, 1913-01-01
GOLDEN HERRING.
4 "MIRAcULous' YEAR.
by w. Beach Thomas.
Great Yarmouth.

Great Yarmouth.
As if TO compensate for the ruin Oh the
land, the waters oft the east coast Of Eng
land have yielded such q golden harvest as
no one deemed possible. From September
till now, when the harvest is near its end,
herring have come in drauglts that may be
called quite miraculous.
Fishermen were bringing fair quantities
OF herring into Yarmouth ia 912 and ploba-
bly, much earlier. But in the thousand years
Of the industry never such a yield and sell
dom such a price have been recorded,
On a single Thursday recently d single
"drifter," as the herring boat is most proper
ly named. cnme into LOWestoft with a load
OF $50, 900 herring. Of this lot those which
we've sold fresh fetched The unparalleled
price of "a Is. a ''cran" Goughly, a thousand
fish,. l found the people along the coast as
excited over the event as once l found Cana
dian farmers on the telegrnphed news that
"2lums have ripened at Edmonton" and
both were right to discover significance in
the news.
We may state roughly that this years har-
vest when quite gathered will Weld at least
7O0 mrlion fish. The mind Of man is not
capable of realising q million except by d.
viding it into immense units, and the figure
of 700 million altogether battles the imagi-
nation. This is an increase Of about $50
million fish on the record of two years ago
and $50 million on last years take. Some
OF the immediate economic results in Var
mouth itself are witnessed in the increase
of the cOrpOratIon's rents for sheds by about
$4,000. Landing Wharyes ale likely 10 be
extended along the 1are for q mile or SO
nearer the mouth; and it would be wise if
such harbour accommodation as Lowestoft
has provided were also built ut Yarmouth.
A Vast Export Trade.
The export trade is vast; and the growing
demand from Russia and the remote parts of
Siberia Is rapidly increasing the price. An
English merchant visiting st. Petersburg re-
Gently met a Russian merchant who had
travelled m eight-days' railway journey to
buy English tubbed herring, which would be
1etailed IN Siberia and Vladivostock at Sd. or
Id each. The equivalent of at least $4,000
tubs have gone abroad from Yarmouth. In
walking along the wharf | was interested to
see chat one Dutch boat which was loading
tubs OF herring had come into Yarmouth
with machinery for Il new beet sugar factory
IN Norfolk.
AS | continued down the quay, between
the river and the sheds that were sand dunes
s few years ago, | saw a little "drifter," un-
mlstaknb!e with her red mizzen sail and TO-
bust funnel, making down the river. She
was the very last of the Scotch fishing craft.
OF the thousand or so boats that ply for her
ring, representing with their tackle perhaps
ten million pounds,a great number are Scotch.
Mystery Of The Herring.
THE way of a fish in the sea- is one of
the cardinal marvels. Whence come these
hordes of feh2 They have never come SO
far south before or at so early a date. Great
shoals travelled and great numbers were
caught as far south as Southwold, which in
consequence has some ambitious to become
another Yarmouth and earn as excellent q
reputation for herring as for sprats. The