108 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



of spawning, is the fact that the kerriug is not able to swim very far, 

 since neither the structure of its muscles nor fins is adapted for this 

 purpose. Immediately outside the coast there are small banks on which 

 the fishermen catch cod and other fish, and from these banks the bot- 

 tom often shelves off with great abruptness to a depth of sea which in 

 some places reaches from four to five hundred fathoms, and which, in 

 the shape of a deep channel, varying in breadth from fifteen to twenty 

 miles, stretches from Soguefjord in a southerly direction along the coast 

 of Norway, making a sharp turn at Lindesnaes, and extending from that 

 point to the mouth of the bay of Ohristiauia. In some places its depth 

 is from four to five hundred fathoms, and deep channels branch of from 

 it toward the mouths of the great bays and inlets on the coast of Nor- 

 way. In the Skagerak this deep channel is much narrower, and reaches 

 its greatest depth in the neighborhood of Arendal, while higher banks 

 stretch along as far as the northern point of Jutland. It is found near 

 Fedge that, at a distance of twenty miles from land, the bottom of the 

 sea rises up to 70 fathoms, and immediately afterward to between GO 

 and 50, and all sailors know well how the North Sea rises toward the 

 coasts of England. 



North of a line drawn from the mouth of the Sagnefjord to the Shet- 

 land Islands, the deep sea extends from the coasts of Norway as far as 

 Iceland and Greenland, and only north of Stat are banks again found 

 outside the coast. It will thus be seen that the herring may very well 

 live in that great and deep sea when they do not linger near the coast. 

 That they live there, may also be argued from the fact that Nilson has 

 found large quantities of herring in the stomachs of haddock caught out 

 in the deep sea. Boeck has likewise found proofs that the herring 

 lives in very deep water, when not near the coast. He has repeatedly 

 examined the stomachs of herring, and, though he fouud but few 

 remains of food, there were, among these, fragments of crustaceous ani- 

 mals living in the great deep. By means of the dredge he has caught 

 the animals at various depths, from the surface to a point three hundred 

 fathoms below it, and has specially examined those species which serve as 

 food for fish. Through investigations continued during several years, 

 he fouud that certain species of crustaceous animals (copcpods) always 

 keep at a certain depth, and iu such a manner that those living near 

 the surface are never found at a depth of fifty or sixty fathoms ; and 

 that those which live in the deep are never found near the surface. The 

 euchseta kind forms the favorite food of the spring herring, when it is 

 not near the coast of Norway ; and this is never found at a depth of 

 less than two or three hundred fathoms. The herring must, therefore, 

 in Boeck's opinion, live at that depth, which is not very far from the 

 coast. He was several times informed by fishermen, especially in 1801, 

 18G1, and 1SGG, that they, when at a distance from the coast, varying 

 between Hyg and twenty English miles, and in different places, such as 

 to the northwest of Utsire and Sartoro, had sailed through great masses 



