THE HWERRING AND OTHER FISH 343 
It is impossible to believe that man has had any hand 
whatever in driving herring from the Labrador. The her- 
ring-fishery on this coast has, at best, been on a very small 
scale. Professor Huxley states that even in the North Sea 
man cannot be responsible for as much as five per cent of 
the herring killed. From the time of the egg to the full- 
grown fish this huge family of the herring is preyed upon by 
larva, crustacean, andsea-worm. ‘All that men take would 
not compromise one school of twelve square miles area, 
and there must be scores of such in the North Sea.” If 
every herring lays thirty-one thousand fertilized eggs, and 
all but two of the family are killed every year by their 
enemies, the herring would still maintain their vast num- 
bers. ‘‘Man,’’ says Professor Huxley, “is only one of a 
great cooperative society of herring catchers, and the larger 
share he takes, the less there is for the rest of the company.” 
The herring seems specially adapted for man’s use. Like 
the cod, he has no poisonous nor pain-wreaking spines; he 
herds together so as to be caught quickly in vast quantities ; 
and he can be easily preserved. He is a deep-sea fish, and 
is thus not dependent on refuse food in shallow water. 
Young herring fetch a high price as “white bait.” “A 
large proportion,” says Professor Goode, “pass under the 
name of ‘French sardine.’’’? Some are canned in spices 
and sold under the still more imaginative name of ‘“ brook 
trout.” If, however, they have been feeding on crustaceans 
with hard shells, these, being undigested, putrefy very rapidly 
and spoil the herring. Herring barred inside a seine are, 
therefore, as a rule, safer to cure if left for two or three days 
in the net while digestion is finished. 
Though the herring have small teeth on their tongues 
