12 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



*Auou6t 4, 1881. 



eo, every square mile of such ii shoal, supposing it, to be three 

 fathoms deep, must contain more than 000,000,000 herringa, 

 And when ii is considered that many shoals appri i 

 coasts, not only of our own islands, hut of Scandinavia arid 

 the Baltic and ot lias 'ern _Nort.ii America every spring and 

 autumn, the sum total of herrings which people our seas 

 surpasses imasiuauoh. 



If you lead any old aud some new books on Hie OaturaJ 

 history of the herring, you will It id a wonderful story about 

 the movements ot these shoals : how they start from their 

 home in the polar seas and march south* as a great armada 

 which splits into minor divisions— one destined to spawn 

 the Scandinavian and one on our own shores— and how, hav- 

 ing achieved 1 1 lis spawning raid, the spent fish make their 

 wuy as fast as lliey can back Io their Arctic refuge, there to 

 repair their exhausted frames in domestic security. This 

 story was started in the last century, and was unfortunately 

 adopted and disseminated by our countryman, Pennant. 

 But there is not the least proof that, anything of the kind 

 takes place, aud the probabilities are wholly against it. It 

 is, for example, quite irreconcilable with the fact that herring 

 are found in cods' stomachs all the year round. 



Jn the mailer of its migration, as in other respects, the 

 hen ing com; ares best with the salmon. The ordinary habi- 

 tation of both lishes is no doubt Hie moderately deep portion 

 of the sea. It, is only as the breeding-time draws near that, 

 the heniugs mot yet advanced beyond the lnatie state) 

 gather toward the surface aud approach the land in great 

 shoals for the purpose spawning m relatively or absolutely 

 shallow water. In the case of ihe. herring of Schlei we have 

 almost The Connecting link beiwceu the exclusively marine 

 ordinary herring ami th- riveMscaoduie; salmon. 



In 18U4 we had to listen to dolorous prophecies of the 

 coming exhaustion of l he Scotch heirmg-rlshcrics. The fact 

 that the retains snowed no tailing i ft was ascribed to the im- 

 provement of the gear and methods of fishing, and to the 

 much greater fiisaiit.es to which the fishermen extend their 

 operations. Tot what has really happened? The returns 

 of subs quent, years prove, not only that the average cure 

 of the decade. 1869-78 was considerably greater th n that of 

 the previous decade, but that, the years 1874 and 1880 are 

 absolutely without parallel in the annals of the Scotch her- 

 ring-lisherv, 1,000 000 barn Is having been cured in the first 

 i , -r years, aud 1,500,000 in 1880. In the decade 1858- 

 '68 'lie average was 070,000 barrels, and the highest 

 880,000, 



In dealing with questions of biology, & priori reasoning is 

 80inewbat rbky, and, if any tells me "it stands to reason" 

 that such ami such things must happen, I generally find rea- 

 son to d ubl. the s dety of his standing. 



It is said that "it stands to rea-on" that destruction on 

 such a prod gious scale as that effected by herring-fisheries 

 must tell on the supply. But aaam let us look at the facts 

 It is said that 2,500,000,000, n thereabout, ot herrings are 

 every year taken out of the North 8«a and the Atlantic. 

 Suppose we assume the number to be 13,000 000,000, so us to 

 he quite safe. It is a large number undoubtedly, but what 

 does it come to? Not more than that of the herrings which 

 maybe contained in one shoal, if it covers halt a dozen 

 Fquare miles— and s'loa s of much larg> r size are on record. 

 It is safe to say that, scattered through the North Set aod 

 the. Atlantic, at one and the same time, there must he scores 

 of shoals, tiny of which would go a long way toward supply- 

 ing the whole of man's c msmnpthn of herrings. I do not 

 believe th-it all the herring-fleet* taken together destroy five 

 per cent, of the total number of herrings in the. sea in any 

 year, and I see no reason to swerve from the c mviction my 

 colleagui s and I expressed in OUT repoit, that their destruc- 

 tive opt-ratio. .s are totally insignificant when compared with 

 t io=e wtro'i, as a simple calculation shows, must regularly 

 a id normally go on. 



