656 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



as the length of the largest herring which, to his knowledge, has ever 

 been caught on the coasts of Great Britain ; ^^ and from Holland it is re- 

 ported that the crew of the vessel De DanlchaarJieid, Captain Klaas Dor- 

 landt, in 57^' 23' N. L., on the 23d October, 1863, caught a herring meas- 

 uring 485 millimeters in length.''^ 



For the sake of comparison we will here, after H. Baars, give the 

 average size of herring caught on the coast of Norway. The average 

 length of the " great herring" is 350 millimeters; of the "spring-herring," 

 300-320; of the "merchants' herring," 250; of the "medium-herring," 

 235 ; of the great "Christiania herring," 200; and of the little "Christiauia 

 herring," 180."'^ According to Collett, however, the average length of 

 the "great herring" is 330-340 millimeters, and that of the "spring-her- 

 ring" about 330, whilst three to four year old "summer-herring," which 

 have not yet sjiawned, often reach a total length of 270 to 280, and 

 " half-grown two-year-old fish " 170 to 190. The largest specimen of the 

 " great-herring" kind in the Christiania Museum has a total length of 

 378 millimeters.''^ 



Eegarding the propagation and development of the small herring, I 

 have not been able to find any information in old writers, and my own 

 observations are still so far from complete that I deem it best to defer 

 their publication. This I offer in excuse of the brevity of the following 

 account : 



The fishermen, at least in that part of the coast of BohuslJin where 

 herring-fisheries are carried on during spring and summer, are well ac- 

 quainted with the fact that the "small-herring" has fully developed roe 

 and milt in spring and during the early part of summer, and some fish- 

 ermen have even observed their young some time after spawning. The 

 spawning of the " small-herring" may be somewhat delayed or acceler- 

 ated by the weather, but seems as a general rule not to have undergone 

 any change with regard to the time when it takes place. In the reports 

 of P. Clancey, superintendent of herring-fisheries to the Eoyal Board of 

 Trade, we find the following notice, that on the 11th March 1811, small- 

 herring containing both milt and roe were caught,^*^ indicating that 

 spawning would begin at most 3-4 months later. From this circum- 

 stance we may safely draw the conclusion that it is not necessary to 

 suppose an advance in time of the spawning-season of the " small-her- 

 ring," in order to explain the statements of Mlsson, Wilhelm von Wright, 

 Ekstrbm, A. W. Malm, E. TJggla, as well as the opposing statement of 

 G. von Yhlcn, probably derived from M. E. BlocWs ichthyology, or fi-om 

 the supposition that the spawning-season was always contemporaneous 

 with the fishing-season. The above-mentioned writers take autumn to 



*3 Familiar history of British Fishes. London, 1873, p. 122. 



87 Verslag van den Staat der Ncderlandsche Zeevisscherijen over 1860, p. 15. 



^ Die Fischerci- Industrie Nonvegens. Bergen, 1873, pp. 50, 51, 54. 



^ Nm-ges Fiske, i\ 192. 



90 G. C. Cederstuom, '' Fiskodling och Sveriges Fiakerier," Stockholm, 1857, p. 215. 



