54 



out reserve ; however, 1 could not resist the temptation to mention his 

 communication, as he is one of the very few who have published 

 anything about tbis iuteresting fisb, aud, as I was fortuuate enough 

 to find out, that a good deal of what Nozemau tells us is in 

 accordance with the facts. Of less value is what W. P. van den Ende 

 published about 1850 on the sanie subject. He calls his article 

 a proposition to reform the herring-fishery in the Zuiderzee. Du- 

 ring a staj at Helder in 1832 the herring was extraordinarily 

 abundant in the Zuiderzee (he does not teil us whether he stayed 

 at Helder in autumn or in spring). It was very soou known 

 everywhere that such very rich catches took place in the Zuider- 

 zee and men came from the French coasts of the Northsea to share 

 in the fishery of the Zuiderzee. As they were not perniitted to fish 

 in Dutch territorial waters, they bought the herrings of our fisher- 

 men. They had much to pay (as much as seventy guilders for 10,000 

 fishes), being obliged to spend thousands of guilders to clear 

 their ships ; yet they were so numerous that in Tessel alone 

 400 French ships entered. The abuudauce of herrings soon, how- 

 ever, diminished again : the fishes — van den Ende says — 

 changed their direction and entered into the Zuiderzee no more. 

 Therefore van den Ende proposed te send ships to those places 

 of the Northsea »where the floating spawn-masses of these fishes 

 were to be found." Haviug collected a sufficiënt quantity of that 

 spawn they were to briug it over into the Zuiderzee etc. 



Schlegel (Visschen van Nederland, p. 145) tells us that the 

 Zuiderzee-herring shows itself in some years, as for example 

 between 1825 aud '36, in immense quantities; he does not say 

 whether this herring spawns in the Zuiderzee or not; but he 

 probably thinks it does, as he tells us that the spawn often 

 covers vast plains along the shores of the sea, and that it is to 

 be distinguished, even at a considerable distance, as a white mass ; 

 at and in the vicinity of those places young herrings are observed 

 in great quantities. As to the herring-fishiug, Schlegel says, that it 

 begins in November and lasts till May, the two last months of 

 the year often yielding very rich catches. 



