MIGEATIONS OP THE HBEEING. 555 



"In reference to the capture of Herrings far out at sea, Holdsworth refers to the fact 

 that the Lowstoft herring fishery commences early in the spring, fifty to sixty miles from the 

 coast, when the fish are poor and the roe very little prominent. The fishermen, however, accom- 

 pany the schools in their slow progress to the coast; and when they get within a few miles the 

 fish will be fattened up and the roe is in a much more advanced condition." 



In his latest report, alreadj'' several times quoted, Ljungman discusses the annual migrations 

 of the herring schools and their causes: 



"It has been mentioned before that the young Herrings begin to wander about at an 

 early age, chiefly to seek food or shelter from their enemies, or possibly more agreeable places of 

 sojourn. It has frequently been observed that the young Herrings, as they grow up, leave the 

 shallow waters near the coast and go into deeper waters farther out towards the ocean, whence, 

 after a while, they return to the coast in company with the older Herrings. The knowledge of the 

 details of these migrations is, like our knowledge of their physical and biological causes, so limited 

 that very little can be said regarding them. 



" Regarding the coming of the Herrings from the sea to the coast, we only know that during 

 the spawning season they generally approach the spawning places in dense schools, coming from 

 the north, and that when visiting the coast for other purposes the schools are smaller and more 

 scattered, extending over a larger stretch of coast, and come both from the north and the south. 

 Those Herrings which come to seek food generally remain for some time in the outer waters before 

 they come near the coast, and their visits are neither as regular nor as long as when they come to 

 spawn. But even the great mass of Herrings does, during the spawning season, not remain near 

 the coast longer than one or two months, exceptions from this rule being rare indeed. Herrings 

 which have thus remained near the coast over their regular time become almost entirely worthless. 

 During the last great Bohuslan herring fisheries this seems to have occurred more frequently. 



"In approaching the coast the Herrings generally begin at a certain point, spreading from it 

 either to the left or right, or in both directions, influenced in this by the weather, the currents of 

 the sea, and the nature of the bottom. The Herrings do not like to visit the place where they 

 have spawned a second time. It has also been noticed that the large Herrings do not go as high 

 up the fiords as the small ones, and that when the spawning season comes in winter or spring the 

 large Herrings spawn before the small ones, whilst when the spawning season comes in summer 

 or autumn the small or younger Herrings spawn before the larger and older ones. After spawning, 

 the Herrings have often been observed to go nearer the coast than before spawning; fishing with 

 drag-nets may thei-efore be carried on long after fishing with stationary nets has ceased, as the 

 'empty' fish (those that have spawned) do not easily enter a stationary net. 



the United States Signal Service and tbo Fish Commission, on the American coast, in tlie way of determining of the 

 sea temperature, etc., as connected with a very important branch of onr domestic industries. 



"In this connection we may state that the spawning season of the Herring, and the time of its catch, vary 

 remarkably in different portions of our own coast. Thus, in parts of the Bay of Fundy and in the Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence it takes place in May and June, as in the Hebrides ; at the Southern Head of Grand Manan, the great spawning 

 ground, it occurs in September, commencing possibly in August, and extending into October; taking place later and 

 later in the season as wo proceed south. At the most southern point at which the Herring is positively known to 

 spawn, namely, off Neman's Land and possibly Block Island, this does not occur until December and January. 



"From this we may draw the inference that a, certain minimum of temperature, rather than a maximum, is 

 needed for the operation in question ; and I his occurring in the autumn, that the proper temperature is reached later 

 and later as we proceed southward. 



" It is to be hoped that the temperature observations now being made by the United States Fish Commission and 

 by the Signal Service may enable us to solve these problems and to co-operate with our Scottish scientific brethren in 

 getting at the true relation between physical conditions and the movements of such important food-fishes as the 

 Herring, mackerel, cod, etc. — Report of the Scottish Meteorological Society. 