Suppose that every mature female herring lays 10, 000 eggs, 

 thai, tue fish are not int-T'cred with by man, and that tluir 

 numbers remain approximately the same year after year, it 

 follows that I), 008 ot the progeny of every fctna e must bo 

 destroyed before thy reach maturity. For, if more than 

 two out of tho 10,000 escape destruction, the number of her- 

 rings will be propottionately inert- ased. Or, in other words, 

 if the avrage strength of the shoals which visit a given lo- 

 cality ii to remain the same year hy year, many thousand 

 times the number contained in those shoals must be annually 

 destroyed, And how this enormous am rant of ilestmetioa is 

 effected will b i obvious to any one who considers the operations 

 of the fin- wit ahs, I he porpo.sts, the gannets, thegulN, the cod- 

 fish and the dog fish, which ace unpa-iy the Shoals undperen- 

 mall} feus' up in them : to say nothing of the Ha' -fish, which 

 prey upon the newly-deposited spawn ; or of thfynackerel. 

 ' • enemies which devour the fry 

 Tent. It is no uncommon thing 

 ten ' r twelve — herrings in the 

 iu 1863 we calcula'ed that the 

 fill he.i ring-fisheries is less than 

 h would in all probability have 

 it) captured in the same waters 

 if they had been left in the sea. 



Man, in fact, is but one of a vast co-operative society of 

 herring-catchers, and, ihe larger the share he takes, the less 

 there is for the rest of the company. It man took none, the 

 other shareholders would hive a larger dividend, aud would 

 thrive and multiply in pop onion, but it would come to 

 pretty much the same thing io the herrings. 



As'long as the records of history give us information, her- 

 riugs appear io have abounded on the east coast of the British 

 Is'ands, aud there is nothing to show, so far as I am aware, 

 that, taking an average of years, they were ever either more 

 or iess numerous than they are at present. But, in remark- 

 able contrast with this constancy, the shoals of herrings have 

 elsewhere exhibited a strange capriciousness— visiting a given 

 locility for many years, in great numbers, and then suddenly 

 disq.p'e.ring. Several wcil-niiixked examples of this fickle- 

 ness are recorded on the west coast of Scotland, but the most 

 remarkable is that furnished by the fisheries of Bohuslan, a 

 province which lies on the southwestern shore of the Scandi- 

 navian peninsula. Here a variety known as the "old" or 

 "greal " herring, after being so extremely abundant for 

 about sixty years as to give rise to a great industry, disap- 

 peared, in the year 1808, as smlcl nly as ihey made their ap- 

 pearance, and have nor, since been seen iu any dumber'. 



The desertion of their ordinary grounds by the herring has 

 been attributed Io all imaginable 'causes, from fishing on a 

 Sunday to the offence caused 10 the. fish by the, decomposing 

 carcasses of their brethren dropped up, n Lie' bolt m out of 

 the nets. The tiuth is that absolutely nothing is known ou 

 the subject, and that little is likely to be known umil careful 

 and long-continued meteorological and zoological observa- 

 tions have Itirni.hed definite information respecting the 

 ,-s wJjicli take plao§ in the temperature of the, ma, ami 



and the innumerable si 



la It 



in a'l stages of their dev 



elop 



to find five or six my, 



CVe 



8 ouiaeh of a c (Irish, 



and 



wliule take of Ihe great 



Set 



the number of herrings 



whi 



been consumed by the 



odr 



the distribution of ihe pelagic Crustacea which constitute the 

 chief [odd of 'he herring shoals. The institution of system- 

 atic observations of this kind is an object of international im- 

 pm-Unce toward the attainment of which the British. Scandi- 

 navian, Dutch and French Governments might wisely make 

 a combined ell'orl. 



A great fuss has been made about trawlers working over 

 the spawning-grounds of the herring. "It stands to reason," 

 we were told, " that they must destroy an immense quantity 

 of the spawn." Indeed this looked so reasonable that we in- 

 quired very particularly into a case of the alleged malpractice 

 which was complained of on the east coast of Scotland, near 

 Pittenweeni. OlT this place there is a famous spawning- 

 ground known as the Traith hole, and we were told that the 

 trawlers worked vigorously over the spot immediately after 

 the herring had deposited their spawn. Of course our first 

 procec ling was to ask die trawlers why Ihey took the trouble 

 of doing wh-it looked like wanton miachi f. Ami their an- 

 swer was reasonable enough. It was to catch the prodigious 

 abundance of flat fish which were to la- found on the Traith 

 at ilia' time. Web. then, why did Ihe llat-tish congregate 

 there? Simply to feed on herring-eggs, which s-ciu to be a 

 sort of flatfishes' eavi.re. The stomachs of the Hat-fish 

 brought up by the trawl were, in fact, crammed with masses 

 of hiTiing-eggs. 



Thus every Hat-fish caught by the trawl was nn energetic 

 deaf oyer of herring arrested in his career. And the trawling, 

 instead of injuring the herring, captured aud removed hosts 

 of their worst enemies. That is how "it stood to reason" 

 when one got to the bottom of the matter. 



