Hernexe’s method is therefore to examine the individuals with regard to all, or a 
large number of their qualities, and to find an arithmetical expression for a combination 
of these. In this way, the individuals of one and the same race will naturally group 
themselves about the same type (the mean of the race), and individuals of different races 
be separated, owing to the grouping of their qualities about different means. (Metode 
der kombinierten Merkmale). 
Working on this basis, HEINcKkE has examined the variation of a great number 
of qualities in thousands of herring from different localities. Of the qualities in question, 
some are constant, 1. e, independent of the age and growth of the fish; to these belong 
the number of vertebrae, of keel scales, and of fin rays. All these factors are invariable 
from that point in the life of the herring when the organs in question have arrived at 
developement; or from the transition of the larva to the young fish stage. By far the 
greater number of the qualities which HEINcKE has examined have, however, been found 
to vary with age and growth. At the time when HEINOKE carried out his investigations, 
no method of determining the age of the herring was known; he was therefore unable 
to make comparisons between individuals of equal age with full certamty of accuracy. 
As HEINcKE himself points out, only a part of the investigations made can therefore 
be regarded as sufficiently stringent. He was also unable to obtain so great an amount 
of material as he could have wished. His task was therefore principally to draw up a 
method of race investigation, in which he has certainly succeeded, and to employ the 
same, at any rate as regards the larger groups of the herring races. 
HEINCKE’s investigations led him to the firm conviction that several different races 
of herring can with certainty be distinguished, differing in many respects one from another. 
As a general rule, those races which live far apart, or rather, under widely differing ex- 
ternal conditions, are found to exhibit greater variation than those which live together. 
Heincke’s classification of the races of herring. 
On the basis of all his investigations, HEINCKE has drawn up a system, of which 
we may notice the following features. 
1) Northern ocean herring ; spawn near the coasts in winter or spring, but move during 
summer in the open sea. 
Large fish, over 30cm. when full grown. Large number of vertebrae, over 57 on 
an average. Short head and tail. May be divided into two groups: 
a) Iceland herring, having remarkably large eyes, short skull and fairly long tail, 
in contrast to 
b) Norwegian herring, which have small eyes and short tail. 
2) Coast-herring. ‘These are always winter spawning; they live in the immediate 
neighbourhood of the coast, spawning in brackish or estuary water. Their physical 
peculiarities exhibit greater variety for different localities than is the case with the ocean 
herring. 
The head is blunt, longer, and with a more strongly developed snout than in the 
ocean form, The width of skull is small, these being long skulled fish. The body is short 
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