │ 32½ │ 31,958 │ Good │Very │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ rough. │

│ ” 16│ 900 │ ¼ │ 225 │ 33 │ 32,183 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 17│ 100 │ 1 │ 100 │ 33 │ 32,283 │ Spent │ Do. │

│ ” 18│ 930 │ 2 │ 1,860 │ 35 │ 34,143 │Excellent│Fine. │

│ ” 19│ 977 │ ½ │ 487 │ 35½ │ 34,630 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 22│ 977 │ 6 │ 5,862 │ 41½ │ 40,492 │ Do. │ Do. │

│ ” 23│ 977 │ 6 │ 5,862 │ 47½ │ 46,354 │¼ spent │Breezy. │

│ ” 24│ 977 │ 12 │11,724 │ 59½ │ 58,978 │⅓ spent │Mild. │

│ ” 25│ 977 │ 10 │ 9,770 │ 69½ │ 67,848 │¼ spent │ Do.—frost.│

│ ” 26│ 975 │ 8 │ 7,800 │ 77½ │ 75,648 │½ spent │Breezy— │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ rain. │

│ ” 29│ 977 │ 0 │ 10 │ 77½ │ 75,658 │ Good │ Do. │

│ ” 30│ 30 │ 0 │ 0 │ 77½ │ 75,658 │ │Rough— │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ rain. │

