112 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



favorable fishing -when, in the beginning of the season, codfish are 

 caught with the herring. 



The herring may also be observed spawning within the nets ; and, 

 when it is free, it spawns in inlets and on the large flat places at the 

 bottom of the sea, which are covered with rough gravel, (" flak,") where 

 the roe sometimes lies in such enormous quantities as to fill the dredge en- 

 tirely, when cast in such places. This roe does not, however, lie loose, 

 but is firmly pasted to the bottom by a peculiar glutinous substance 

 which hardens in the course of half an hour, and which, with the rough 

 gravel, forms large cakes. It may happen that violent storms disturb 

 the bottom to such a degree as to tear off the masses of roe, and Boeck 

 relates a very interesting case of this kind. One year such an enor- 

 mous mass of herring-roe was driven by storms up the Jteder Bay that 

 cart-loads of it were taken away to be used as a fertilizer for the fields, 

 and hogs also fed on it for many days. In these masses of roe the eggs 

 have a certain invariable position, with an opening in the shell of the 

 egg, and the so-called " micropyle" turned upward, so that the fructi- 

 fying male semen can enter easily. The male fish pour their milt (se- 

 men) over the masses of roe which have been deposited by the females, 

 and it is therefore evident that in their approach the females precede 

 the males. In the commencement of the fisheries more females will be 

 caught, and toward the end more males. This was the case near 

 Skaareholmene, and may be a fact of practical value. After there had 

 been very good fishing for some time, one day the greater part of the 

 herring brought to the salting-houses were found to be male fish. Boeck 

 was therefore of the opinion that the approach of the herring had 

 ceased. This was really the case, and it was not at all necessary to 

 explain this circumstance, as was attempted at the time, by a steamer 

 having scared away the herring by the noise of its machinery. 



Boeck did not undertake to describe minutely the development of the 

 embryo in all its stages, although it forms a subject for exceedingly in- 

 teresting investigation, to observe how it is formed from the egg', how 

 the organs by degrees grow together ; how the heart begins to beat and 

 the blood to flow. But as all this could not throw any more light on 

 the main question, viz, " whether the spring fisheries are to disappear 

 from the southern fishing-places," Boeck passed over it very briefly. 

 He did say, however, that when the herring emerges from the egg it 

 differs so much in its shape from the grown herring that it resembles 

 rather an eel; and even after it is a month old its shape is not at all 

 like that of the mature herring. In fact, the difference between the 

 young and the old fish is even much greater than that existing between 

 different species of herring. 



Boeck also referred- to a few species of herriug, concerning which 

 opinions have been divided, viz, the great herring and the spring her- 

 ring, lie exhibited a drawing of a great herring from Laugenoes, 

 and another of a large spring-herring from Brono. With regard to 



