266 THE COMMERCIAL SEA FISHES OF 



North Foreland. These Ballintrae herrings never spawn 

 in August, but, on the contrary, begin about the 1st of 

 February, and the spawning goes on till the ist of April. 

 This spawning bank is ten miles long and two miles broad. 

 The average depth is ten fathoms at low water (Buckland). 

 On January 5th, 1882, I found that most of the herrings 

 in the fish-shops, and which had been received from Corn- 

 wall, were shotten ; others were full of milt or roe. At the 

 end of August, 1881, many were in full roe; and on 

 December I3th I first saw some shotten* ones, but was 

 informed some had been received previously. Mr. Dunn 

 observed that all the herrings which visit the south coast 

 of Devonshire late in November, throughout December, 

 and early in January, are in spawning condition. Six 

 hundred thousand were landed in Plymouth one day last 

 week, and the spawn was almost ready for extrusion in the 

 whole of them (Land and Water, December 24th, 1881). 

 A month later he found at Mevagissey that the spawn was 

 running from them. He considers that there are two 

 herrings which spawn on the Cornish coast, the smaller in 

 December and January, and which is not so regular and 

 certain a visitor as the larger one, which spawns in 

 February and March. The lesser ones seem to migrate 

 along the coast, the larger ones to come from the deep sea. 

 Andrews (February I4th, 1882), writing from Swanage in 

 Dorsetshire, stated that he had two dozen brought to him 

 five days previously, all full-roed, and many on the I4th ; 

 while the piermaster informed him that the first signs of 

 spawning were noticed yesterday ; while the fishermen 



* M. Bertrand, in his article on A lose, published in 1776, remarked 

 that " it appeared certain that in the English Channel many herrings 

 begin to spawn about November 25th, although in certain years some 

 are still found full in February." 



