the most part of fish-spawn, more particularly that of the Codfish, which is abundant in these northern waters.[1] The annual take of Herring is prodigious. It has been computed that a million of barrels, representing 800,000,000 fish, are taken in Scotland; the Norwegian Herring fishery is as productive as the Scotch fishery; the English, the Irish, the French, and the Dutch fisheries are also very productive. Estimating the gross produce of these four fisheries at only the same amount as the Scotch fishery, 2,400,000,000 Herring must be annually taken by these four nations—the British, the French, the Dutch, and the Norwegian. Yet the destruction of Herring by man is probably insignificant compared with that wrought by other natural agencies. Mr. James Wilson, in his 'Tour round Scotland and the Isles,' vol. ii. p. 106, says, when describing St. Kilda:—"Let us suppose that there are 200,000 Solan-Geese in the colony of St. Kilda (we believe, from what we saw, the computation moderate), feeding there or thereabouts for seven months in the year. Let us also suppose that each devours (by itself or young) only five Herrings a day—this amounts to one million; seven months (March to September) contain 214 days, by which, if we multiply the above, the product is 214,000,000 of fish for the summer sustenance of a single species near the island of St. Kilda."[2] Cod and Ling, of which three and half millions were taken in Scotland in 1876, feed largely on Herring, six or seven being often found in the stomach of a Cod. These, it is thought, may consume twelve times as many Herring as the four nations together. Gannets, of which 10.000 dwell on Ailsa Craig, must catch more Herring than all the fishermen of Scotland; Whales, Porpoises, Seals, Codfish, Dogfish, predaceous fish of every
- ↑ G. Lindesay, 'Fortnightly Review,' November, 1894.—Codfish are also infested with parasitic Copepoda. According to Surgeon Bassett-Smith, it is rare to find a fairly grown Cod without being able to take many specimens of the small semitranslucent Anchorella uncinata attached to the folds about the lips and in the gill-cavity. In its mouth and on the palate will be seen frequently half a dozen specimens of Caligus curtus; on the gills, deeply embedded, a Lernea branchialis, and on the body sore places where a number of Caligus müllleri have been fixed. And, although this investigator con- siders that in the great majority of cases these parasites are not prejudicial to the life of the fish, he describes Lernea branchialis as a certain exception to the harmless rule (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 6th ser. vol. xviii. pp. 9 and 10).
- ↑ Cf. J.M. Mitchell, 'The Herring, its Nat. Hist, and National Importance,' p. 37.
