28 3 



the deep-sea, sand-eels from one, what appeared to be 

 young herrings from another, and other small fish. Goodsir, 

 (Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, July 1843), gave 

 the result of his examination of the maidre or food of the 

 herring in the Firth of Forth, with which the stomachs 

 of the fish were found to be filled. Cirripods,' Crustaceans, 

 and Acalephae were detected, of which crustaceans were in 

 the largest number, and consisted of masses of Amphipoda 

 and Entomostraca. Among the Acalepha the different 

 species of BerocB were seen in the greatest numbers. 

 While he wrote from Austruther, in 1843, that the herrings 

 follow the shoals of Entomostraca to prey upon them, for 

 it is only when the latter make their appearance on this 

 coast that the former are seen, and when the food is most 

 plentiful the herrings are in the best condition. 



Off Lofoten Sars found the sea swarming with micro- 

 scopic animals, especially small crustaceans termed "her- 

 ring food." They were mostly Calanidcs and chiefly 

 Calanus Finmarchicus and Temora longicornis. This 

 herring food depends for its existence on lower and smaller 

 organisms as diatoms, while the slime of Christiania Fiord 

 chiefly consists of such, and it also largely composes the 

 slime of the polar seas. 



H. Widegren, of Scandinavia, observes that the food of 

 the young, as well as of the grown herring, consists chiefly 

 of small crustaceous animals, invisible to the naked eye, 

 which are found in enormous quantities in the sea, both in 

 shallow and deep water, and may be detected by straining 

 water through a cloth. " Their quantity varies at different 

 seasons, during a change of temperature and at different 

 depths, and this probably is the reason why these fishes 

 are taken at different depths, in accordance with temperature 

 or currents." 



