REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. *45 



substances, and can readily be manipulated bj^ the approved apparatus. 

 Indeed, it has been found that -vvlierever the ejjjjjfs of the herrin}4- adhere 

 in bunches the central ej^'^s almost always fail of develoi)ment. 



The details of the operation of spawning;' amonj^ the sea herrin}^ are 

 not well ascertained, but probably are prosecuted as with most fishes, 

 the lish, either in pairs or in masses of both sexes, coining together and 

 discharging the eggs at intervals, accompanied by a discharge of the 

 milt. This being done in the open sea, the eggs are immediately carried 

 oft" by the current, and ultimately fall to the bottom, unless they happen 

 to come in contact with sonie substance lioating in the water. Where 

 vessels are anchored on the si)awning-grounds of the herring it is very 

 common for the eggs to attach themselves to the cable, sometimes 

 increasing its thickness many fold. 



During a visit in 1872 to the spawning-grounds of the sea herring at 

 the southern end of Grand Menan, I found, in working the dredge, that 

 sea- weed and pebbles brought up at depths of from five to twenty or 

 thirty fathoms or even more were thickly studded with single eggs of 

 the sea herring, rarely more than two or three being close together. 

 These circumstances were most fiivorable for development, while their 

 adhesion saved them from many of the dangers of destruction by flashes, 

 &c., to which floating eggs are liable. The experiment of artificial 

 propagation was not tried in this connection, although a supply of eggs 

 was taken to Eastport and their development carefully studied in the 

 laboratory. 



On the 13th of November, 1877, Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, an employe 

 of the Fish Commission, while at Neman's Land, engaged in studying 

 the natural history of the spawning cod, took the occasion to artificially 

 impregnate a number of eggs of the sea herring and hatch them out in 

 a floating hatching-box. These eggs hatched in eleven days, the young 

 emerging on the 24th of November. He found the yolk-bag nuich more 

 sessile than that of the shad. Where the eggs were in clusters they did 

 not ripen, only when placed singly on sea- weed. Kelp seemed to be the 

 best medium for their development. 



Experiments were also made in 1877 by Dr. H. A. Meyer, of Kiel, on 

 this same subject, and the results published by him in a Circular of the 

 Deutsche Fisherei-Verein. 



To make a success of the artificial impregnation of the herring it will 

 be necessary to adopt some treatment quite different from that with 

 the salmon and shad, and it is doubtful whether the work can ever be 

 done on the same wholesale scale and with the same economy. Proba- 

 bly the best method will be to drop the eggs on glass plates or sheets of 

 wire gauze, the former being preferable on account of the greater facility 

 of keeping the eggs clean. 



The specific gravity of the eggs of the herring, which sink to the bot- 

 tom, is evidently much greater than that of the eggs of the mackerel or 

 cod, which it is well known float persistently at the top. For a judicious 