I do not think that, any one who looks carefully into the 

 subject will arrive at any other conclusion than that reached 

 by my colleagues and myself— namely, that the best thing for 

 governments to do in relation to the herring-fisheries is 

 to let them alone, except in so fur us the police of the sea is 

 concerned. With this proviso, let people fish how they like, 

 as they bke and when they like. At present I must repeat 

 the conviction we expressed so many years ago th it there is 

 not a particle of evidence that anything man does has an ap- 

 preciable influence on the stock of het rings. It will be time 

 to meddle when any satisfactory evidence that mischief is 

 being done is produced. 



THE FILAMENTOUS APPENDAGES OF THE OVA OF BONY 

 FISHES AS A CONTRIVANCE FOB THEIR SUSPENSION 

 AND PROTECTION DUEING INCUBATION— VIVIPARITY 

 OF CYPIUNODONTS. 



By John A. Rydeb. 



IT has been known for a long time that the eggs of certain carti- 

 laginous fishes were encased in a tough, homy envelope of a 

 somewhat quadrangular form, which has four long processes or 

 tendril-like filaments produced i'roiu each angle of the ovarian 

 covering, the function ot which appears to he to roil around fixed 

 slender objects in the sea, to support the egg while it is incubat- 

 ing, so that il is prevented from being buried in the mud or sand 

 of the sea bottom and smothered. While this appears to bo the 

 undoubted function of the filamentous appendages of the eggs of 

 certain ray flehea and sharks, there is no longer any doubt about 



istence of eggs of bony lishos provided uiiu lilamentous ap- 



jea which have a similar function. 



ulv of last year, while _on an experimental trip down the 



peake on behalf of the U. S. Fish I tim mission, and while 

 the steamer Lookout was lying at anchor in Mobjaek Bay, 



the 



Che 



i, Me 



experienced spawi 

 great numbers of ; 

 by the lights while Liming 

 to be a species of the Alh, 

 or friar further north, ot 

 Many of them were Tom 

 which an abundance, of 

 Innately uo mature males 

 in impregnating any eggs i 



eating type of develop: 



=hoff and flu 

 takers employed by the O 

 small fish playing about tl 



obta 



ued f( 

 that 

 ■hat rr 



e found, 

 s to watch 

 - The eggs, how. . - 



short tune, showed tho germinal disk developed independently of 

 impregnation, 



' ;ular featnre about there, which is of considerable 



i of the most 

 mticed 



.- '.es.-el, attracted 

 latioii these proved 

 .own as sihersidea 

 the systematists, 

 lire females, from 

 r study, bid unfor- 

 re did not succeed 

 1st be a very inter- 

 after lying for 



: thi 



terest in "this connection. 

 which are attached to one pole < 

 egg-mombrano iu a spiral man 

 ovum when first removed from t 

 mention in the sea water these Ii 

 of the ovum and become eutar 

 that a number of ova woxdd 



long filaments 



liled aronud the 



enveloping the 



Soon after im- 



Slaiueuts uncoil from the mirfaee 



led with those of their neighbors, 



m be fouud hanging togelh 



tho filaments. The use of these appendages seems clearly to be 

 that of a Bnpport in the water while the egg is undergoing incu- 

 bation, for it was found that not only would the filaments of ad- 

 :iit eggs becomo entangled, but also that of hits of grass or 

 stout sea.ve.ed was drawn through the water among the eggs that 

 the fibres would cling to and twist about them so as to require an 

 effort to free the ova from their newly acquired support. The eaBe 

 with which such filaments might become supporting organs may 

 be supposed from the fact that they are nearly half au inoh m 

 length and are attached to an egg about one-Bixteeuth of an inch 

 in diameter. 



During the present season of 18S1, iu concluding some investi- 

 gations for the U. S. Fish CormnUwiou at Che 



a Cot 



Fidien 



udai 



rof 



ld»ai- 



I'hese eggs were provided with avast number of tila- 

 jpendages scattered over the whole BUrfaco of the egg, 

 mires oiie-sevcuth of an inch in diameter. They are at 

 closo against the surface of tho c-gg-menibraue, but 

 Opposition they free themselves from Contact with the 

 aud become twisted and entangled among the filaments 

 of the adjacent eggs so that largo clumps held together iu this 

 ay are soon formed. The filaments differ from those of Chiros- 

 min in having an enlarged base of attachment to the egg mom- 

 braue, which becomes abruptly smaller as it is prolonged into the 

 filament. Professor tlaeekel, of Jena, first described the egg of 

 Jk-loneiu 1H55, but stated that tho filaments were internal. Prof. 

