On the other hand, it is con

beer, or the manufacture of cotton. tended that the herring fishery is an exceptional industry, and that the fish are purchased by the foreign buyers on the faith of the Fishery Board's recommendation. The herrings caught in Scotland will never be perfectly cured till the brand is abolished. No brand is required for Yarmouth bloaters, and they obtain good sale everywhere.

Are we "over-fishing" the herring? has now become a very important question. It has been proved that we are doing so. If we are not "over-fishing," how comes it that, with so many boats and so much netting, we do not take double or even quintuple the quantity we took, say thirty or forty years ago? There are fishery economists in Scotland who maintain this theory with great vehemence; there are others, again, who assert that all such ideas are "pure nonsense and humbug." When the "take" in any one season is particularly large, then these men rejoice and shout with all their might, and cry to the over-fishing theorists, "Where are you now?" But the depression when there is a bad season, which, unfortunately, is no uncommon occurrence, is corresponding to the jubilation of success. A bad herring season is ruin to the people of Wick, and if the season is generally bad, it is a misfortune to the whole fishing-people of Scotland. The fisher class, to use a common phrase, are very sweet on the herring fishery;" they rely upon that industry to tide them over the winter season; they also rely on the money derived from the herring fishery to provide marriage outfits and furniture, in cases where a marriage has been arranged. This year, however, there will be few fisher marriages.

The herring fishery of the present year, as has been indicated, is a failure; at all events, if the deficiency is not general over all Scotland, it has been a failure at Wick, and as Wick is the representative place of the fisheries in Scotland, the capital of Herringdom in the same way as Manchester is the capital of Cottondom, or as Birmingham is the capital of Buttondom, we select it as an exemplification of the fishery over the whole country, the phenomena of the fishery there being so extensive and varied as to admit of discussion and dissertation. Well, then, at Wick, the fishery is this year a failure; the average take per boat has not, we should say, been fifty crans (a cran, it may be stated, is a measure containing forty-five gallons of ungutted herrings), instead of, as we insist that it should be, taking the increase of the netting into account, four times that quantity. The case lies in a nutshell. herrings be as plentiful as they used to be thirty or forty years ago,

If

then a thousand boats, fishing now, ought to take double the quantity of herrings taken by five hundred boats at the time indicated. Nay more, they ought to take double that quantity even, for the drift of nets has been more than doubled. It is no exaggeration to say, that each boat has at present a suite of nets extending a full mile in length, and that, consequently, we have in Scotland, every good fishing night of the season, no less than twelve thousand miles of netting let down into the sea for the capture of the poor man's fish. One feature of the fishery is its partial-ness, if we may invent a word: a dozen boats may be fishing beside each other, and one or two will get a lot of fish, whilst the others will have to return empty. We could cite, were it necessary, no end of figures, to prove the position we have taken up. In 1862, for instance, there were no less than 1122 boats fishing at Wick, and the season was what was considered a great success, each boat, on the average, taking 81 crans of fish; but going back to the year 1820, when 604 boats only were fishing, the average take in the same district was 148 crans. It is only upon a very few nights of the season that good takes of herring are obtained. In the season of 1862 the good nights for the fishery extended from August 7th to August 16th, on which evenings the takes were largest; one night yielding an average of 11 crans or a total of something like 15,000 barrels of herrings. Last year there was much rejoicing at Wick over the large herring harvest, but if the quantity taken last year was added to the present year's take, it would not, in our opinion, be above half what the annual catch ought to be, taking into account the number of boats now fishing, and the length and depth of the drift of nets the boats now carry. It is greatly to be regretted that those most interested in the fishery, should be contented with a hundred crans of fish per boat, when the average take ought to produce double that quantity. One of the excuses which is offered for the occasional failure of the herring fishery is, that there are too many boats fishing off Wick, that the noise of the fishery frightens the fish, and consequently that fewer herrings are obtained than there would be under other circumstances; but such an excuse as this is untenable, because it always happens, when all the boats are at sea, that the greatest takes of fish are obtained, and it is at any rate remarkable that, when few of the boats are out, only a small average is taken. Truth must ultimately prevail, and when the truth comes to be understood about fishery matters, it will be found that we are over-fishing the herring. It seems to be nobody's business, whether we exterminate any particular fish. The salmon was saved from extermination because it was

the property of various intelligent people, who saw what was necessary to be done to protect that venison of the waters, and they did it lengthening the close time, entering upon artificial cultivation, watching the poachers, and having all fixed nets done away with. But we fear a close time for sea fish is impossible, and it would appear that the only season at which we can obtain our herrings is when they form into shoals, in order to fulfil the grandest instinct of their nature. At that period of its life, "the rich man's fish" is jealously protected, whilst the poor man's fish is then, by Act of Parliament, laid at the feet of its enemies. It is easy to state all this, and to cry out that it is wrong, but who among us is able to find out a remedy for the evil?

