THE HERRING, 441 



May, or the early part of July, in the latter part of Kovember or the 

 early part of January. But a spring spawning certainly occurs in the 

 latter part of January, in February, in March, and in April ; and an 

 autumn spawning in the latter part of July, in August, September, 

 October, and even as late as November. Taking all parts of the 

 British coast together, February and March are the great months for 

 the spring spawning, and August and September for the autumn 

 spawning. It is not at all likely that the same fish spawn twice in the 

 year ; on the contrary, the spring and the autumn shoals are probably 

 perfectly distinct ; and if the herring, according to the hypothesis 

 advanced above, come to maturity in a year, the shoals of each spawn- 

 ing-season would be the fry of the twelvemonth before. However, 

 no direct evidence can be adduced in favor of this supposition, and it 

 would be extremely difficult to obtain such evidence." * 



I believe that these conclusions, confirmatory of those of previous 

 careful observers,! are fully supported by all the evidence which has 

 been collected, and the fact that this species of fish has two spawning- 

 seasons, one in the hottest and one in the coldest months of the year, 

 is very curious. 



Another singular circumstance connected with the spawning of the 

 herring is the great variety of the conditions, apart from temperature, 

 to which the fish adapts itself in performing this function. On our 

 own coast, herrings spawn in water of from ten to twenty fathoms, 

 and even at greater depths, and in a sea of full oceanic saltness. Nev- 

 ertheless, herrings spawn just as freely not only in the narrows of the 

 Baltic, such as the Great Belt, in which the water is not half as salt 

 as it is in the North Sea and in the Atlantic, but even in such long 

 inlets as the Schlei in Schleswig, the water of which is quite drinkable 

 and is inhabited by fresh-water fish. Here the herrings deposit their 

 eggs in two or three feet of water ; and they are found, along with 

 the eggs of fresh-water fish, sticking in abundance to such fresh-water 

 plants as Potamogeton. 



Nature seems thus to offer us a hint as to the way in which a fish 

 like the shad, which is so closely allied to the herring, has acquired 

 the habit of ascending rivers to deposit its eggs in purely fresh water. 



If a full female herring is gently squeezed over a vessel of sea- 

 water, the eggs will rapidly pour out and sink to the bottom, to which 

 they immediately adhere with so much tenacity that, in half an hour, 

 the vessel may be inverted without their dropping out. AVhen spawn- 

 ing takes place naturally, the eggs fall to the bottom and attach them- 

 selves in a similar fashion, but at this time the assembled fish dart 

 wildly about, and the water becomes cloudy with the shed fluid of the 



* " Report of the Royal Comnnission on the Operation of the Acts relating to Trawling 

 for Herrings on the Coast of Scotland, 1863," p. 28. 



\ Brandt and Ratzeburgh, for example, in 1833, strongly asserted that the herring has 

 two spawning- seasons. 



