40 THE HERRING FISHERIES. 



vertebral column has fifty-six bones. The ribs consist of 

 twenty-one to each side. The head is furnished with 

 twenty-eight bones, eight of which form supports to the 

 gills. From end to end the entire skeleton numbers three 

 hundred and seventy-one bones, and in this form it pre- 

 sents a marvellous view of constructive skill and adaptation 

 to its home in the great deep, and reflecting the mind at 

 once to that supreme source from which order has sprung. 



The order of the fisheries just given will indicate the 

 habitat of the herring, and it is never found in warm 

 latitudes, though often found both in and without the 

 Arctic circle. Small varieties are met with on the 

 northern shores of Greenland, and it is scarcely necessary 

 to state that the annual migration of herring shoals to and 

 from polar regions is now known to be a fallacy. It is 

 found in the North Atlantic Ocean between forty and 

 seventy degrees of latitude, and abounds in the northern 

 seas, and found in greatest numbers on the British coasts. 



The herring is not so prolific in the produce of spawn as 

 many of the other species are, unless we take into account 

 that it may spawn oftener than other fishes ; and this is a 

 point that many able men are still investigating. It is 

 estimated that if the full-roed herrings recorded as taken 

 for the year 1881 had been allowed to spawn, and if that 

 spawn had become fry, then " there would have been pro- 

 duced no less than 6,946,470,000 barrels of herring," had 

 such been caught. This assumption is very modest, and, 

 of course, is going on the old lines that the said full-roed 

 fish would only spawn once, though they spawn at least 

 twice in the year ; and it seems certain that they spawn 

 much oftener, as both " spent " and full herrings are caught 

 in nearly any season and at any place. The fact really 

 seems to be that, once they come to maturity, it is only a 



