640 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The coast-lierring living in the Skagerack spawns during spring, in 

 suitable places on the coast, few of which seem to have been known to 

 those authors who have written on this subject. The cause of this is 

 probably found in the circumstance that net-fishing, which is best suited 

 for catching herrings during the spawning season, is not A^ery common 

 in Bohusliin, as nets can only in exceptional cases be used in those places 

 where the herrings spawn. An even sand-bottom, free from rocks 

 and stones, is very rare on the coast of Bohusliin, and the drag-nets 

 which are the best for use during the spawning-season cannot easily 

 be drawn across a rocky bottom, which forms the most suitable spawn- 

 ing-place. The herrings, however, seem also to st)awn on clayey bot- 

 toms overgrown with aquatic plants. Good spawning-places are found 

 quite frequently farther out along the whole coast of Bohusliin, and it 

 is certain that the herrings, though perhaps not in very large numbers, 

 spawn in these places every year ; at any rate much more frequently 

 than was thought formerly, when such an occurrence was considered a 

 rare exception.^ There has been, even quite recently, a tendency to 

 underrate the number of our coast-herring which spawn in spring.^ 



With regard to the nature of the bottom on which the herrings spawn 

 the observations made by different authors all agree. As suitable bot- 

 toms we generally find mentioned rocky or stony bottom, sand-bottom, 

 bottoms overgrown with algse or other aquatic plants, whilst it is gen- 

 erally denied that herrings can spawn on soft, muddy bottoms without 

 any vegetation. MitcheJVs assertion, that herrings cannot spawn on sand 

 bottoms, ■* may find its cause in the circumstance that the waves stir up 

 the sand on the more shallow banks near the coast of Scotland, which 

 would, of course, disturb the eggs ; but his assertion, that the herrings 

 lay their eggs also on hard, clayey bottom,-^ cannot be properly substan- 

 tiated. The assertion that the herrings prefer a bottom overgrown by 

 a " peculiar kind of algse," which "limits the number of their spawning- 

 places to very few,'' ^ is likewise without proper foundation. Although 

 the herring is, therefore, not limited in the choice of its spawuing-j)lace, 

 we cannot agree with Valenciennes, who says that the herring spawns 

 almost anywhere, in calm weather even out in the open sea.^ It is on 

 the contrary our opinion that the herring chooses spawning-places which 

 are not only suitable for hatching the eggs, but also for feeding and pro- 

 tecting the young fish. The herring prefers calm water during spawn- 



2 WiUGHT, W. V. , " HandJingar rorande sillfisJcet i bohuslanska skdrgdrden. Stockholm, 

 1843, x>. 166. — EcKSTKOM, C. U., Ofversiyt of K<jl. Vetenskaps-Akadcmiens Forhandlin- 

 gar, I, 1844, p. 26, 82. — Holmberg ,A. E., BoJmsliins Mstoria och icskrifning. III. 

 Utldevalla, 1845, p. 215. — ^NiLSSON, S., Skandinavish Fauna. IV. Liand, 1855, p. 509. 



^Yhlen, G. v., Nya handlingar rorande sillfisket i bohuslanska skargarden. I. Gote- 

 borg, 1874, p. 12. 



■»Tlie herring, its natural history and national importance. Edinburgh, 1864, p. 294. 



''The herring, &c., p. 29 and p. 32. 



"LOVEN, S., SandUngar rorande silljisket, p. 160. 



^ Histoire natiirelJe des poissons, sx, Paris, 1847, pp. 79-80. 



