162 



ZOOLOGY. 



to the batteries of the eel are supplied by the ventral 

 branches of about two hundred pairs of spinal nerves. 



Succeeding these fish are the herrings, represented bv 

 the common English herring, Clupea harengus, which in- 

 habits both sides of the North Atlantic, extending on the 



American side from the polar 

 regions to Cape Cod; the alewife, 

 P omolobus pseudoharengus, 

 which ranges from Newfound- 

 land to Florida; the shad, Alosa 

 sapidissima, which has the same 

 geographical distribution as the 

 alewife; and the menhaden or 

 pogy, Brevoortia tyr annus, 

 which extends from the coast of 

 | Maine to Cape Hatteras. These, 

 j* with the cod, hake, haddock, 

 5^^/la g salmon, and a few other species, 

 comprise our most valuable ma- 

 rine food-fishes. The fisheries 

 of the United States yield about 

 $44,000,000 annually, whilst 

 those of Great Britain amount in 

 value to about 140,000,000, and 

 those of Norway to about $10,- 

 000,000. 



The herring (Fig. 20G) is a 

 deep-water fish which visits the 



fig. 205-^redo, a sihnwi fish, C0:lst in s P rin S in immense 

 with little sacs filled with eggs schools, in which the females are 



attached by slender stalks. » 



three times as numerous as the 

 males, to spawn, selecting shoal water from three to four 

 fathoms deep in bays, where the eggs hatch. At this 

 season, and early in the summer, hundreds of millions are 

 caught, especially on the Canadian, Newfoundland, and 

 Labrador coasts. The English whitebait is the young of 

 the herring. The herring is caught in deep nets with 



