408 THE HERRING FAMILY. 



by the nature of the case, large masses of its spawn are ac- 

 cessible to investigators, and partly, perhaps even more than 

 this, because the case of the herring is one of the few instances 

 in which public authority, in the form of Governments, has 

 shown sufficient belief and interest in scientific effort to offer 

 assistance (pecuniary or otherwise) for the elucidation of the 

 many problems connected with its life-history. The direct 

 benefit to be derived from a thorough knowledge of the 

 spawning-habits and grounds of this species was so obvious 

 that it appealed, with some measure of success, to the Ad- 

 ministrative intelligence. Thus we find, from the beginning 

 of this century onwards, that the Governments of Britain 

 (through the Scottish Fishery Board), of Norway, Sweden, 

 Denmark and the United States, have at one time or another 

 bespoken scientific men to unravel the problems connected 

 with the spawning and migrations of the herring. We may 

 well review very briefly some of the most important literature 

 of this subject which more directly concerns us. 



In 1803, Dr Walker, then Professor of Natural History in 

 Edinburgh University, described the reproductive habits of 

 the species under consideration. He stated that the herring 

 deposited its eggs on a selected gravelly bottom at about 10 

 to 12 fathoms ; its fry reached a length of one to two inches 

 in June, and about three to four in September, when they 

 " desert the places where they breed." 



In 1860 Dr Boeck, acting under the Norwegian Govern- 

 ment, investigated the spawning of the herring. He found 

 that gravelly basins were chosen for deposition of the eggs', 

 and he also concluded that herrings are shore-loving fishes, 

 never going far out from the coast. Their movements are 

 influenced by wind and temperature. 



This was, in part, corroborated by Lord Playfair and Prof 

 Allman, acting in the Royal Commission of 1862, who found 

 that the spawn, collected in l^ to 20 fathoms near the Isle of 

 May, adhered tenaciously to anything upon which it happened 

 to fall, be it stones, gravel, shingle, coarse sand or even the 



' In the Museum of one of us is an example of the truth of this, viz. a 

 quantitj' of gravel mixed with the eggs of the herring, which distended the 

 stomach of a cod. 



