3-28 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAI-. xix. 



feet deep with them for several miles ; and oftentimes, on 

 returning to his vessel of a calm evening, has seen the sea 

 white with milt for several acres round, though when he 

 passed the same spot two hours before the water was of 

 the usual colour. Each female herring has from six to 

 eight millions of ova in her ovaries, and each male is fur- 

 nished with a proportionate quantity of milt. 



Notwithstanding the immense numbers that have been 

 taken in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the coast of 

 Newfoundland, the herring has not perceptibly dimi- 

 nished in abundance there. It may indeed, for several 

 years at a time, have presented itself in smaller numbers at 

 certain places, or even have disappeared from certain 

 coasts, but these phenomena were probably owing to 

 peculiar circumstances, arising from the weather and the 

 action of the winds. They reappeared afterwards in the 

 same places, and more abundantly than ever. The same 

 thing has happened on the coast of Norway. For thirty 

 years the summer shoals of herrings (called there som- 

 mersild) had entirely disappeared from the coast to the 

 north of Christiansund, which they had frequented during 

 twenty consecutive years ; but for the last twenty-five years 

 or thereabouts they have returned thither regularly again. 



At the latter end of August, and during the months of 

 September and October, the coast of Labrador from Cape 

 Mecatinna to Cape Charles, and thence to Hudson's Bay, 

 is visited by shoals of very large fat herrings, well 

 known throughout Canada by the name of Labrador 

 herrings. 



Neither ova nor milt are found in them, so that they 

 do not come to spawn. They are probably herrings that 



