I conclude this part of the herring question by one other illustration. In 1862 the aggregate sailings—_i.e._ number of voyages—of the Wick boats for the season was 28,755, and the total catch 92,004 barrels; while this season (1863) the Wick boats have only taken 89,972 barrels in 32,630 voyages; and all over the country, so far as I know—and I have made extensive inquiries—the tale is the same, a failure in the herring-fishery. Perhaps the best plan is at once to exhaust the figures of the subject while we are discussing it. As to the Wick July fishing, the following figures are illustrative of two different periods of five years each:— ┌───────┬──────────┬┬───────┬──────────┐ │ Year. │ Barrels. ││ Year. │ Barrels. │ ├───────┼──────────┼┼───────┼──────────┤ │ 1843 │ 14,000 ││ 1859 │ 2,500 │ │ 1844 │ 15,615 ││ 1860 │ 12,850 │ │ 1845 │ 22,578 ││ 1861 │ 5,821 │ │ 1846 │ 30,350 ││ 1862 │ 7,173 │ │ 1847 │ 15,442 ││ 1863 │ 8,517 │ ├───────┼──────────┼┼───────┼──────────┤ │ │ 97,985 ││ │ 36,861 │ └───────┴──────────┴┴───────┴──────────┘ The figures of the greatest month of the fishery—viz. August—are as follow:— ┌───────┬──────────┬┬───────┬──────────┐ │ Year. │ Barrels. ││ Year. │ Barrels. │ ├───────┼──────────┼┼───────┼──────────┤ │ 1843 │ 69,640 ││ 1859 │ 80,853 │ │ 1844 │ 72,585 ││ 1860 │ 86,120 │ │ 1845 │ 66,702 ││ 1861 │ 73,580 │ │ 1846 │ 61,450 ││ 1862 │ 65,321 │ │ 1847 │ 59,528 ││ 1863 │ 46,000 │ ├───────┼──────────┼┼───────┼──────────┤ │ │ 329,905 ││ │ 351,874 │ └───────┴──────────┴┴───────┴──────────┘ It will be seen from these figures that, even in the great herring month of August, notwithstanding the large increase of boats and nets, a decreased quantity has been taken during the last two years. To understand this better, the boats in the first period were 4345, and in the second period 5489, and in this last period the boats had vastly increased their netting, as many as 55,775 more nets having been added. Now, it stands to reason that if the herrings were as numerous as ever in the second period, the take should have been, through the mere increase of boats, not counting the addition to the amount of netting, 417,916 barrels. The September fishing has only been prosecuted of late years, for the very good reason that in former times all the herring required were caught in July and August; during the last two years great efforts have been made to institute a September fishery, and a great force was brought to bear on the races of herring then coming to maturity, with what result the following figures will show:—