RATE OP GROWTH OP SOME SEA FISHES. 239 



as well as at the Isle of May^ although except at the latter place 

 observations on the subject are vague and indefinite. 



We pass on now to another paper, namely, one by J. C. Ewart 

 and J. Duncan Matthews in the Fourth Report of the Scottish 

 Fishery Board, on the Nature of Thames and Forth Whitehait. The 

 whitebait fishing in the Forth is not, from the present point of view, 

 of great importance. The authors inform us that it is carried on in 

 the Forth between Alloa and Kincardine in the winter months, and 

 the fish captured vary very little in kind ; 2600 specimens were 

 examined in samples of about 200 each during December, January, 

 and February, and 99| per cent, of the whole number consisted of 

 sprats, only about half a dozen herrings being found among them. 



The results of the examination of Thames whitebait were very 

 different. These results may be conveniently tabulated thus : 



No. Percentage 



Month. examined, of herrings. Length of herrings. 



February ... 1400 ... 7 ... Some under 2 inches. 



March ... 1200 ... 5 ... Some nearly 4 inches. 



April ... 800 ... 14 ... 12 per cent, of the herrings under IJ inches 



without scales. 



May ... 600 ... 30 ... 40 per cent, of the herrings 2 inches long 



and completely scaled; 60 per cent. 1| 

 to If inches, and only partly scaled. 



June ... 800 ... 87 ... 60 per cent, of the herrings were fully scaled 



and from 2 to 2} inches long ; 40 per cent, 

 1 to li inches, scaleless, or nearly so. 



July ... 600 ... 75 ... Ij to 2i inches; 80 per cent, under 2 inches. 



August ... 500 ... 52 ... 2 to 3 inches. 



The remainder of the samples in every case consisted of course 

 of young sprats, and with these I shall deal in discussing the 

 growth of that species. The observations on the herring are 

 extremely interesting and instructive, notwithstanding the fact that 

 the observers were not attending to the question of the rate of 

 growth, and have not therefore given as complete an account of the 

 sizes and conditions as that question demands. The authors of the 

 paper merely remark that the young herring would appear to be 

 developed from spawn deposited during the spring months. We 

 see from the above table that Ewart and Matthews place the limit 

 of size between what we may call larval herring (those without 

 scales and without the silvery livery) and the fully-developed 

 herring at 2 inches, and this agrees with Meyer's observation that 

 the fully-developed young fish were 1'8 to 2'2 inches long. The 

 change is completed in the tliird month of age according to Meyer. 



In February and March the number of larval herring was ex- 

 tremely small, the total number of herrings in a catch being 7 and 