│ ” 31│ 200 │ ¼ │ 50 │ 77½ │ 75,708 │ Do. │ Do. │

│Sept. 1│ 500 │ 0 │ 0 │ 77½ │ 75,708 │ │Very │

│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ rough. │

│ ” 5│ 300 │ 0 │ 0 │ 77½ │ 75,708 │ │Changeable.│

│ ” 12│ 9 │ 1 │ 9 │ 77½ │ 75,717 │Excellent│Fine. │

│ ” 13│ 30 │ 1 │ 30 │ 77½ │ 75,747 │ Do. │Changeable.│

│ ” 14│ 50 │ 6 │ 300 │ 78 │ 76,047 │ Do. │Fine. │

│ ” 15│ 60 │ 0 │ 3 │ 78 │ 76,050 │ Do. │Changeable.│

└───────┴──────┴───────┴───────┴────────┴────────┴─────────┴───────────┘

_Northern Ensign._

IV. TOTAL CATCH OF HERRINGS AT ALL THE STATIONS ON THE NORTH-EAST

COAST DURING THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

┌─────────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬———————-┐

│Stations. │ 1861. │ 1862. │ 1863. │ 1864. │ 1865. │

├─────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼─────———┤

│Wick │ 89,728 │ 90,644 │ 90,099 │ 90,033 │ 76,055 │

│Lybster, etc.│ 16,828 │ 17,150 │ 24,982 │ 19,120 │ 18,946 │

│Dunbeath │ 6,720 │ 6,162 │ 6,800 │ 5,248 │ 5,100 │

│Helmsdale │ 26,670 │ 26,500 │ 24,982 │ 29,120 │ 13,020 │

│Brora │ 1,620 │ 1,809 │ 1,554 │ 2,460 │ 1,225 │

│Cromarty │ 18,060 │ 11,232 │ 13,600 │ 15,000 │ 10,200 │

│Burghhead │ 7,920 │ 9,090 │ 10,320 │ 11,770 │ 10,580 │

│Hopeman │ 11,614 │ 9,686 │ 10,150 │ 5,824 │ 8,418 │

│Findhorn │ 1,080 │ 294 │ │ │ 560 │

│Lossiemouth │ 10,175 │ 10,881 │ 12,020 │ 5,985 │ 14,742 │

│Portgordon │ 2,783 │ 4,664 │ 4,312 │ 1,160 │ 800 │

│Portsoy │ 1,974 │ 3,290 │ 2,112 │ 920 │ 1,290 │

│Cullen │ 2,380 │ 4,200 │ 3,424 │ 1,320 │ 406 │

│Portknockie │ 2,691 │ 3,542 │ 3,092 │ 1,872 │ 2,695 │

│Findochty │ 2,660 │ 4,480 │ 3,752 │ 2,040 │ 1,900 │

│Portessie │ 1,881 │ 2,180 │ 1,350 │ 1,380 │ 1,320 │

│Buckie │ 5,320 │ 8,600 │ 8,249 │ 3,850 │ 7,700 │

│Whitehills │ 2,792 │ 4,753 │ 2,211 │ 1,200 │ 1,624 │

│Macduff │ 4,200 │ 7,884 │ 4,898 │ 2,400 │ 3,962 │

│Gardenstown │ 6,642 │ 12,908 │ 6,386 │ 2,948 │ 7,952 │

│Pennan │ 819 │ 1,215 │ 368 │ 265 │ 520 │

│Rosehearty │ 4,620 │ 7,828 │ 6,898 │ 4,602 │ 6,100 │

│Pitullie │ 1,720 │ 3,768 │ 1,500 │ 720 │ 1,980 │

│Fraserburgh │ 16,581 │ 42,944 │ 24,970 │ 26,793 │ 28,112 │

│Peterhead │ 32,600 │ 52,461 │ 31,535 │ 32,680 │ 35,741 │

│Boddam │ 5,890 │ 5,445 │ 4,680 │ 3,640 │ 5,358 │

├─────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼─────———┤

│ TOTAL │285,878 │353,610 │304,780 │272,350 │266,211 │

└─────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴─────———┘

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF HANDS EMPLOYED—1865.

┌───────────┬──────────┬───────┬───────┐

│ │Fishermen.│Others.│ Total.│

├───────────┼──────────┼───────┼───────┤

│Caithness │ 6,500 │ 3,100 │ 9,600 │

│Sutherland │ 2,100 │ 1,500 │ 3,600 │

│Cromarty │ 1,200 │ 1,000 │ 2,200 │

│Moray │ 1,800 │ 1,200 │ 3,000 │

│Banff │ 1,800 │ 1,200 │ 3,000 │

│Aberdeen │ 3,800 │ 2,400 │ 6,200 │

├───────────┼──────────┼───────┼───────┤

│ TOTAL │ 17,200 │10,400 │27,600 │

└───────────┴──────────┴───────┴───────┘

INDEX.

A fishing “toon” described, 446.

A fishwife’s proverb, 425.

A lobster-spill in the Thames, 389.

A Member of Parliament on the fish supply, 67.

A widow’s story, 463.

About “natives,” 369.

Absurd statement about herring spawn, 236.

Absurdity of eating cod-roe, 291.

Across the Channel, 56.

Acclimatisation of fish, 125, 482.

Account of a fisherman’s wedding-dance, 421.

Account of the latest spawning season at Stormontfield, 108.

Adaptability of means to end in shell-fish, 384.

Admiration of Scottish pearls, 403.

Advance of money in the herring trade, 255.

Advantages of a close-time for oysters, 338.

Advantages of the tile system in oyster-culture, 363.

Advice to fishermen as to bait, 417.

Age at which oysters are sent to be greened, 360.

Age at which oysters are sent to market, 339.

Age of herring before they spawn, 237.

Aggregate sailings of the Wick boats, 279.

Agriculture in France, 77.

All fish unwholesome at time of spawning, 242.

Allston the London oyster-merchant, 373.

Ambition of fisher lads, 440.

America, oysters in, 380.

American pike, 143.

American sociality over oysters, 346.

Amount of attention required by a large oyster-farm, 365.

Ancient fishing industries, 40.

Ancient ideas as to fish, 8.

Ancient knowledge of the oyster, 333.

Anecdote of a minister’s visit to a fisherman, 432.

Anecdote of a London _litterateur_, 379.

Anecdotes of a fishwife, 428.

Angler-fish, 156.

Anglers’ fishes, 129, 137.

Anglers and angling, 132.

