288 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



in Penobscot Bay. The fish have usually been found at the latter locality 

 some two weeks after they occurred at Castine, at which place the school 

 struck in two or three weeks after the height of the fishing at Boisbubert 

 was over. The next school of herring of importance that visits the coast 

 of Maine is the one which has for a number of years regularly been found 

 at Wood Island, and the vicinity, on the coast of Western Maine. These 

 fish approach the shore usually from the 10th to the 15th of September, 

 some two weeks, or more, after the herring have left the waters of Pen- 

 obscot Bay. So regular has been the appearance of herring at Wood 

 Island for a number of years, and so great is their abundance during a 

 period of two or three weeks, that large numbers of small vessels with 

 gill-nets resort to that harbor about the middle of September, to engage 

 in the capture of these fish. The next school which visits our coast for 

 the purpose of spawning is that which strikes the northern shores of 

 Massachusetts Bay and adjacent waters a short time after the first ap- 

 pearance at Wood Island. This latter body is the one which is now es- 

 pecially under consideration. The foregoing remarks in regard to other 

 schools of this species are intended merely to give a general idea of the 

 several bodies of herring which spawn on our shores during the spring 

 and summer. 



Whether the herring that visit Massachusetts Bay are the same or 

 a portion of the same school that strike in at Wood Island, is, perhaps, 

 an open question; but it seems probable that while they may possibly 

 not be the same school they are nevertheless the left wing, so to speak, 

 of the great army which approaches the coast at that season, the right 

 wing reaching Wood Island, where, after the act of reproduction is 

 consummated, they leave the coast. Ordinarily the herring which 

 come in for the purpose of spawning move with regularity and pre- 

 cision directly for the shores, where they deposit their eggs. There 

 is no doubt but that their movements, at this particular time, are de- 

 pendent, for the most part, on the temperature of the water, and their 

 close approach to the coast may be accelerated or retarded by an unu- 

 sual variation of the temperature from its normal condition. From the 

 observations which have been made it appears that they prefer to spawn 

 along the coast when the temperature of the sen water has fallen to 

 about 35° or 10° F. Captain Martin tells me that for the three years 

 previous to 1882, the fall school of herring did not approach the shore 

 at Cape Ann until the temperature was down to 35° F. ; but that dur- 

 ing the present fall (1882) the lish came in on the 18th of September, at 

 which time the temperature was 50°. It is worthy of remark, however, 

 in this connection, that notwithstanding the fact that a few schools of 

 herring came in close to the shores, the greater part of the main body 

 of the fish appeared to keep oil' at a distance of several miles from the 

 coast. According to Capt. William B. Parsons, of Bockport, Mass., 

 the herring- catchers began fishing in Ipswich Bay, near Rock port, 

 about the first of October, but the catch was verv small for the first 

 week, and the few fish taken were sold principally for bait. Captain 



