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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



On the east coast of North America 

 we have such well-known and important 

 members of the family as the sea- 

 herring, the shad, the river herrings or 

 alewives, the West Indian sardine, and 

 the menhaden, the last doubtless the 

 most abundant fish on our shores. On 

 the Pacific coast of North America are 

 the California sardine and the sea-her- 

 ring. On the shores of Europe are the 

 Alike shad and the Twaite shad ; the pil- 

 chard, which when young is canned 

 under the name of sardine and sent to 

 the outermost confines of civilization ; the 

 sprat, and the sea-herring. In the Cas- 

 pian and Black Seas and in the Volga 

 herrings occur in great abundance and 

 are the principal fish of those regions. 

 The seas that wash the shores of north- 

 ern Asia, particularly those of Siberia, 

 Korea, and Japan, teem with a number 

 of kinds of herrings and sardines. In the 

 waters of the Philippine and East Indian 

 archipelagoes small and large members of 

 the family abound. In the rivers of 

 India runs the hilsa, which is similar to 

 the American shad, and on the coast of 

 India occur schools of the oil sardine. 

 Herrings likewise exist in Australia and 

 New Zealand ; in the rivers and coastal 

 waters of Africa, and at the southern ex- 

 tremity of the Western Hemisphere, 

 where the Chili sardine abounds. 



THE SEA-HERRING HAS DETERMINED THE 

 DESTINY OF NATIONS 



But the herring par excellence is the 

 sea-herring of the North Atlantic and the 

 scarcely distinguishable sea-herring of 

 the North Pacific. This fish — biolog- 

 ically two species, commercially one spe- 

 cies — is the most abundant and most 

 valuable in the world, and is therefore 

 entitled to be called king. 



The sea-herrings are cold-water fish 

 and reach their greatest abundance in far 

 northern latitudes. The herring of the 

 Atlantic, called Clupea harengus by 

 Linnseus, has a remarkably wide distri- 

 bution. On the western shores of Eu- 

 rope its southern limit is the Strait of 

 Gibraltar, whence it ranges to the White 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean as far north as 



Spitzbergen, occurring in enormous num- 

 bers in the Bay of Biscay, North Sea, 

 Baltic Sea, and Norwegian Sea. It is 

 thus found on the coasts of Spain, Por- 

 tugal, France, Belgium, Holland, Eng- 

 land, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, 

 Germany, Russia, Finland, Sweden, and 

 Norway. With Iceland as an interme- 

 diate station, the fish crosses to the shores 

 of Greenland, and extends its range 

 southward and westward to Labrador, 

 Newfoundland, Quebec, New Bruns- 

 wick, Nova Scotia, and the New Eng- 

 land shores, going in winter occasionally 

 to New York and exceptionally as far 

 south as the Virginia capes. The North 

 Pacific herring, first called Clupea pallasi 

 by Cuvier and Valenciennes, exists in 

 the same extraordinary abundance as the 

 Atlantic fish and has also a very exten- 

 sive range, being found from California 

 to Alaska and from Siberia to Korea and 

 Japan. 



A tale as stirring as any fiction could 

 be based on the part played by the sea- 

 herring in the history of some of the 

 principal countries. "Its spawning and 

 feeding grounds have determined the 

 location of cities," and in several in- 

 stances the actual destiny of nations and 

 the fate of monarchs appear to have been 

 involved in the herring fishery. 



Countries in which the quest of the 

 herring is an important industry are the 

 United States ; the Canadian provinces 

 of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Que- 

 bec, and British Columbia; Newfound- 

 land ; England, Scotland, Wales, and 

 Ireland ; Norway, Sweden, and Den- 

 mark ; Russia ; Germany ; Holland ; Bel- 

 gium ; France ; Japan, and Siberia. 



THE HERRING FORMS THE PRINCIPAL FOOD 



OF THE COD, HADDOCK, AND 



HOSTS OF OTHER FISH 



The chief purpose the herring sub- 

 serves in nature is to be the food of a 

 host of other creatures, some of which 

 are of great economic value. The most 

 important of the fishes that subsist regu- 

 larly on herring are the cod, haddock, 

 hake, and pollock, all of which consume 

 immense quantities of herring and her- 



