168 PERIODS OF SPAWNING. 



the subject the public have hitherto been very ill informed. 

 YarreU's account of this particular fish is a mere compilation 

 from Dr. M'Culloch, W, H. Maxwell, Dr. Pamell, and others, 

 and is thus very disappointing. Again, the account in the 

 Naturalist's Library is compressed into five small pages, referring 

 chiefly to authorities on the subject, with quotations from 

 yarrell ! It is only by searching in Blue Books, by perusing 

 much newspaper writing of a controversial kind, and by arduous 

 personal inquiry, as well as by making a minute study of the fish, 

 that I have been able to complete anything like an accurate pr^ci* 

 of the natural and economic -history of this very plentiful fish. 



As to the periods at which herrings spawn, the Commissioner^ , 

 inform us that they met with " singularly contradictory " state- 

 ments, and after having collected a large amount of valuable 

 evidence, they arrived at the conclusion that herrings spawn at 

 two seasons of the year — viz. in the spring and autumn. They 

 have no evidence of a spawning during the solstitial months-— 

 viz. June and December ; but in nearly all the other month* 

 gravid herrings are found, and the Commissioners assert that a 

 spring spawning certainly occurs in the latter part of January, as 

 also in the three following months, and the autumn spawning in 

 the latter end of July, and likewise in the following months up 

 to November. " Taking all parts of the British coast together, 

 February and March are the great months for the spring 

 spawning, and August and September for the autumn spawning." 

 The spawn, it may be stated in passing, is deposited on the 

 surface of the stones, shingle, and gravel, and on old shells, at 

 the various spawning places, and it adheres tenaciously to what- 

 ever it happens to fall upon. This, as wiU be seen, brings us 

 exactly back to Mr. Cleghom's ideas of the herring existing in 

 races at different places and in separate bodies, and thereby 

 rendering the fiuctuations of the great series of shoals at Wick 

 more and more intelligible, especially when we take into account 

 the fact that winter shoals are now found at that place, giving 

 rise to what may ultimately prove a considerable addition to the 

 great autumn fishery yet carried on there. 



As 'to the question of how long herrings take to grow, from 

 the period of the deposition of the egg, there are various opinions, 

 for no naturalist or practical fisherman has been able definitely 

 to fix the time. There is reason to believe, we are told in the 

 report, that the eggs of herrings are hatched in, at most, from 

 two to three weeks after deposition, This is very rapid work 



