WHEN THE HERRINGS ARE ON THE COASTS. 29 



are darker than the milts ; the number of eggs con- 

 tained in a female was found by Dr Harmer {Phil. 

 Trans, vol. Ivii. p. 280) to be 36,960; the weight of 

 its body was 5 oz. 10 dr., and the weight of the roe 

 480 gr. Herrings have been sometimes found with the 

 roe of the preceding season in a bag, or covered with a 

 skin, in addition to the roe of the following season. At 

 Thurso, an intelligent fishcurer told me, that in the in- 

 side of a herring he found the old roe of the previous 

 season, the eggs of full size, covered over with two layers 

 of fat, and a thick dark film adhering closely to the back, 

 and outside of this the two other parts fully formed about 

 three inches in length. 



After remaining on the coast for a certain number of 

 weeks, the herring deposits its spawn on hard, clayey, or 

 rocky ground, or gravel, before leaving the bays or estuaries 

 where it resorts. The female first ejects the roe, which is 

 afterwards impregnated by the ejection of the milt of the 

 male. Sauer describes the mode of impregnation from 

 actual observation, and states that in the inner harbour 

 of St Peter and St Paul, Kamschatka, the herrings were 

 extremely numerous ; and he observed that on the 7th 

 June the herrings made circles of about six feet in diame- 

 ter, and in the middle of this circle, at the bottom, another, 

 no doubt the female, was fixed ; when the tide went out 

 he saw the aquatic plants and the stones covered with the 

 spawn, which was devoured by dogs, gulls, and crows. 



We have fully ascertained that the shoals generally 

 fix in one locality for depositation, and that immediately 

 after spawning the herrings proceed to sea. The nets of 

 the fishermen are then often covered with the detached 

 unfecundated eggs of the female ; but those eggs found 

 loose in the nets are driven out by the pressure of the 