Angling all the year round, 132.

Angling localities, 137.

Angling in the Thames, 150.

Angling on the Tay, 212.

Angling sport in Scotland, 130.

Annual revenue of the river Tay fisheries, 213.

Annual sacrifice to crustacean gastronomy, 397.

Anomalies in salmon growth, 105, 180.

Antidote to enchantment, the fisherman’s, 435.

Antiquity of pearls, 398.

Apparatus for catching lobsters, 161.

Apparatus for pisciculture, 115.

Appendix, 491.

Approach of the herring season, 246.

Arcachon, Bay of, 365.

Are herrings of the same shoal all of the same age?, 238.

Are the pisciculturists robbing Peter to pay Paul?, 88.

Are there more fish in the sea than ever came out of it?, 474.

Arran, the island of, 165.

Arrival of salmon ova in Australia, 120.

Arctic Seas, no herrings in the, 231.

Artificial oyster-breeding, 350.

Artificial oyster-breeding in Marennes, 75.

Artificial spawning, 86, 87.

Art of dredging oysters, 378.

Art of shrimping, 396.

Art of trawling, 311.

Ashworth’s experiments, 117.

Ashworth’s opinion of oyster-culture, 354.

Attention required by an oyster-farm, 365.

Auchmithie, 444.

Auctioneers of fish, 437.

August herring-fishery at Wick, 280.

Authentic contradiction to Pennant’s theory, 231.

Authorities, list of, quoted, 499.

Avarice of salmon-fishery lessees, 200.

Average age at which salmon are killed, 207.

Average capture of herrings per boat in 1820, 279.

Average number of crans of herring taken by each boat in 1862, 276.

Average of oyster-reproduction at Re, 358.

Averages of the catch of herrings in 1862, 276.

Aversion of fisher-people to be counted, 453.

Awkward _contretemps_, 468.

Bad effects of trawling, 315.

Bag-nets, their baneful influence on the salmon-fisheries, 208.

Bain, Mr. Donald, on the salmon question, 222, 489.

Bait for line-fishing, 306.

Bait for lobsters, 385.

Bait for sea-angling, 158.

Bait, importance of cheap, 410.

Balance of nature, 33.

Bale in Switzerland, 80.

Bannock-fluke, the, 297.

Bargain-making by fishwives, 426.

Bargains made by boat-owners, 257.

Barnet, Mr., of Kinross, 140.

Barking trawlers, 309.

Barrack-life in Comacchio, 458.

Barrels, great numbers of, on the quays at Wick, 268.

Basins for the young fish at Huningue, 85.

Bass, the, of Lake Wennern, 125.

Battle of the swine at St. Monance, 434.

Bay of Aiguillon, 412.

Bay of the Departed, 455.

Bay of St. Brieuc, 351.

Beef, the stone-mason of the island of Re, 352.

Bell Rock, 444.

Benefits derived from a good fishery, 44.

Best conditions of fish for spawning, 341.

Best kind of boats for herring-fishing, 272.

Best kinds of fish to rear on the artificial plan, 97.

Best spawning-ground for herring, 238.

Best way of marking young salmon, 196.

Billingsgate, 65.

Billingsgate salesman’s, a, letter on trawling, 319.

Bird’s-eye view of Fusaro, 349.

Bit of dialogue, 470.

Black-beetle, a wonderful, 17.

Bloaters and red-herrings, 270.

Board of White Fisheries, 486.

Boat speculation by ship-carpenters, 441.

Bolam, evidence on trawling by Thomas, 314.

_Bouchots_ for growing mussels, 411.

Boulogne, 454.

Bounty given in the herring-trade, 255.

Brand, the, 263.

Breeding-ponds for salmon at Stormontfield, 99.

Breeding-pyramid for oysters, 350.

Brewing of oyster-spat, 337.

Brilliancy of fish-colour, 2.

British oyster-eaters, 345.

Brown, Mr. Wm., of Perth, on the salmon, 194.

