236 PERIODS OF SPAWNING. [CHAP. vi. 



various spawning places, and it adheres tenaciously to what- 

 ever it happens to fall upon. This, as will be seen, brings us 

 exactly back to Mr. Cleghorn's ideas of the herring existing in 

 races at different places and in separate bodies, and thereby 

 rendering the fluctuations of the great series of shoals at Wick 

 more and more intelligible, especially when we take into ac- 

 count the fact that winter shoals have recently been found at 

 that place, giving rise to what may ultimately prove a con- 

 siderable addition to the great autumn fishery yet carried on 

 there. Indeed I consider this point proved, and having taken 

 great pains in sifting the evidence (of different spawning- 

 seasons) given on the question, both oral and written, I feel 

 entitled to say so much. 



As to the question of how long herrings take to grow, from 

 the period of the deposition of the egg, there are various 

 opinions, for no naturalist or practical fisherman has been able 

 definitely to fix the time. There is reason to believe, we are 

 told in the report, that the eggs of herrings are hatched in, at 

 most, from two to three weeks after deposition. This is 

 very rapid work when we consider that the eggs of the salmon 

 require to be left for a period of ninety or a hundred days, 

 even in favourable seasons, before they quicken into life, and 

 that the eggs of a considerable number of fish are known to 

 take a much longer period than three weeks to ripen. The 

 rate of growth of the herring, and the time at which it 

 begins to reproduce itself, are not yet well understood ; in- 

 deed, it seems particularly difficult to fix the period at which 

 it reaches the reproductive stage.* I have had young her- 



* As an example of the numerous absurd statements that have 

 been circulated about fish, the reader may study the following para- 

 graph : " Old fishermen about Dunbar say the way herring spawn is 

 first, the female herrings deposit their roe at some convenient part 

 on sand or shingly bottom ; second, the male fish then spread their 

 milt all over the roe to protect it from enemies, and the influence of 



