238 SOME FACTS ABOUT THE SHOAL [CHAP. vi. 



have been found measuring seventeen inches, and full fish 

 have been taken only ten inches in length, when should the 

 example, noted above as being eight inches long, reach its full 

 growth ? and how old was it at the time of its capture ? And, 

 again, were the fish all taken out of the same boat, be it ob- 

 served, and caught in the same shoal all of one particular 

 year's hatching ? Is this the story of the parr over again, or 

 is it the case that the fishermen had found a shoal of mixed 

 herrings some being of one year's spawning, some of another ? 

 I confess to being puzzled, and may again remind the reader 

 that iny largest fish had never spawned, and had not the 

 faintest trace of milt or roe within it. Then, again, as to the 

 time when herrings spawn, I have over and over again asserted 

 in various quarters that they spawn in nearly every month of 

 the year an assertion, as I have just shown, which has been 

 proved by the recent inquiry. 



As to the place of spawning, development of the ova, and 

 other circumstances attendant on the increase of the herring, 

 I promulgated the following opinions some years ago, and I 

 see no reason to alter them : The herring shoal keeps well 

 together till the time of spawning, whatever the fish may do 

 after that event. Some naturalists think that the shoal breaks 

 up after it spawns, and that the herring then live an indivi- 

 dual life, till again instinctively moved together for the grand 

 purpose of procreating their kind. It is quite clear, I think, 

 that the herring moves into the shallow water because of its 

 increased temperature, and its being more fitted in consequence 

 for the speedy vivifying of the spawn. The same shoal will 

 always gather over the same spawning ground, and the fish 

 will keep their position till they fulfil the grand object of 

 their life. The herrings will rise buoyantly to the top water 

 after they have spawned ; before that they swim deep and hug 

 the ground. The herring, in my opinion, must have a rocky 

 place to spawn upon, with a vegetable growth of some kind to 