Buckhaven, 438, 439.

Buckie, 466.

Buckie fishermen, 302.

Buisse, suite of ponds at, 93.

Burning the water, 204.

Business, how it is conducted at Re, 358.

Buist’s notes on Stormontfield, 111.

Buist’s opinions about the parr, 183.

Calculations as to herring increase, 7.

“Caller Ou,” 425.

Cancale, 58.

Cancale, the shell-middens of, 351.

Canoe used by the _boucholeurs_ of Aiguillon, 413.

Capital of French oysterdom, 352.

Caprice of the herring, 244.

Capturing herrings with a seine-net, 250.

Carlisle of Inveresk, Dr., 435.

Carp, 144.

Carp-breeding, 147.

Carp-ponds, 147.

Carriage of fish in France, cost of, 61.

Catch of herrings in 1862-63, 272.

Catching shell-fish, 385.

Causes assigned for caprice of herring, 244.

Cause of attraction to the male fish while spawning, 9.

Cause of the parr anomaly, 105.

Census of Fittie, 450.

Census of persons employed in the herring-fishery, 275.

Ceremonies among the eel-breeders of Comacchio, 459.

Ceremony of marriage among fishermen, 421.

Ceylon pearl-fishery, 398.

Chance fishing, 301.

Changes in the Crustacea, 392.

Character of the fisher-folk, 471.

Character of the Scottish fishwife, 324.

Charming May, 138.

Charitable fishery experiment, 388.

Charr, 153.

Cheek on angling, 135.

Chief British salmon-streams, 209.

Chief fishing-grounds in the North Sea, 306.

Chinese pisciculture, 69, 70.

Claires for greening oysters, 360.

Claires for oysters, view of, 357.

Clannishness of the fisher-folk, 481.

Classification of fish, 1.

Cleanliness of the Newhaven fisherwomen, 431.

Cleghorn, Mr. John, of Wick, on the herring, 231, 232.

Clements, John, of Hull, his evidence, 316.

Close-times for herrings quite possible, 242.

Close-time for lobsters in France, 391.

Close-time for oysters, 336.

Clyde, the river, 163.

Coarse work of the herring-gutters, 270.

Coast fishing-boats, 272.

Cod and haddock fishing very laborious, 301.

Codfish, number of eggs in a, 5.

Codfish, description of the, 291.

Codfish, how it grows, 31.

Cod-liver oil, 292.

Cod-roe at dinner, 243.

Coldingham fishermen, good behaviour of, 438.

Colne oyster-beds, 370.

Cold seasons unfavourable to oyster-breeding, 338.

Colour of fish, 2.

Comacchio, 19, 457.

Comacchio, drawing of a division of, 48.

Comfort of a fisherman’s dwelling, 430.

Commencement of the great gale on the Moray Firth, 324.

Commerce in fish, 34.

Commerce in herrings, 254.

Commerce in salmon, 198.

Commerce in shell-fish, 384.

Commercial value of salmon, 199.

Commissioners’ report on the herring-fishery for 1864, 275.

Common carp, 146.

“Commons,” in oyster nomenclature, 368.

Community of fishers at Fittie, 449.

Comparative tables of the fishery at Wick, 281.

Concluding remarks on the Fisheries, 474.

Conclusion, 490.

Condition of trawl-fish, 320.

Conditions under which the herring is found, 240.

Conduct of the white-fisheries, 301.

Connecticut, fish-manufactory in, 136.

Consumption of fish, 67.

Consumption of oysters in London, 373.

Contents of a dredge, 378.

Continental demand on our fisheries, 286.

Controversies about oyster life, 335.

Controversies about the salmon, 178.

Controversy about the parr, 181.

Controversy about the pearl rivers, 406.

Controversy among fishermen at Lochfyne, 250.

Controversy in Scotland as to fixed engines of salmon-capture, 206.

Conversation with a Strasbourg _pêcheur_, 88.

Cooking of pike, 143.