 Kollnkei- in 1-S5S rectified the observation of Haeckel and showed 

 that they were external, but he still regarded them as ono of the 

 layers of the membrane, which our ol.sie vatious nloo.v e-, noi i be 

 fact, and that their function is essentially as described by us. i. c 

 to attach the egg to foreign objects while incubating in the water. 

 Abundant, evidence of this is found upon visiting tho pound nets 

 in the vicinity of Cherrystone, to which Col McDonald tells me 

 groat numbers of gar eggs are found attached by the filaments 

 with Which they are covered. Haeckel statoB that strong acids 

 will not dissolve the filaments, but that thoy eventually undergo 

 solution wheu immersed in strong alkalies. 



An investigation of the ovaries of Chtrottortia and Betone shows 

 that these ii Laments are already far developed when the eggs are 

 leas than half armvn or mature. Saomberesox has also been shun n 



■rod with 



Ebeegi - 



.. , aud not 

 fish allied to 



to be provided with thei 

 atolefable degree ofprc 

 of the flying fish Mm 

 improbably in haiiidvslhes 



nruined with regard to this point. 

 THrnrnwirUm. Aiming the //.a 

 Applies, or the Sticklebacks, the ova 

 minnre button-shaped appendages b 

 membrane. Mav it not be thai the 

 This contrivance f or the snstenti 

 cuhatirig ova of fishes then supplt 

 viz. : That where the eggs are cove 

 as in Ihe ca.es of the sHcklBbaokj l 

 and many others ; where the ova m 

 Ihoeasos of the shad, sale ■ 

 the eggs of the Spanish mackerel 

 pollock, hontto and certain flounders 

 by the male in some epeci.' 

 horses, or where thev are hatched a 

 the 



lprismg the ,V„,,-07,/, r and 

 rnnrhi, r.o/s/,r ':-:!>■„:< and 



i found to he provided with 

 ne pole attached to the egg 

 ead-lails have similar ova? 

 n and protection of the iu- 



uith an adhesive material, 

 . -', , Or, lilelisb 



dish : where they float 1 kn 



tew 



ease of the sticklebacks and certain iicsl-buildiug cattishes, 



anied iu the mouth, where incubation is known to Occur in a 



forms. 



nn Hit-to me not tho only ways in which the ova ol bi t Sen 

 aro developed, for the Embiotocida , ,-t. Zuam-.K 



and the cypriuodonts are more or less eon, pi, telj vivipa , j ,,,. 



latter have boon recently studied by th.- w'i u-r in •.^•.loiati.m with 



Colonel McDonald, audit has been found that thev U, . I 



manner much similar to tha' of Ztwr. :t„ I by Tlathke, 



but it is still a matter of doubt with tho writer whether tie trounfi 

 door do not leave tho egg before the latter Is extruded hy the 

 parent through the tubular prolongation of the Oviduct at the an- 

 terior border of tho anal fin. 

 Chekbybioxe, Va, July 2:), 1SS1. 



.^,*» — 



SHAD EGGS WILL NOT HATCH IN SEA WATER. 



ith of the 



thin li-h which they 



tfl»h before; tho run 



"THERE £g a theory among the fishe 

 x Connecticut River that many of 

 water of Long Island Sound, aud do nol 

 theory is based on the fact that they 

 eall "racers," and which they claim are 

 iu the river begins. 



Acting on this theory Mr. James Rankin, a former fish commis- 

 sioner of Connecticut, and Mr. Robert B. Chalker, a pound owner 

 attempted to confine tho fish in salt water la 4 \ , ■. , ■ ■ , . 

 ripe, and then tried to hatch the eggs. This 'ton Id tht u" prove 



or disprove the theory. Unfortunately ii, 



released the fish. We were glad to see that thev did . 



their attempt for, although v, , I id , , [ , atoning «f 



either shad or salmon eggs insult watt n to convic- 



tion if it could be done. This year about 2n0 shad w 

 two ponds, and »henripe tha eggs and milt— both iu poor condi- 

 tion — -were placed in the salt water. Death was observed in from 

 four to seven hours. It was then decided to try ri-h which bad 

 not been penned up. A net was put iu, and from ten to u.m./o 

 were taken at a haul. Thev seemed to be in good eondltiott, and 

 from them were taken some eggs which appeo .; 

 good as eggs from shad taken at the natural hatchii._ 

 stream. Several ripe females were found, aud ft variety oi 

 perimeuts made. The eggs being stripped from a fouii.o into a 

 pan, were Impregnated with milt from the male, and Mr. lo-ntun 

 observed the result with a microscope. In only one case were any 

 signs of life noticed, aud these were in the eggs of a fan o. o 

 recently captured. Twelve hours or more after impregnation the 



eve spots of the little fish were visible under the microscop. . 



later tho backbone. There was life, but it never advai ice I 

 this first Btage. 



