640 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



a coast where bcrrings occur whicb spawn in spring, there cannot be any 

 which spawn in autumn, or vice versa. Any one who will calmly think 

 about the matter will be convinced that the summer-herring cannot pos- 

 sibly si^awn in autumn. 



The fatness and excellent quality of the summer-herring is caused by 

 the circumstance that, as has been said, it " has fat instead of roe and 

 milt." Zoglogists may succeed in finding underneath the fat in the low- 

 est portion of the body those organs in which roe and milt are formed, 

 but these organs are as yet so little developed, that it could not be defi- 

 nitely decided whether they in any possible way could reach maturity 

 as early as autumn. Nor do the fishermen know anything about such 

 herrings which spawn in autumn ; and when asked at what time the 

 summer-herring spawns, they will generally express the utmost aston- 

 ishment at this question and say, " Why, the summer-herring don't 

 spawn at all ; it has not got roe and milt, but only fat.'' They consider 

 this as an established factj and have never thought about it that every 

 and any kind of fish, in order to exist, must have the faculty of propa- 

 gating the species. The fact of the matter is that when the summer- 

 herring spawns — and it does so, of cQurse, at some time — it is no longer 

 a summer-herring or fat-herring whose body is filled with fat and not 

 with roe or milt. 



Which are then the real facts in the case? Why, simply these: The 

 summerlierring is not, as has been formerly Relieved, a separate variety of 

 herring, but nothing more nor less than the offspring of the spring -herring 

 of different ages, and mnst, therefore, according to the latvs of logic, at last 

 become a genuine spring herring. 



This opinion already previously entertained by me, and which in a 

 very striking manner was confirmed by the observations made by me 

 during this summer, appears in reality so self-evident, that it seems 

 very strange that no ichthyologist has so far hit upon this very simple 

 explanation. The chief cause of this must be the mistaken idea that the 

 summer-herring comes into the fiords and bays for the same purpose as 

 the spring-herring, while, as every one who is acquainted with the her- 

 ring-fisheries will know, it does not come at all for the purpose of spawn- 

 ing, but in order to feed on the various small marine animals gathered 

 here by the current. 



By examining the different fat herrings which are brought to the fish- 

 markets of our western towns, their size will be found to be very diifer- 

 ent. They have, therefore, as is well known, got different names in the 

 trade, e. g., " Christiania herring," " middle herring," "merchants' her- 

 ring." These different sizes represent the different ages, which may 

 also be recognized by the different development of the generative 

 organs. If the smallest Christiania herring is laid side by side with this 

 year's young of the spring-herring, the so-called '"^sja," we will, if we 

 look away from the difference of size, find the most complete agree- 

 ment in all particulars, so that no one would ever consider them as be- 