Cooking of oysters, 346.

Co-operation among fishermen, 309, 441.

Co-operation better than competition, 223.

Cornwall in the pilchard season, 251.

Coromandel oysters, 379.

Corry in Arran, view of, 171.

Coste, Professor, 76.

Coste’s, Professor, plan of oyster-culture, 347.

Coste’s recommendation to the French Government, 350.

Couch, Mr. Jonathan, on the food of the pilchard, 251.

Couch on the mackerel, 21.

_Couleur de rose_ statements as to the fisheries, 475.

Councillor Hawkins on the Colchester oyster, 370.

Course of the fisheries, 55.

Course of the herring-fishery, 229.

Course of oyster-farming, 365.

Course of work on the oyster-beds at Whitstable, 365.

Crab-catching, 386.

Cray-fish, 397.

Creel-hawking, 436.

Crustacean commerce, 387.

Cullercoats fisherman, evidence of a, 312.

Cultivating the mussel-farm, 413.

Cultivation of “natives,” 369.

Cultivation of our lochs, 140.

Culture of mussels, 410.

Culture of oysters, 346.

Culture of oysters, progress in, 354.

Culture of turtle on the artificial plan, 96.

Curing of cod in Scotland, 293.

Cure of herrings in Scotland, 1862-63, 273.

Curing pilchards, 253.

Curing sprats to be sold as sardines, 253.

Curious forms of fish, 3.

Curiosities of superstition at Newhaven, 433.

Daily statement of the number of herring-boats at Wick in 1862, 276.

Danube salmon, 89, 98.

Dates marking chief incidents of salmon life, 195.

Dealing in herrings, 254.

Decline of creel-hawking in Scotland, 443.

Decline of the cod-fishery, 303.

Decrease of the Scottish haddock-fishery, 318.

Decreasing size of haddocks, 315.

Dee salmon-fisheries, 112, 113.

Delineation of flat fishes, 297.

Demand for fish in Catholic countries, 277.

Demand for oysters, 373.

Demand for white fish, 286.

Dempster’s discovery of packing salmon in ice, 36, 202.

Departure of the herring-fleet from the Texel, 45.

Description of Auchmithie, 445.

Description of a drift-net, 248.

Description of a lobster-trap, 385.

Description of a mussel-farm, 412.

Description of a periwinkle, 384.

Description of a trawler, 309.

Description of green oyster-claires, 359, 360.

Description of Newhaven, near Edinburgh, 430.

Description of the lobster, 390.

Description of the oyster, 334.

Description of the pilchard-fishery, 252.

Design for a complete suite of salmon-ponds, 103.

Desire for more herring statistics, 283.

Destruction of young fish, 478.

Destructive power of the trawl-net, 308.

Development of the herring, 240.

Dexterity of the herring-gutters, 270.

Diagram of herring-netting and fish, 282.

Dialect of the Moray Firth fisher-folk, 469.

Dialogue between a fishwife and her customer, 427.

Differences in size, shape, and flavour of the herrings of different

places, 230.

Different countries must have different fishing seasons, 299.

Different kinds of cured herrings, 271.

Different kinds of sea-fish, 155.

Difficulties in the way of collecting spat, 362.

Difficulties of obtaining accurate information about the herring, 235.

Difficulty of obtaining statistics of fisheries, 66, 285.

Dimensions of the great _heer_, 228.

Diminution of lobsters, 318.

Discipline of Comacchio, 457.

Disparity in size of young salmon, 106.

Distinct races of herrings, 230.

Dish of crablets, 344.

Distribution of cured eels, 462.

Distribution of fish, 37.

Diving for pearls in Scotland, 407.

Division of labour in Fittie, 450.

Do fish live a separate life?, 9.

Does an oyster yield its young in millions?, 339.

Dogfish, diminution of, in 1862, 274.

Dogger Bank fishery, 303.

Doon pearl-fishery, 408.

Doon pearls inferior, 409.

