24G PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



small larval forms are met with in great abumlaiice, and if we 

 judge of their multitudes by the luminosity of the sea, which in a 

 great measure is ascribed to the presence of these minute animals, 

 we will find the last-named month the most luminous in the year, 

 and yet in these months, particularly September, it appears to be 

 rare to find on this coast food of any kind in the stomach of a 

 herring. Whatever the cause may be, it cannot be ascribed to 

 the want of abundance of food at their command. 



As to the questions whether herrings take food indifferently 

 all the year round, or whether they take more at one season than 

 another, or whether they abstain from it for a time altogether, 

 none of the fishermen whom I have consulted seem to have 

 taken these phases of herring life much into consideration. 

 They were all aware that at some particular seasons the 

 stomachs of the herring were generally distended with food, and 

 at other times generally with much less; but whether for a time 

 they abstain entirely or not, none seemed to know, and most 

 were disinclined to believe in their voluntary abstinence from 

 food. The natural answer in most cases seemed to suggest 

 itself, that there was no doubt the herring required something to 

 live upon. 



Perhaps no fish in the sea has been the subject of so many 

 learned and valuable treatises as the herring; but as the chief 

 points of interest have always been its value as food to man, and 

 how that value could be increased or protected, none of these 

 treatises which I have had an opportunity of consulting refers to 

 any seasons of abstinence. That they do abstain at particular 

 seasons there can be no doubt, so far as empty stomachs go for 

 proof, a circumstance that may excite less surprise when we take 

 the abstinenqe of many other animals into consideration. 



Mr Haughton, in the September number of the Intellechial 

 Observer, 1867, when speaking of the abstinence of the salmon, 

 says: — "With respect to the physiological paradox how an animal 

 can live Avithout food, it must be borne in mind, in the first place, 

 that notwithstajiding the voracity of the carnivorous fishes, and 

 their extraordinary digestive capabilities, they are able to exist 

 for long periods of time without food. Gold and silver fishes 

 may be kept for months without perceptible food." 



I may adduce another instance of a similar kind in the small 

 marine fish the Amphioxus lanceohtfus, wdiich I kept for twenty 



