NEW CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HERRING-QUESTION, ETC. 199 



spawning-season of the spring-herring, and the consequent development 

 of the young fish, extend over quite a portion of winter and spring. 

 Sars, however, supposes that a large number of the " merchants' her- 

 ring" (or, in other words, a large portion of the common herring) spawns 

 by the end of the fourth year. " It will then be found together with the 

 older or genuine spring-herring, and, as in that case it will have com- 

 pletely matured roe and milt like this one, no one will, as a general 

 rule, think of considering it as former fat-herring, but as young spring- 

 herring, (which it is in reality.) It is probable, however, that, on closer 

 examination, (especially when this youngherring is found in large num- 

 bers without being mixed with the older spring-herring,) some slight 

 differences will be found, chiefly caused by its not yet being familiar with 

 life far out at sea, to which the older spring-herring have become accus- 

 tomed, while it only commences that life now after having done spawning. 

 It is likewise possible tbat the spawning-season of this younger herring 

 does not occur exactly at the same time, but somewhat earlier." Sars, 

 therefore, supposed that the so-called Blandsild, mixed herring, (whose 

 occurrence has been looked upon as a precursor of the disappearance of 

 the spring-herring proper, but which he had no opportunity to exam- 

 ine,) according to the description given of it, which says that it is fatter 

 (and consequently better) than the spring-herring, but somewhat 

 smaller and spawns earlier, is not a previously unknown kind of her- 

 ring, which has shown itself only during the last few years on the coast 

 of Norway, but a summer-herring, in its transition period toward being a 

 " Graabeusild " (graybone herring ); in other words, the youngest spring- 

 herring, which, during the following year, will return as a genuine Graa- 

 beusild. (We shall later return to this subject.) The reason that it has 

 been formerly overlooked is that it was mixed with the Graabensild; but 

 during the last few years it has not been found so much mixed with it, 

 because, as has been said above, the great mass of the old herrings com- 

 ing in from the sea have spawned farther out at sea. " Just as the young 

 of the torsk spend the first years of their life near the coast, and only 

 go out in the open sea at a more advanced age, so do the young of the 

 spring-herring spend the first years of their life near the coast, and dur- 

 ing summer gather (under the name of fat-herrings) in large schools, to 

 feed in the inner fjords and bays." Since the summer-herring fisheries 

 on the heights of Stavanger were very productive in 1872, rather more 

 so than usual, Mr. Sars thinks there is no reason to fear any diminution 

 jn the schools of spring-herrings, or that they should begin to go to 

 other coasts ; if this were the case, the summer-herring fisheries must 

 have decreased iu the same proportion. 



With regard to this, it must be said that nothing of the kind has ever 

 been supposed. Boeck himself has shown that if the spring-herring 

 fisheries are not successful, the reason is that the spawning herring does 

 not, as in other cases, go near the coast, where it could be easily caught, 

 but spawns farther out in deep water, where it cannot be caught so well, 