Do the herring live singly up till the period of spawning?, 238.

Double migration of the salmon, 193.

Doubts as to former abundance of fish, 479.

Dr. Dod on the herring and sprat, 239.

Drawbacks to oyster-farming in France, 354.

Drawing of a two-year-old smolt, 189.

Drawings of the pearl-mussel, 399.

Dredging for oysters at Cockenzie, 377.

Dredging for pearls, 407.

Dress of a Newhaven fishwife described, 429.

Drift _versus_ trawl nets, 250.

Dunbar herring-fleet, 443.

Duke of Athole’s marked fish, 190.

Dutch fishing industry, 41.

Duties of fishermen, 490.

Duty charged on French fish, 61.

Duty of the coopers at the herring curing, 262.

Early fish commerce, 35.

Earnings of trawlers, 319.

Economy of the herring shoals, 277.

Edible Crustacea described, 391.

Edible molluscs, 384.

Edinburgh oyster-ploys, 345.

Edinburgh oyster-taverns, 345.

Eel-breeders, the, of Comacchio, 45.

Eel-cooking at Comacchio, 460.

Eel-curing at Comacchio, 461.

Eel-fair, 19.

Eel, the, 17.

Effects of the concentration of a thousand boats on one shoal of

herrings, 283.

Effects of a storm on the Moray Firth, 472, 473.

Effects of royal notice on the fishwives, 429.

Effects of the discovery of Mr. Dempster, 205.

Egg-boxes at Huningue, 83.

Egg-boxes at Stormontfield, 104.

Egg-laying by the hen lobster, 392.

Eggs of the salmon kind just hatching, 13.

Emotions of the first oyster-eater, 343.

Enemies of the salmon, 199.

Engaging of boats for the herring-fishery, 255.

English lakes, the, 153.

English river scenery, 148.

English salmon-fisheries, 217.

English trawl fishermen, 308.

Enterprise of the Scottish herring-curers, 259.

Enthusiasm of those concerned in the herring-harvest, 246.

Episode of a cradle, 468.

Erroneous information as to pearls, 409.

Estimated quantity of oysters in various stages of growth, 368.

Evidence on the trawl question, 312.

Exaggeration as to supplies of fish, 481.

Example of a well-managed salmon stream, 215.

Examples of nicknames among fishermen, 467.

Excess of herrings cured in 1862, 273.

Excitement on shore during a storm, 326.

Excitement on the coast during the herring season, 247.

Expense of forming an oyster-bank, 352.

Expenses of fishing-vessels, 310.

Experience as to the Tweed fisheries, 224.

Experiment in fructifying fish-eggs, 8.

Experiments in oyster-breeding in the Bay of St. Brieuc, 351.

Experiments in pearl-fishing in the Scottish lochs, 406.

Experiments with salmon ova in ice, 119.

Exportation of salmon ova, 119.

Exquisite flavour of the green oyster, 362.

Extension of legislation on the salmon question, 204.

Extension of pisciculture, 117.

Extension of the Scotch pearl-fishery, 402.

Extension of the salmon trade, 205.

Extent of business done in oysters at Whitstable, 366.

Extent of French fisheries, 91.

Extent of oyster-beds in the Firth of Forth, 375.

Extent of the Gadidæ family, 287.

Extent of the mussel-farm in the Bay of Aiguillon, 412.

Extent of the river Tay, 209.

Extent of trawling, 311.

Extraordinary scene on the river Doon, 404.

Exuviation of the lobster, 391.

Eyemouth, 438.

Fable, Italian, 452.

Facts of the herring question, brought out before the British

Association, 232.

Failure of the Ceylon pearl-fisheries, 400.

Faithfulness of salmon to their old haunts, 193.

Falling-off in the herring supply attributed to the trawl, 314.

Falling-off of certain rivers, 205.

Falling-off of oyster supplies in France, 347.

Fancy picture of the growth of a fishing hamlet, 419.

Fascines for oyster-breeding, 351.

