NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HERRING-QUESTION, ETC. 197 



fisheries near Hvitingso would be very good; but people waited too 

 long, hoping that the herring would come in to the usual fishing-places, 

 and the consequence was that they quietly spawned in the outer deep, 

 and had already done spawning before attempts were made to take 

 them out at sea. That large numbers of herring spawned there is also 

 corroborated by the fact that soon after the close of the herring-fisheries 

 there were found in the outer' deep an unusual number of torsks, whose 

 stomachs were full of herring-roe, which must have entirely covered 

 the bottom of the sea. There is therefore reason to suppose that 

 the usual number of herring have also visited the coast in 1872, and 

 have deposited their roe in suitable places. It need not follow, however, 

 from the circumstance that the spring-herring in this and partly in the 

 preceding year, from some unknown reason, has spawned at a greater 

 distance from the coast than usual, that it will always do so, much less 

 that it will entirely leave the coast. Mr. Sars thinks that there are no 

 sure signs of such a sudden change in the migrations of the herring, 

 but that there is good reason to hope that, under more favorable cir- 

 cumstances, the herring-fisheries on the west coast of Norway will 

 again be carried on in the usual places ; of course, with more or less 

 variable results. He was confirmed in this view by his observations of 

 the so-called fat-herring, or summer-herring. 



Eegarding this fish, the (according to Mr. Sars, erroneous) opinion has 

 formerly been prevalent that it was a different variety from the spring- 

 herring, or an entirely different species of herring, which was said to go to 

 different parts of the west coast of Norway, and not to belong to the 

 ocean proper, but to the islands and sounds. It was even said that it 

 had a special spawning-season of its own, viz, autumn, while the spring- 

 herring spawns in winter or early in spring. We cannot entirely agree 

 with Mr. Sars when he says, "if it were really the case that the summer- 

 herring spawned at an entirely different season of the year, it would, 

 in spite of its great zoological similarity, have to be considered not 

 only as a distinct variety, but as a separate species. There certainly 

 may be herring which spawn in autumn, and this is particularly the 

 case with the so-called 'Kulla'* herring, occurring on the Swedish coast 

 of the Kattegat, but this different spawning-season is caused by differ- 

 ent physical circumstances — by varying conditions of life." "On the 

 same coast, therefore, where herring are found which spawn in spring, 

 none can (!) occur which spawn in autumn, and vice versa." Natural 

 phenomena cannot unfortunately be so easily and with such certainty 

 deduced from simple premises; and Boeck did not find it difficult to 

 point out certain facts, which cannot be argued away, and which show 

 that two races of herring, one spawning in spring and the other spawn- 

 ing in autumn, occur on one and the same coast. Thus Miinter has 

 shown that on the east coast of Eiigen, on a space scarcely extending 

 four German miles, there are two varieties of herring — a southern, 



* Kulla, a promontory on the western coast of Sweden. 



