170 SOME FACTS ABOUT THE SHOAL. 



years before it can yield milt or roe, wMlst a period of three 

 years has been also named as the tdtimate time of this event ; 

 but there are persons who think that the herring attains its 

 reproductive power in eighteen months, while others aflBrm 

 that the fish grows to maturity in little more than half that 

 tiilae. If the average size of a herring may be stated as eleven 

 and a half inches, individual fish of Clupea harengus have been 

 found measuring seventeen inches, and full fish have been taken 

 only ten inches in length, when should the example, noted 

 above as being eight inches long, reach its full growth 1 and 

 how old was it at the time of its capture? And, again, were 

 the fish — all taken out of the same boat, be it observed, and 

 caught in the same shoal — all of one particular year's hatching ? 

 Is this the story of the parr over again, or is it the case that 

 the fishermen had found a shoal of mixed herrings — some being 

 of one year's spawning, some of another 1 I confess to being 

 ipuzzled, and may again remind the reader that my largest fish 

 had never spawned, and had not the faintest trace of milt or 

 roe within it. Then, again, as to the time when herrings 

 spawn, I have over and over again asserted in various quarters 

 that they spawn in nearly every month of the year — an assertion 

 which has been proved by official inquiry. 



As to the place of spawning, development of the ova, and 

 other circumstances attendant on the increase of the herring, 

 I promulgated the following opinions some years ago, and I 

 see no reason to alter them : — The herring shoal keeps well 

 together tiU the time of spawning, whatever the fish may do 

 after that event. Some naturalists think that the shoal breaks 

 up after it spawns, and that the herring then live an indivi- 

 dual life, tUl again instinctively moved together for the grand 

 purpose of procreating their kind. It is quite clear, I think, 

 that herring move into shallow water because of its increased 

 temperature, and its being more fitted in consequence for the 

 speedy vivifying of their spawn. The same shoal will always 

 gather over the same spawning ground, and the fish will keep 

 their position tiU. they fulfil the chief object of their life. The 

 herrings will rise buoyantly to the surface of the water after they 

 have spawned ; before that they swim deep and hug the ground. 

 The herring, in my opinion, must have a rocky place to spawn 

 upon, with a vegetable growth of some kind to receive the roe ; 

 shoals may of course accidentally spawn on soft ground. It is 

 not accurately known how long a period elapses till the spawn 