Farms for oysters in Kent and Sussex, 366.

Faroe cod-banks, exhaustion of, 303.

Faversham oyster-grounds, 367.

Fearful scene, 329.

Feats performed by Fisherrow women, 435.

Fecundity of crabs, 383.

Fecundity of fish, 5.

Fecundity of lobsters, 383.

Fecundity of shell-fish, 383.

Feeding and digestive power of fish, 4.

Feeding-ground, influence of the, on fish, 29.

Fife, the coast of, 438.

Figures appertaining to herring-fishery of 1862-63, 273.

Figures illustrating the August herring-fishery at Wick, 280.

Figures of the Dutch fishery, 44.

Figures of the Wick catch of herrings, 279.

Findon, 448.

Fine flavour of the green oyster, 362.

Finesse by a fishwife, 427.

Finnan haddocks, 290, 448.

Firth-built fishing-boats, 440.

Firth of Forth whitebait, 24.

Fish auctioneers, 437.

Fish cadgers and hawkers, 442.

Fish-breeding in Norway, 75.

Fish-capture by line, 305.

Fish-commerce, 34.

Fish-commerce in France, 60.

Fish-communities, 295.

Fish-culture, 69.

Fish-culture in Italy, 71.

Fish-dinners, 23.

Fisher-folk’s philosophy of marriage, 431.

Fisher-folk, the, 418.

Fisheries of Holland, 44.

Fishermen’s antipathy to swine, 434.

Fishermen, differences of opinion among, 30.

Fishermen of Eyemouth, condition of the, 438.

Fishermen’s belief in luck, 257.

Fishermen’s children, 445.

Fishermen should grow their own bait, 147.

Fishermen’s nicknames, 466.

Fishermen’s wives, 323.

Fisher-names, 467.

Fisher-people’s notions of religious duty, 437.

Fisher-people the same everywhere, 418.

Fisherrow, 435.

Fisher weddings, 420.

Fishery statistics by a Buckhaven man, 442.

Fishes of the salmon family, 198.

Fish-guano, observations on, 491.

Fishing boats, best kind of, 272.

Fish insensible to pain, 3.

Fish labyrinth at Comacchio, 46.

Fish life and growth, 1.

Fishmarket at Bale, 81.

Fish-offal as manure, 331.

Fish-poachers, 135.

Fish-ponds, 38.

Fish quite local, 482.

Fish-shoal, growth of, 32.

Fish-table, 300.

Fish-tithe riots at Eyemouth, 438.

Fishwives at church, 428.

Fishwives’ finesse in bargaining, 427.

Fishwives of Newhaven, 424.

Fishwives of Paris, 456.

Fittie, 449.

Fixed engines of capture, 205, 206.

Flat fish, 156.

Flat fish consumed in London, 298.

Flat fish family, the, 297.

Flavour of different herrings, 230.

Flavour of fish, 28.

Floating with the tide, 266.

Fluctuation in the take of herrings at Wick, 232.

Fondness for dancing of the fisher-people, 421.

Fondness of gannets for herring, 283.

Food of the herring, 243.

Food of the mussel, 414.

Food of the oyster, 361.

Food of the salmon, 192.

Footdee or Fittie, 449.

Forbes Stuart and Co.‘s tables of the London salmon supply, 221.

Foresight of the oyster, 342.

Former abundance of fish doubted, 479.

Former scarcity of the haddock, 288.

Forming an oyster-farm, 355.

Foul salmon at Billingsgate, 204.

Four years’ work at oyster-farming, 356.

France, fishing industry in, 58.

Francis Sinclair, a herring-fisherman of Wick, 265.

Free Dredgers’ Company at Whitstable, 366.

Free fisheries a mistake, 489.

Free oyster-grounds, 368.

French boats interfering with the fishery, 318.

French fishwoman, 454.

French foreshores, industry on, 57.

French legend, 455.

French North Sea fisheries, 59.

French oyster-eaters, 344.