152 



NATURE 



\_Ano. 24, 18^6 



results of your dredgings across the great ocean-basins of both 

 hemispheres, and now that you and your able assistants have 

 completed your great task so satisfactorily and are safely returned, 

 we beg you to accept our most hearty congratulations and the 

 expression of our united sentiments of admiration ; for you have, 

 indeed, revealed a New World to Biological Science and opened 

 a new and most important field lor physical research. 

 Ph. Parlatore, 

 Ad. Targioni-Tozzetti, Prof, of 



Zool. and Comp. Anat., 

 A. Glegni, 



Enrico Hillyer Giglioli, Prof, 

 of Zool. and Comp. Anat. Verte- 

 brates, 

 Dr. GuELFO Cavanna, 

 Mgr. Guiseppe Grattarola 



(Mineralogy), 

 Prof. Pietro Marchi, 

 Giovanni Arcangeli (Crypto- 

 gamic Botany). 



The following is Sir C. Wyville Thomson's reply to the 

 above : — 

 To the Professors of the Natural Science Section of the Royal 

 Institute of Florence. 

 20, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh, Aug. 12, 1876 



Gentlemen, — Allow me in my own name and in that of my 

 colleagues on the Civilian Scientific Staff on board the Challenger 

 to thank you most cordially for your kind letter of congratulation 

 on our return to England, and on the success of our labours. 



Owing chiefly to the manner in which throughout the whole 

 of this undertaking the Admiralty have uniformly accorded the 

 first place to the purely scientific work, and to the heartiness 

 with which the objects of the scientific specialists have been 

 seconded by the naval officers on board, we have certainly been 

 enabled to carry cut our investigations almost more fully and 

 completely than we had a right to hope. We are well aware, 

 however, that we have only now entered upon the most difficult 

 if not the most important part of our task, and I can only say 

 that we will do all in our power to justify the liberal encourage- 

 ment which we have received from Government by working out 

 juUy the mass of data and materials which we have accumulated, 

 and publishing our results as soon as possible in an appropriate 

 form. 



I need scarcely add how great a gratification it has been to us 

 to receive assurances of sympathy and approval from so many of 

 our most distinguished fellow-workers, but it seems to me that 

 such assurances are more specially welcome from Italy, the 

 wonderful country whose language and modes of thought have 

 been before us as a model from our childhood, and which perhaps 

 above all others commands our interest and regard. 

 I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, 



Yours gratefully and respectfully, 



C. Wyville Thomson 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE NATURAL 

 HISTORY OF 7 HE HERRING 



THE Meteorological Society of Scotland has made an 

 important contribution to the natural history of the 

 herring [Cbipea haretigtcs), the capricious movements of 

 which have recently attracted attention and been dis- 

 cussed in the columns of NATURE. It is often asserted 

 by the more observant persons who assist in the capture 

 ot the herring, that the Chipea family are lovers of very 

 cold water, and it is, doubtless, from a knowledge of this 

 fact, that the story of the herring being a native of the 

 Arctic regions took its rise. Pennant's tale of these fish 

 coming annually in a vast heer from the high latitude of 

 the northern seas has been discussed and settled again 

 and again. There need now be no hesitation in saying 

 that Pennant erred ; indeed, he only gave literary life to 

 the fables of the fishermen, and, so far as we know, he 

 made no personal effort to deteimine whether or not the 

 herring was a migratory fish. It has been ascertained 

 beyond doubt that the herring is a local animal, the 

 different varieties of which can readily be identified. 

 Pealers or fishermen are able to distinguish between a 



Loch Fyne herring and one captured in the Frith of Forth 

 or in the Bay of Wick, or any other sea or frith. As a 

 matter of fact, the herring is found on British shores all 

 the year round, and there is no authority for supposing 

 that the varieties taken indifferent locahties are members 

 of any great general body of these fish, or that there is 

 one great shoal in existence every year, which, at a cer- 

 tain season divides and then subdivides itself, a la 

 Pennant. 



To come back, however, to the new discovery. We are 

 indebted to the Meteorological Society of Scotland for 

 some interesting experiments which have been made as 

 to the temperature of the waters in which the herring can 

 live with the greatest amount of comfort to itself, and, 

 when known, with the greatest benefit to its captors. It 

 has been determined by the experiments of the Society 

 that the take of herrings is most abundant where the 

 temperature of the sea is lowest. It was found in 1874 

 and 1875 that "the temperature of the sea, off the east 

 coast of Scotland, from the middle of August to the close 

 of the fishing season, was continuously and considerably 

 higher in 1875 than in 1874, and that the catch of 

 herrings was continuously and considerably lower during 

 1875 than during the same period of 1874." As re- 

 gards the difference between surface and bottom tem- 

 perature and their relation to the fishery, it has been 

 noted that when the temperature of the surface of the 

 sea is high, the fish are found in the deeper parts of the 

 water. " The fish prefer, apparently, so far as the in- 

 quiry has gone, the lower to the higher temperature." 

 When a thunder-storm has prevailed on any of the days 

 de%oted to the fishing a good take of herrings maybe 

 expected by the fishermen, " but, on the following day, 

 few, if any fish are caught over that part of the coast, 

 unless at the extreme vers;e of a deep part of the sea as if 

 the fish were retreaiing thither." The Meteorological 

 Society of Scotland are desirous of extending their in- 

 quiries and observations, and they wish the fishermen to 

 aid the inquiry by taking the trouble of " observing the 

 temperature of the sea at the surface and also at the 

 depth at which the fish strike the nets." In other 

 countries than ours observations of a relative kind to 

 those prosecuted by the Scottish Meteorological Society 

 of Scotland have been successfully accomplished. The 

 Dutch have ascertained many interesting facts regarding 

 the effects of temperature on fisheries. The Norwegians 

 have also been prosecuting similar inquiries. Herr von 

 Freeden, of Hamburg, Director of the German See- 

 warte, has also made observations, both as regards tem- 

 perature and direction of wind. As regards the latter, 

 he has come to the conclusion that north-west winds are 

 the best for large catches, and northerly winds better than 

 southerly, westerly better than easterly ; also, that mode- | 

 rately strong winds, sufficient to ruffle the surface of the * 

 sea, are better than calm weather, and light winds almost 

 as unfavourable as stiff breezes ; a ruffling of the sea being 

 in his opinion of considerable importance to success of 

 fishing. 



These are important discoveries, so far as they go, and 

 must ultimately exercise considerable influence on the 

 practice and lesults of the herring fishery. Hitherto the 

 men have fished as in the dark, so far as regards the kind 

 of knowledge which has just been found for them. That 

 the month of August is a good time to seek the herring 

 is about all that fishermen do know ; the most likely part j 

 of the water in which to find them, or the depth at which 1 

 they may be lying, they cannot tell. When the fishermen * 

 shoot their nets they may not fall in the path of the fish ; 

 the herrings they .seek may be either above or below the 

 snare which the men have let into the water for their 

 destruction. By a fruitful continuance of the observations 

 we have referred to, we shall be able to conduct the 

 herring fishery with greater exactitude and likewise with 

 more economy of time. 



I 



