544 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



large fish — some a foot in length — are observed at various places on the 

 coast. 



The immature sardines frequent the coast waters throughout the 

 summer and remain in Brittany until late in fall. Some years, if 

 the season is mild, they are caught until the first or second week in 

 Decern licr, but a storm coming any time in November is likely to drive 

 them away and terminate fishing for the season. In 1900 sardine fish- 

 ing at Concarneau was ended November 5 — the same date as in 1899 

 — by a southwest storm, which swept away all the sardines in the bay. 



The spawning time on the coasts of England and France is from 

 June to October. Spawning takes place at a considerable distance 

 from the land, and ripe or spawning fish are seldom caught, as fishing 

 is done mostly in the inshore waters. The small fish used for canning 

 purposes on the French coast are never found with ripe eggs or milt, 

 and are now known to be immature fish hatched in the summer and 

 fall of the previous year. The eggs are buoyant, and the average num- 

 ber extruded is reported as 60,000. In the Mediterranean the sardine 

 apparently belongs to a difl^erent race, which is smaller than the oceanic 

 form and reaches maturity when under 7 inches in length. 



When sardines first arrive they are poor and unsuitable for canning ; 

 but as the season advances they improve in quality, and are fatter in 

 September than in June and in December than in September. Their 

 food consists mainly of copepods and other small Crustacea. Small 

 fish eggs are also a favorite food. The fondness of the sardine for such 

 eggs plays an important part in the fishery. 



The sardines go in schools and swim at or near the surface. As 

 many as 100,000 fish have been taken in one net from one school, but 

 the usual catch is much less. They are preyed upon by cetaceans and 

 by many fish — the mackerel, the haddock and the dolphin being 

 especially destructive on the French coast. 



Like other free-swimming oceanic fish, the sardine varies in abun- 

 dance from year to jcrt; but there is no evidence that the fishing is 

 effecting any permanent reduction of the supply. During the years 

 1887 to 1890 there was an alarming scarcity of sardines on the French 

 coast, and the outlook for the industry was serious, but after four 

 years the fish returned in their former numbers. The history of the 

 sardine fishery shows what extensive operations may be supported an- 

 nually when the natural conditions permit the fish to spawn un- 

 molested, the spawning grounds in this case being many miles offshore. 



Several American fishes resemble the pilchard, among them the sea 

 herring and the California sardine. The former is extensively canned 

 on the coast of Maine, and often placed on the market as 'genuine 

 French sardines in pure olive oil'; the latter is canned to a limited 

 extent in southern California. 



