THE HERRING FAMILY 1 53 



The herring of Plymouth are another race of winter herring. 

 The full-grown fish are captured from October or November 

 onwards in Plymouth Sound, and their roes are in the full 

 condition, gradually approaching ripeness. Spawning takes 

 place only in Bigbury Bay, which is just outside Plymouth 

 Sound to the eastward. But although it has been regularly 

 observed that the ripe fish pass out to that locality in January, 

 followed by the fishing boats, and that the spent fish and the 

 newly hatched larvre are taken there in numbers, yet in spite of 

 continued and careful searching with the dredge we have never 

 succeeded in obtaining the spawn from the bottom. Spawning 

 continues until the beginning of March. Winter herring are 

 known, and give occasion to fisheries of greater or less import- 

 ance at various other places round our coast, but up to the pre- 

 sent time no other spawning places than those above mentioned 

 are accurately known. 



The summer herring are more abundant and give rise to 

 more important fisheries. As in the case of the winter 

 herring, although large numbers are caught when they are 

 not spawning, or about to spawn, the largest fisheries depend 

 on full or ripe fish, and when the spent fish begin to form a 

 large proportion of the catch the fishery is nearly over. The 

 greatest of such herring fisheries are those of the North Sea, 

 along the east coasts of Scotland and England, and the fish are 

 taken at distances varying from two or three to fifty or sixty 

 miles from the coast. Along the north-east coast of Scotland 

 from Wick to Aberdeen the great herring fishery lasts from the 

 middle of July to the end of August, and spawning takes place 

 principally in the latter month. At Wick there is also a 

 winter spawning in January. The spawning grounds in this 

 district are not properly known ; fishermen point out certain 

 grounds as those where herring spawn is deposited, but the 

 localities have not been determined from actual examination by 

 experts. In all probability the trawlers do sometimes bring up 

 herring spawn, and know particular grounds where the}' catch 

 haddock in unusually large numbers, because those fish arc 

 attracted thither by herring spawn, but this kind of evidence 

 has not been criticised with scientific accuracy. Dr. Fulton, in 

 the Ninth Report of the Scottish Board, published charts 

 showing the position of such alleged herring-spawning grounds 