UNDER THE PIAZZAS.

A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY.

CHAPTER I.

COURTED.

'N a corner of one of those snug coffee-rooms, which are to be found in most of the Covent Garden Hotels, sat two gentlemen, in earnest conversation, over a decanter of port.

"If you are done up, I am utterly ruined," said the taller and more showy of the twain. "I am hopelessly stumped, regularly cleaned out,-haven't a feather to fly with."

"We are well matched," said the second man, "and had better go through the court together."

"What court?"

"The Bankruptcy Court, my friend. I shall certainly go and be whitewashed."

"Pooh!" said the other, "Why your debts are mostly bets, eh?" "Thanks to you, a large portion are turf liabilities."

"Mine are mostly debts of honour. I shall simply retire from the Turf, which will settle that little matter; I shall marry Miss Verner, and pay my other debts out of her fortune."

The last speaker was a tall, handsome fellow. At least, that is how most people would describe him. He was one of those fast, bigmoustached gentlemen, who affect a swagger in their gait and a rose in their button-hole; a bushy-haired, carefully be-gloved, openvested, tawny gentleman, who spoke in a loud voice, and demmed his stars at short intervals. His name was Harman Hiltz, and he resided "somewhere at the West-end."

"Yes, I shall marry Miss Verner. The young lady is at the present moment unconscious of the honour intended for her; but I shall propose to-morrow, and marry her in a month."

"Why you have not met the lady three times," said Mr. Quelks, his companion in misfortune.

"My passion will seem all the more intense; she will pity me, and be mine. Here's to the future Mrs. Harman Hiltz."

"With all my heart," said Mr. Quelks, tossing off a glass of wine. "Do you know her father?"

"Rather! He is one of those chub-headed fellows, who make money for others to spend-architect of his own fortunes, and all that sort of thing-glad to have a nod from a swell-gives rare dinners, and praises his own wine all the time you are drinking it. Demmie stars, if I ain't a match for him, I'll swallow my gloves.”

"He's deuced sharp," said Mr. Quelks, in a quiet deferential manner, "and will not easily be induced to give his daughter to a fellow who can't make a good settlement on her."

Quelks had been kindly ruined by Harman Hiltz, and although there was some bitterness in his heart on this account, he dared not disagree to any serious extent with his patron. Hiltz had found him with plenty of money, and no knowledge of the world; he had shown him what life really is, and promised to double his income into the bargain; but unfortunately for Mr. Quelks, that clever jockey, Tim Jiggs, had pocketed three thousand pounds to pull in Madcap, just before she passed the judge's stand, and instead of winning fifty thousand by Madcap, Hiltz and Quelks had lost half that sum, and this put an end to their career.

When the whole truth of the situation took possession of the little mind of little Mr. Quelks, he resolved at once to drown himself in the Thames; but Mr. Hiltz had induced him to dine at the Bedford instead, and under the influence of some fine old port, Quelks resolved to place himself under the Commissioner in Bankruptcy instead of figuring as a helpless body at a coroner's inquest.

"I think my plan is much more likely to be carried out than yours," said Mr. Quelks. "Mr. Verner is the closest fisted man in

London."

"I'll undo his claws, Quelks, never fear; and when you are comfortably whitewashed, you may rely on my coming down handsomely to you; for though I do not hold myself in any way responsible for your losses, yet having introduced you to life, demmie stars! I'll stick to you like wax."

"Did you see that they nearly killed a fellow in the ring because he could not pay?" said Quelks, thinking tenderly of his own limbs. "Yes, poor devil! Demmie stars! I felt sorry for him. It had been so with us had we been there, I suppose you are thinking? but we are gentlemen, Quelks; we shall only get hissed at Tattersalls', and learn by the papers that we have lost half a million, and retired from the Turf. If ever I come across Tim Jiggs, however, I'll break every bone in his skin."