Four hours after those good eggs were immersed in salt water. 

 They showed under the microscope, as if covered with minute 

 punctures. These increased in size ami number until the eggs 

 burst. Supposing that this result was due to ihe ,-evi re agitation 

 of tho Burfacc water, another portion were placed in a box which 

 was covered tightly, and which wns e iink to the bottom, bill with 

 no better snecess. Mr. Feutott also tried taking thi i 

 shore, supposing that the motion of the boat mighl 1. .--. 

 tie diilieultv. but another failure wafl recorded. 



The brackish water experiment has not been fully tried, bul Dr. 

 Hudson said : "I am satisfied tbatHhad will not ha oh in braekinh 

 water, and I have always held to that belief. 1 thiols experiments' 

 made in that direction would be no nioro eueeesi-.iid than those 

 made iu sail water," 



FIXTURES. 



BENCH : 

 September 21, 11 and 2n, nt: Framlln, Pa., Krauiclln fcportarner , 



Pinto Gams Protective society Bench stiow. iim lie- ,■!,, ... ~., v . 



tpraoer id. Tfios. D. Adams, Superintendent; r. o. Bos in, BTatiSlin, 



'se.pt eintier 27, 21, '-'!> and OT, at Londou, tint. !...nil,,:i Dog show. 

 KniTies close SFptemb'-r L 1 .'. Charles Lincoln, StinetTuioudent, Tecum- 

 sell House, London, Ont. 



1 1, -toiler I. ii, a aud 1, at SI. Louis, Mo. St Louis Kenne] elub Third 

 Annual Bench Show. Charles Lincoln, Superintendent. 



FIELD TRIALS. 



August 30 and 31, and September l and a, at, Norfolk, Neb. Nebra»- 



l.n field Trials second annual meeting-. J. f. McCartney, secretary, 



Sefiremoer 1, at PUtsbnrgU, Pa. Close of onirics Pennsylvania Field 

 Trials. First Annual Derby. I. R, Stayton, Secretary, 1'K.Lsburgh, 



September 13 and it, at PlMehnrgh, Pa, ( iUle Trl 



i lie- anspleea ol rin- Pennsytv -■ 



close Sepieiiiber a. R.l" sl.-e Al.-i o'll-ey. >e..ie . Ilani-i. 



1.1,,-touer t, at .New Vor'-. it y. CI--- -.•:<.■■■ < iihd>. 



Trills eorunieiic,., no , ri,aiiks = -:Mii = - J lay. Jacob iviif/, secretary, f. 



■ lose Noveraber 



I. Edward Odell, s. 



November—, aiti 



Club's Field Trials. 



jos. a. Dew, sec 



Chiiv 



" ■(. the whole i 



; should bo eij.- 



OUE LONDON Id'yPTEB. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Bnt ■ -Since sending vou my last lei t.er doergy matters have been 

 at a standstill ou this side of the water : only a fm ' ptWtl 

 shiovs have taken place and uo new .Togs have appear, ,1 at. any of 

 them. Iwiil, therefore, without fiu-lbei delay, revert 

 ject which 1 alluded to at the close ol I I ■ i. -- Bd let your 



readers know what -steps have been taken by «n ' itiea 

 against the tricks ot unprincipled exhibitors when showing their 

 dQEB, Unfortunately I mn not m a positron to inform yon at 

 present of the result of the iwiftiry-whi b luufa en i i titnM by a 

 sub-committee of our Kennel Olno specu □ - -t 



gate malpractices iu connection with dog ; .boa>, and I., 

 reason that no decision has yet been BTLTed a. . ;. ...i budyv I 

 can. however, state that the sub-committee Borne Ume ago issued 

 to all our leadiiie, ,-,,-.-,, -,- .- -- ' m and out of the tun „ . ,.,, 

 a series of printed forms, contamiug questlonB which it was re- 

 quested they would answer iu writing. These interrogatories had 

 reference to most of the principal breeds, map, itteertam inwmces, 

 the gentleman to whom they were addres-ed >- ,- 

 his opimon on every vaiie;; uam-d. in oilers he hei 



c'osels identified. This oertatnly ftpp .- - ■■ •■■ ■,■..., .,, 



conducting the Inquiry, and 1 believe it is the liivr ocoasion upon 

 which the Kennel (tlub ha,' appealed, to the intelligence til those 



out-Mo ita own tamiediato circle still. J - 



