FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



them are caught annually by the net fishermen of 

 the North Sea and the western Atlantic Ocean, and 

 not less than fifty millions of pounds are taken 

 annually in favorable years on the eastern coast of 

 the United States. Extravagant as these estimates 

 appear to be, they will readily be accepted when 

 we consider that two or three millions of herrings 

 are contained in one shoal, covering six square miles, 

 and much larger schools are on record. 



There are not less than thirty genera and one 

 hundred and fifty species of herrings, inhabiting the 

 waters of the world, usually swimming in large 

 shoals or schools, many species ascending fresh- 

 water streams, and some of them remaining there 

 from choice. Of this large family but few, how- 

 ever, can be called strictly New England or Cana- 

 dian fishes ; eleven species only, including the shad 

 and the anchovies (called locally sardines), can be so 

 designated. The common or commercial herring 

 is excluded from the list, as it is a sea or pelagic 

 fish, spawning in the ocean. Those that visit the 

 brackish waters of the Northern Atlantic and ascend 

 above tide-water, will now be taken up and briefly 

 described seriatim. 



First, we find the round herring (Etrumeus sardina, 

 the generic name from the Japanese, and sardina, 

 the specific, " a diminutive shad"). This fish was 

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