190 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



iisliing has principally, and in olden times exclnsively, been carried ou 

 with apparatus that conld only be lowered to a comparatively insignifi- 

 cant depth both in the oi)en sea and near the coast; and as these fish- 

 eries were going on at different seasons of the year, and as herrings were 

 occasionally seen by seamen, it will be easily understood that the herring 

 was first considered as a surface-fish, none of the older writers on the 

 herring-question having apparently entertained any other opinion. It 

 was Anderson, always inclined to the wonderful, who first pronounced 

 another opinion, viz, that the proper home of the herring was the "bot- 

 tomless deep," under the polar ice, where sharks and codfish could not 

 breathe and disturb the herring in its '' proud repose." Although Ander- 

 so7i's theory had many adherents, and for nearly a century enjoyed almost 

 universal popularity among naturalists, but little attention seems to 

 have been paid to the question whether the herring was a bottom-fish 

 or not. Kilsson, however, pronounces a more distinct opinion on this 

 subject. He su])posed that the herring was, ])roperly speaking, a deep- 

 wat/cr fish, which, in his opinion, was proved by the fact that herrings 

 are found in the stomachs of codfish, but he most emphatically opposes 

 Anderson^s view that the herring could only live in very deep water.^^ 

 This view has since then been embraced and further developed by Axel 

 BoecTc, who, however, went much further than Professor ja^ilsson, and thus, 

 for example, placed the proper home of the Norwegian so-called '^ spring 

 herring" at the bottom of the deep valley which extends along the coast 

 of I^orway; and in proof of his assertion, has mentioned the fact that 

 in the stomach of herrings caught immediately on their arrival rem- 

 nants of small crustaceans had been found which only live at a very 

 great depth. A different opinion, however, was soon after advanced by 

 Prof. G. 0. Sars, who at first considered the herring as a " bank-fish," 

 like the codfish,^^ but later as a surface-fish, like G. G. Gederstrom, who, 

 though inclining to the opinion that the herring, like the eel, sometimes 

 concealed itself on the bottom, nevertheless raised some well-founded 

 objections to Axel Boecli's assertion, and his mode of proving it.^° The 

 proofs which have been brought forward in support of the theory that 

 the herring was specially formed for a life at the bottom of the great 

 deep, have been thoroughly refuted by the two above-mentioned authors, 

 and are in no wise re-established by the direct observations made on 

 the west coast of Norway, through which we know that the spawn of 

 herrings, though seldom, is still found as deep as 60 to 100 fathoms, and 

 that herrings are occasionally caught with stationary nets at a depth of 

 50 to GO fathoms. 



^^ NiUson, strange to say, mentions the unusual jiressure of the water, to prove tlie 

 unreasonableness of Anderson's opinion. 



's Quite recently tliis oj)inion lias been modified by saying that the herring, although 

 a "surface-fish," nevertheless showed a decided preference for the banks where the 

 codfish live, on account of the stronger current generally found there. 



^Even Cederstrom mentions the strong pressiore of the water, "exercising a hurtful 

 influence ou the gills," as the piincipal cause why the herrings did not go into deeper 

 waters. 



