G50 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



same food as the summer-berrings, viz, small Copepod* crustaceans, 

 which freely float about in the water, from which it follows that, like the 

 summer-herrings, the spring-herrings must spend the greater portion of 

 their life near the surface of the water. It is well known that these 

 small crustaceans ("herring-food") are not only found near the coast, but 

 everywhere in the open sea, and it is a fact proved not only by many 

 sailors and fishermen, but also by zoologists {KrUyer), that that very 

 portion of the sea mentioned above is particularly rich in these small 

 animals, so that by their enormous mass they will color the water for 

 miles and even furnish an important article of food to the monsters of 

 the deep, the whales, &c. There would consequently be no lack of food 

 in these regions for the enormous schools of spring-herrings which visit 

 our own and the Scottish coasts for the purpose of spawning; and 1 

 consider it therefore as highly probable that this portion of the sea is 

 the true home of the spring-herring. 



The objection might be raised that if this were really the case schools 

 of herring ought to have been seen here. But it must be remembered, 

 in the first place, that this portion of the sea has so far been but little 

 investigated, and in the second place, that it cannot reasonably be sup- 

 posed that the herrings are gathered here in those dense schools which 

 we see when they come near the coast in order to spawn, but that in 

 order to obtain the required amount of food they have to live more 

 scattered, and be distributed over a very wide area. It must likewise 

 be borne in mind that only in the height of summer, and when the sea 

 is as smooth as a mirror, the small crustaceans will be found near the 

 surface of the water, while when there are even the smallest waves 

 they immediately go down several feet, in which case the scattered 

 schools of herrings are of course withdrawn from observation. Not 

 till the middle of winter, when roe and milt develop, do the scattered 

 schools, driven by their instinct, gradually gather and approach the 

 coast in order to spawn on suitable bottoms. Thus, the scattered fish 

 gather into schools and form enormous compact masses of densely 

 packed herrings, a so-called " herring mountain," which, like a solid 

 wall of considerable dimensions, extending not only in a horizontal but 

 also in a vertical direction, approaches the coast. It will be easily 

 understood that the great masses of spring-herrings while approaching 

 the coast must generally accommodate themselves to the formation of 

 the bottom ; i. e., follow the deep troughs or valleys. 



The fact that they approach the coast chiefly in a southeasterly, and 



* A. Bceck has also (see his work, " Om Sildeu," &c., p. 46), by a microscopic exam- 

 ination of the contents of the entrails of recently caught spring-herrings, found pieces 

 (chiefly feelers and feet) which undoubtedly had belonged to the Copepods. But as 

 he started from the supposition that the spring-herrings come from the deep, he also 

 supposed that these remains could only belong to such Copepods as lived near the 

 bottom, although he grants that they do not seem to correspond exactly with the deep- 

 water varieties formerly examined by him. 



