66 FISHERIES OF THE NORTH SEA 



realize that the herring at the same price 

 as any other white fish is in reality only 

 costing half as much. As a rule the price 

 of herring, whether cured or fresh, is only 

 half that of cod-fish or haddock, so that if 

 food value be considered, its real price is 

 only a quarter. Of all fish it is the poor 

 man's dish, and in the autumnal herring 

 season it is perhaps the cheapest food sold 

 in our country. If the demand were 

 double what it is and it ought to be 

 the increase in fishing to satisfy the re- 

 quirements would cause no depletion in the 

 quantities available, the supply in the ocean 

 would not be materially lessened. The 

 increase of this fish is almost incalculable : 

 an average 100 in spawning season will 

 deposit 4,000,000 eggs. Collectively, its 

 spawn supplies many millions of tons of food 

 for other fish, typically the haddock. Its 

 foes are innumerable, man is only one of 

 hundreds ; its only means of defence lie in 

 its enormous numbers. At the period 

 of migration it advances in serried shoals 

 of countless millions followed by hosts of 

 cod-fish, porpoises, seals, hake, coal-fish ; 

 all of which consume it. Man intercepts 



