FOOD OF Till: IIHHHING. 563 



Passamaqiioddy May. One principal spawning ground of the Herring in tin- May nf r'nndy, IK 

 near the southern head of (iraml Menan: and l>y a very wise provision of the New Brunswick 

 Government, a close lime was many years a^o enacted, extruding from (lie l."th of June to (lie l. r >th 

 of Septeinl>er, dining which the capture of tlit'.so fish was forbidden. They now resort to that 

 portion of the coast in considerable numbers, and the i|iiantit.v of eggs deposited is said to bo 

 something almost inconceivable. 



The spawning season, too, appears to be later and later as we proceed westward from Maine. 

 Thus, allowing it to be at its height there in (lie beginning of August, 1 it occurs in September oil" 

 the coast of Maine, and in October oil' Eastern Massachusetts; in November at Cape Cod, and in 

 December at Noinan's Land and Mloc.k Island; possibly still later farther south. 



"The eggs are minute, less in si/.e than those of the shad, and adhere when discharged to 

 rocks, seaweed, etc.. being scattered singly or in bunches over a vast extent of sea bottom. I 

 have frequently brought them up at various depths and at a considerable distance from the shore, 

 oil' (iraml Menan."* 



ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF THE HERRING. In the spring of 1878 the first successful 

 experiments in the artiticial propagation of Herring were carried on in Germany by Dr. IL 

 A. Meyer, of the Commission for Scientific Investigation of the German 8ea at Kiel, and in 

 the fall of the same year by Mr. K. E. Earll, of the United States Fish Commission, at Glouces- 

 ter. A translation of Dr. Meyer's paper may bo found in part vi, United States Fish Com- 

 mission Report, pp. tii'iMiSS, and a brief summation of Mr. Earll's experiments in the same 

 volume, pp. 727-7l M .l. 



FOOD. Much has been written upon the food of the Herring, but the following translation 

 from an article in "Die Natur," No. 47, 1869, gives in a very satisfactory manner recent views 

 of Euro]>ean authorities upon the subject: 



"Of the various fishes that inhabit the waters, few have, perhaps, more direct bearing 

 upon the prosperity of the maritime people of the north than the sea Herring; the shores of 

 both hemispheres being visited regularly by countless myriads that furnish an inexhaustible 

 source of food. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the attention of fishermen, as 

 well as statesmen and political economists, has been directed to the different questions con- 

 nected with the migrations and preservation of these fish, and that much research should have 

 been expended in determining various points connected with their history. Until quite 



'A large school of Herrings appears annually in the vicinity of Boisbobcrt Islam], in Eastern Maine, off Millbridgc, 

 where they spawn on the rocky bottom. R. E. EARLL. 



J A visit in 1872 to the Southern Head of Grand Mcnan, during the spawning season of the Herring, enabled' 

 my assistant. Dr. Palmer, to obtain a very interesting series of eggs and young by using the dredge, the eggs being 

 found at low water, from near the shore, out to a distance of several miles. 



Over an extended area, whenever any gravel, stones, or sea-wee<l were brought up with the dredge they were 

 found to be thickly dotted over with these eggs, sometimes single, at others in clusters. 



It would appear that in the operation of exclusion, the eggs fall away into the water in masses varying in 

 size, although in no instance was the entire spawning of any one fish observed in a single mass. The largest aggro- 

 gal ions consisted of masses of the size of a hazel-nut. Sometimes these heat up and separate entirely. The eggs 

 wi-re very minute, not larger than No. 7 shot, and when taken up nearly all the eggs contained embryos, of which the 



wen- very large and distinct. The eggs appear to sink to the bottom if not laid there originally, and to adhere 

 ut '>ii.e to adjacent objects. A careful straining of the surface-water and down to a considerable depth with the- 

 towing-net, or hand gauge-net, brought up no floating eggs. 



A large miiiilM-r of eggs were brought over to East port in salt water and a considerable nuiiilterof these hatched! 

 "lit on the way. during an interval of n few honrs, nnd many cithern became developed sunn iil'ier they were brought 

 ashore. All the embryos had left their envelopes by the next morning. The young could ! distinctly seen inside of" 

 the egg, and when this was ni)>tnre<l they were extremely active in their movements through the water, spi inging 

 up and down and crosswise, wriggling precisely like the larva' of a dipterous insect. Their length at this time wan. 

 about thirty ouc-hundredths of an inch, some few being larger and others rather smaller. 



