ENEMIES OF THE HERRING 31 



same calculation would devour 14,000,000,000 



I herring ; and the calculation is certainly too 



moderate, since it is no uncommon thing to 



find ten or twelve herring in the stomach of one 



codfish. 



i Beam trawl nets again, if used on hard 



I bottoms, destroy a large amount of herring 



I spawn ; but against this it must be remembered 



that the trawl captures quantities of flat 



fish which devour the spawn voraciously, 



congregating on the spawning grounds for the 



purpose. Every flat fish caught by the trawl 



is therefore a destroyer of herrings, a worse 



I enemy, probably, than the trawl net itself. 

 ^ The herring in shoals approach our shores 

 both in summer and winter. The summer shoals 

 spawn near the shore at about Michaelmas, 

 and the winter shoals about Ladyday. 



Warm nights with the temperature of the 

 water at about 55° or 56° F. are the best 

 for catching herring, and the milder the night, 

 the better the fish rise. When snow is on the 

 ground the herrings swim near the shore, and 

 the fishermen like to see snow on the hills 

 during the winter fishing. It is probable that 

 among the principal causes for the migration 

 of the herring and the fluctuations of the herring 

 fishery is the temperature of the water, which 

 depends upon the variations of the great 

 H oceanic currents that form the Gulf Stream. 

 Herring rise towards the surface in the dark, 

 and till about 1905 were generally caught in 



I 



