THE HERRING AND OTHER FISH 343 



It is impossible to believe that man has had any hand 

 whatever in driving herring from the Labrador. The her- 

 ring-fishery on this coast has, at best, been on a very small 

 scale. Professor Huxley states that even in the North Sea 

 man cannot be responsible for as much as five per cent of 

 the herring killed. From the time of the egg to the full- 

 grown fish this huge family of the herring is preyed upon by 

 larva, crustacean, and sea- worm. " All that men take would 

 not compromise one school of twelve square miles area, 

 and there must be scores of such in the North Sea." If 

 every herring lays thirty-one thousand fertilized eggs, and 

 all but two of the family are killed every year by their 

 enemies, the herring would still maintain their vast num- 

 bers. "Man," says Professor Huxley, "is only one of a 

 great cooperative society of herring catchers, and the larger 

 share he takes, the less there is for the rest of the company." 



The herring seems specially adapted for man's use. Like 

 the cod, he has no poisonous nor pain-wreaking spines ; he 

 herds together so as to be caught quickly in vast quantities ; 

 and he can be easily preserved. He is a deep-sea fish, and 

 is thus not dependent on refuse food in shallow water. 

 Young herring fetch a high price as "white bait." "A 

 large proportion," says Professor Goode, "pass under the 

 name of ' French sardine." Some are canned in spices 

 and sold under the still more imaginative name of " brook 

 trout." If, however, they have been feeding on crustaceans 

 with hard shells, these, being undigested, putrefy very rapidly 

 and spoil the herring. Herring barred inside a seine are, 

 therefore, as a rule, safer to cure if left for two or three days 

 in the net while digestion is finished. 



Though the herring have small teeth on their tongues 



