654 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



must mention A. van LemcenliolJc, who thinks that herring spawn when 

 only one year old,'^ and Yarrell, who, in accordance with observations 

 made by himself, maintains that during the first year herrings do not 

 develop sufficiently to have mature milt or roe."^ We must also men- 

 tion the British Commission for examining the Scotch legislation regard- 

 ing the herring seine-fisheries {Play/air, Huxley and Maxwell), which has 

 shown that oiiinions vary much among Scotch fishermen, some sup- 

 posing that one, others that three, and others that even seven years 

 must elaj)se before the herring is ready to spawn. The report of the 

 commission says: "Xo sufficient proof can be brought forward against 

 the assertion that the herring reaches its maturity when one year old." 

 "There is good reason to suppose that the eggs are hatched in at most 

 two to three weeks after spawning, and that six to seven weeks later 

 (that is, at most ten weeks after spawning) the young fish have reached 

 a length of 3 inches." " Since it is well known that young salmon can 

 leave a river and return to it after twelve months eight to ten times 

 larger than when they left, and since the herring lives on nearly the 

 same food as the young salmon, it seems quite i)0ssible that it can also 

 grow in the same rapid proj^ortion." " Under these circumstances nine 

 mouths ought to be a sufficiently long time to increase the length of the 

 herring from 3 to 10 or 11 inches." " It may well be objected, however, 

 that one cannot draw absolutely certain conclusions regarding the growth 

 of fish by means of analogy, and it will perhai)S be best to leave it an 

 open question whether the herring has reached its maturity at the age 

 of 12, 15, or 18 months, and consider the last mentioned figure as the 

 maximum."" In North America naturalists seem inclined to the opinion 

 that the herring, like most other migratory fish, does not reach its matu- 

 rity till it is three years old.'^^ 



'■s Sesde vervolg der hrieven, Delft, 1697, sid. 336-337. 



76Britisli Fislies, 3cl edition, I, London, 1859, p. 107. 



" Report of the Royal Commission on the operation of the acts relating to trawUng 

 for herring on the coasts of Scotland. Edinburgh, 1863, p. 27. — Evidence of the Royal 

 Commission on the operation of the acts relating to trawling for heri'ing on the coasts 

 of Scotland, pp. 8, 9, 17, 23, 33, 34.— Mitchell, The Herring, pp. 30, MO.— Bertram, The 

 Harvest of the Sea, pp. 169, 170. 



''^M. H. Perley, Reports on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick. Freder- 

 icton, 1852, p. 290. — Fourth Annual Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries. 

 Ottawa, 1872, Appendices of the fisheries branch, p. 131. 



The work of the German Fishery Commission has led to still another view of this 

 question, according to which the herring reaches its maturity when two years old. 

 Since it has been ascertained that at the age of one year the herring has a total length of 

 130-140 millimeters, and that fully-matured herrings have been caught in the western 

 portion of the Baltic, having a total length of 160-200 millimeters, Dr. H. A. Meyer 

 felt justified in supposing that the growth of the 60-70 millimeters which were lack- 

 ing to bring the length to the last mentioned figure and the full development of the 

 sexual organs would not require more than one year. (Jahreshericht, IV-VI, p. 247.) 



If, however, further investigations should confirm this supposition, which is by no 

 means impossible, I believe, for my part, that such investigations ought to prove that 

 Buch is the case only with some of the fish born during one and the same spawning-season, 

 but that by far the larger number of these fish only reach their maturity at the age of 

 three, and perhaps even four, years. 



