566 NATUEAL HISTOEY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



season is considered an undesirable period for their capture, with the Olupeidce, such as the shad, 

 the alewife, and the sea Herring, they are then thought to be in the greatest perfection; indeed, 

 females, full of partially developed eggs, are esteemed a great delicacy, both in regard to the fish 

 and the roe. Nearly all the European fisheries, especially those on the coast of Scotlaird, are 

 carried on when the fish is in full roe, when the taking of fish is considered very prejudicial to the 

 l)erpetuation of the species. The number taken, however, does not appear to affect the abundance 

 of the Herring, and, indeed, with the enormous yield of eggs, a very small percentage of adults 

 will keep up the supply. 



" There appears to be as much uncertainty in Europe as there is in this country in regard to 

 the exact period of the growth of the Herring^ Ljungman '■ remarking that the spring Herring 

 spawned in March attain a length of two and a half to three and a half inches by the end of the 

 year, and that in the following May, or at the age of one year, their average length is four inches. 

 He states that the two-year-old fish range from five and a half to six inches in length, and that 

 those of three years are six or seven inches long, having the sexual apparatus complete but not 

 highly developed. The eight-inch fish are four years old, while those larger are of still greater age." 



In Europe the ways in which Herrings are prepared for use as food are very numerous and 

 varied, there being many ways of salting them, many ways of smoking them, and many ways of 

 preserving them in spices. The day is probably not distant when Europe will follow the example 

 of the United States and employ them extensively in the manufacture of sardines. The European 

 fishery reports are full of codes of instruction for preparing the different grades of Herrings for expor- 

 tation and local consumption; but, as a rule, these preparations are not congenial to the American 

 palate, anil need not here be particularly described. Our supply of other excellent food fishes is so 

 great that but little attention is piiid by American fishermen to the capture of Herrings for food. 

 Many cargoes of frozen^ Herrings are brought from Newfoundland and the Bay of Fundy to Boston, 

 New York, and Philadelphia to serve for the food of the poorer classes during the Lenten season. 

 A limited quantity of pickled Herrings is also imported from the British Provinces. Smoked Her- 

 rings are produced to the amount of 370,615 boxes in Eastern Maine, and large quantities are 

 imported from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which are sent chiefly to the West and South, 

 though small quantities are consumed in the rural districts of New England. Before the rebellion 

 Eastern Maine engaged largely in herring-smoking for the purpose of supplying the demand of 

 the slave-owning States, and many cargoes of fish slightly pickled for smoking were brought from 

 the Magdalen Islands. This business was broken up by the war, and most of the smoke-houses 

 remain abandoned to 'this day. Considerable quantities of smoked Herrings are now put up in 

 small i^ackages with skin and bones removed, under the trade name of "boneless Herring." By 

 far the greatest consumption of Herrings for food is in the shape of so-called sardines, packed 

 for the most part in cotton-seed oil, and in cans made in imitation of those imported from France. 

 This industry began in 1875 and increased yearly until 1880, when the production amounted to 

 2,377,152 one-pound cans, worth $772,176. 



Fresh Herrings and salted Herrings are used extensively for bait in the halibut and cod fish- 

 eries, and a special night fishery with torches for young Herrings, or Sperling, is carried on in the 

 fall months about Cape Ann, Massachusetts, for the supply of the shore fishermen. 



The alleged desteuotiteness of the herring fishery. — As has already been 

 remarked, the Herring fishery is not at present of sufficient importance upon our coast to have 

 provoked the protection of the law, although the only place in the world where the spawning 

 HerriBgs are protected by the law is at the southern end of Grand Manan, within twenty-five miles 



' United States Fish Commission Report, p. 144. 



