THE HERRING FAMILY 155 



Industries, and its researches upon the herring were continued 

 from 1874 to 1882. With regard to the spawning times and 

 places, the investigations proved that the spring herring 

 spawned in waters of little saltness and in shallow places in 

 the Western Baltic from the beginning of April to the middle of 

 June. In the river Schlei herring of this race actually spawn 

 in water which is all but fresh, and the spawn is found attached 

 to fresh-water plants. The autumn or sea-herring, on the other 

 hand, were found to spawn in the salter, deeper water of the 

 Great Belt and on the Mecklenburg coast from September to 

 the middle of October. One spawning ground off the island of 

 Langeland was at a depth of one to four fathoms, while the 

 depth of the spawning ground of the spring herring in the 

 Schlei was only 2} to 3 feet. 



One of the members of this Commission carried out a most 

 laborious and profound examination of the minute peculiarities 

 of herring from different localities, and satisfied himself that 

 the different races could be distinguished by certain com- 

 binations of characters when a sufficient number were examined, 

 although the differences were not sufficiently great to enable 

 one to distinguish with certainty a single specimen by itself 

 He examined sixteen different local forms, and found that they 

 were all distinguished by particular combinations of minute 

 characters. Among these sixteen were the autumn herring of 

 Peterhead, autumn herrings from the coast of Sweden, spring 

 herrings from Bergen, the above-mentioned forms of the Baltic 

 and others. But the sixteen different races formed three groups, 

 whose differences were more pronounced — namely, a number of 

 local races spawning in salt water, two races spawning in 

 brackish water, and a third group, consisting principally of a 

 Norwegian and an Iceland race. The view to which these 

 results tend, whether they can be considered conclusive or not, 

 is that a particular breed or race of herrings belongs to every 

 particular spawning ground, and returns to it regularly every 

 year in order to spawn there, and that on the British coasts 

 these local breeds form two groups between which the differ- 

 ences are greater than those which separate the several breeds 

 themselves. These two groups are the autumn herring and the 

 spring herring. 



These results have not yet been confirmed by British 



