BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 87 



"I think if alewives died after spawning the fact would be noticed 

 before they leave the rivers. When they get back to the ocean they 

 have every opportunity, by abundance of suitable food and other favor- 

 able conditions, to recover their waste of flesh." 



Note on the herring fisheries of Great Britain. — Writing 

 from 10 The Crescent, Chapel Field, Norwich, November 20, 1884, Mr. 

 Thomas Southwell says : 



" The herring fishery here, which is rapidly coming to a close, has 

 been remarkable for the immense catches, but the quality of the fish, 

 as a rule, has been poor and the prices so low as to be hardly remuner- 

 ative. I was at the Peterhead in August in the midst of the Scotch 

 herring fishery and heard the same complaints as to quality. The 

 whale and seal fisheries have been on the whole successful, and of this 

 as well as of the herring I hope to send further particulars." 



Movements of a school of herring.— Writing under date of 

 August 26, 1884, Eev. Henry T. Cheever states that on the quiet even- 

 ing of the 6tii of August there occurred a phenomenon in York River 

 never before seen by that traditional personage, the oldest inhabitant. 

 At about half tide, between 8 and 9 at night, there came rushing from 

 the ocean, as though in mad panic, a prodigious school of herring, reck- 

 oned at many millions. The sound they made was like that of water 

 rolling over stones or shallows, or of a strong wind stirring the tops of 

 trees. Visitors and people at a little distance from the river side 

 thought at first by the noise that a notable dam had given way and 

 that its pond was breaking loose. But on reaching the shore, behold, 

 innumerable shining fishes leaping up into the moonlight, crowding the 

 channel, dashing against the piers, striking and jostling one another; 

 cleaving the flood and plunging into the mud on the bottom ; flirting 

 into boats that were out on the river, and capering every way in a most 

 extraordinary manner as if on a lark or a fright or frenzy, one could 

 not tell which. Many were seen to fall back into the water and sink, 

 but millions followed on continuing for or 7 miles with the inflowing 

 tide, passing under three bridges, covering all the coves and marshes 

 and leaving their dead in countless numbers caught and stranded by 

 the returning tide or sunk in deep water. 



In the morning the river flats, rocks, and marshes were piled with 

 countless thousands, that looked from a distance like a shining pave- 

 ment of silver or of white stones. Whether any appreciable number 

 swam back to the ocean seems to be unknown, and the cause of their 

 dying so largely is also in doubt. Was it from panic and fright by 

 pursuing dogfish, that hideous monster of the deep? Was it from 

 panting and suffocation (if asphyxia be possible to fish when in their 

 native element) by being crowded in such numbers in the river channel 

 and flats, when they had been used to the roomy breadth of the deep 

 sea % Was it from concussion in the coast waters by late torpedoes 



