PROPAGATION AND GROWTH OF HERRING. 655 



According to unauimoua testimony, the herring continues to grow 

 (though slower) long after it has reached maturity, or the faculty of 

 Ijropagatiug the species; but the assertion that the herring, as well as 

 other fish, know no other limit of growth but death is probably not well 

 founded.''' It is not known how old the herring is when it ceases to 

 grow; but it is reasonable to suppose that it has reached its full growth 

 at eight years of age. 



It is not known to what age the herring can live, but it is not jirob- 

 able thjit it reaches a very high age. Nor has the assertion been proved 

 that the herring lives so long that it loses its iiropagating faculty from 

 old age. Interesting attempts have been made to ascertain the age of 

 herrings and other fish from the layers composing the scales^" or from 

 the number of vertebrae in the backbone,''^ and future histological investi- 

 gations will doubtless throw more light on this subject. It must finally 

 be mentioned that the above-mentioned Scotch Commission is of opinion 

 that, owing to the violent persecutions to which the herring is exi)osed, 

 it will scarcely be possible for it to reach a higher age than three to four 

 years and live through two to three iiropagating epochs.^^ 



The Bohusliin coast herring occasionally reaches a length of more than 

 300 millimeters; but even specimens measuring upwards of 250 milli- 

 meters are comparatively rare, especially on the southern part of the 

 coast, probably owing to the fact that fishing is there carried on more 

 \dgorously. The largest specimen which I obtained measured 322 milli- 

 meters (370 including the caudal fin), a length which corresponds with 

 that given by Elcstrom as the maximum length of the Bohusliin herring,^^ 

 and which exceeds that mentioned by later authors. Collett mentions 

 that the largest herring which he could obtain from the boundary waters 

 between Norway and Bohusliin had a total length of 3G4 millimeters;^* 

 and Lundberg, in his treatise on the herring, containing numerous meas- 

 urements of the herrings in the Eoyal Swedish Museum, says he could 

 not find any specimen longer than 344 millimeters ; this was one sent 

 from Stromstad by Baron G. Cederstrom.^^ No large specimens, such as 

 are occasionally found in the northern iDortion of the North Sea, near the 

 northern coast of Norway, Iceland, or Northeastern North America, are, 

 as far as known, ever caught in the Skagerack. Buckland gives 17 inches 



'?A. V. Leuwenhock, "Upistolw i)hysioJogicce." Deliihis, 1719, p. 218. 



^oA. V. Leuwenhock, '^Epistolw i^hysiologicce," Y)]). 401, 402. — Accordiug to these ac- 

 counts the hen-iug can reach an age of at least twelve years. 



81 H. Hederstrom, "Eon om fiskars dldei-" (Rgl. Vet. Acads. handl., 1759, XX, pp. 

 222, 329). 



^ Report of the Royal Commission on the operation of the acts relating to trawling 

 for herring, p. 28. 



^^Praktisk af handling, pp. 5, 10.— During the rich herring fisheries in the beginning 

 of 1878, I observed several herrings having a total length of 375 millimeters, and a 

 maximum height of 75-85 millimeters. 



^ Norges Fiske. Christiania, 1875, p. 192. 



^ Bldrag till Eannedommen om strommingen i Stockholms skdrgard. Stockholm, 1875, 

 pp. 20, 21. 



