276 [Packard. 



fact elicited from several intelligent fishermen, that the herring 

 does not spawn abundantly upon the coast of Northern Labra- 

 dor, that is, above the Mingan Islands, but visits the coast in schools 

 after the breeding season is over, -while it breeds abundantly on the 

 coast of Xew Brunswick, at Bay Chaleur, the Magdalen Islands, and 

 on the southern coast of Newfoundland, affords excellent data for 

 limiting the southern boundary of the Arctic fish fauna on the east- 

 ern Atlantic coast. This line agrees with what we have defined* as 

 the southern limits of the '-Syrtensian Fauna," which as an assemblage 

 peoples the coast of Labrador, and extends around the northern shore 

 of the continent into Hudson's Bay ; and southward, follows the line of 

 floatino- ice, thus partially excluding Anticosti, embracing the Banks 

 of Newfoundland, the banks lying off Nova Scotia and New Eng- 

 land, such as Jeffries and St. George's Banks, and more faintly indi- 

 cated on those banks of New Jersey which are swept by the southern 

 extension of the Labrador or Polar current. An outlier of it is also 

 found at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. On the southern shores 

 of Newfoundland, which are partially protected from the Polar cur- 

 rent sweeping by to the eastward, upon which the Gulf Stream 

 slio-htly impinges, though with a much diminished force, the herring 

 breeds, as here the species is surrounded by physical and chmatic condi- 

 tions very precisely corresponding to those of Nova Scotia and Maine, 

 thus constituting an outlying area isolated from, and yet belonging to 

 the Acadian district or fauna. Therefore it appears that the Hne of 

 floatino- ice, which extends down the coast of Labrador as far as the 

 INIino-an Islands, is the northward limit of the haddock and mackerel, 

 while the herring, a member of the Acadian fauna, does not breed in 

 any comparative abundance north of this point. The distribution of 

 Radiates, Mollusca, Articulates and Fishes thus agrees very closely on 

 the northeastern shores of the continent. 



One person at Henley Harbor takes upon the average eight hun- 

 dred quintals during the short summer season, and cures them there. 

 A few herring were seined at Square Island on July 6. 



I find in a lecture on the Herring Fishery by M. A. Warren, Esq., 

 who owns one of the largest fishing establishments on the coast of 

 Labrador, some observations on the herring as observed in Labrador 

 and Newfoundland, which are here quoted, as the article is not likely 

 to fall into the hands of American naturalists. 



"The female herring in Newfoundland come near the shore in mod- 

 erate weather, and deposit their spawn, generally at night, in from 

 3-5 fathoms of water. The males follow and shed their milt over 

 it." . . . '^It is impossible, without seeing it, to form any idea ofthepro- 



* Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Dec, 1863. 



