452 



Prof. J. C. Ewart. On the Natural and [Mar. 27, 



right that I should say that Lieutenant Prickett took an equal share 

 in all the work done, and that the success which followed resulted 

 chiefly from the enthusiastic manner in which the officers and men 

 entered into the spirit of the inquiry. 



I. The Spawning Ground. 



Professor Huxley, in his address at Norwich, says, " The first 

 definite and conclusive evidence as to the manner in which herring 

 spawn is attached and becomes developed, that I know of, was 

 obtained by Professor Allman and Dr. McBain in 1862 in the Firth of 

 Forth. By dredging in localities in which spent herring were 

 observed on the 1st of March, Professor Allman brought up spawn 

 in abundance at a depth of 14 to 21 fathoms. It was deposited on the 

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

 shell-sand, and even on the shells of small living crabs and other 

 Crustacea adhering tenaciously to whatever it had fallen on."* This 

 spawn was dredged by the fishery cruiser " Princess Royal," Captain 

 Macdonald, commander. 



There is no record, as far as I know, of herring spawn having been 

 dredged from 1862 until 1872. In a valuable paper on the Norwegian 

 Herring Fisheries by A. J. Boeck and A. Feddersen (1872),f it is 

 stated that Boeck " raised with the dredge large lumps of roe and 

 gravel intermixed." The only other reference to the dredging of 

 herring spawn I am acquainted with is in the " Report of the German 

 Commission^ where it is mentioned that the eggs of the inshore 

 herring were found in the Schlei at a depth of 3 feet, attached to a 

 fresh water pond weed (Potamogeton) . But although no record has been 

 kept, herring ova must often have been taken up by our fishermen, 

 for during the last three months I have obtained numerous small 

 clusters of herring ova attached to sea-firs (chiefly Hydrallmannia 

 falcata) at all stages of development, which had been brought up by 

 the east coast long-line fishermen. Taking advantage of this 

 knowledge, I prepared a number of small grapnels by tying three 

 large cod-hooks together and fixed them by strong cords about 6 feet 

 in length to a heavy 4-feet iron bar. With this rude instrument, an 

 oyster-dredge, and an ordinary naturalist's dredge, we drifted or 

 steamed slowly across the bank in various directions, and on several 

 occasions succeeded in bringing up fine specimens of herring ova 

 attached to stones, sea- weed, and sea-firs, and portions of trammel-nets. 



* " Mature," April, 1881, and " Eeport of the Koyal Commission on the Opera- 

 tion of the Acts relating to Trailing for Herrings on the Coasts of Scotland," 

 Edinburgh, 1863. 



f See translation in " United States Eeport of Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries," Part III. 



J " Jahresbericht der Commission in Kiel fur 1874-75." 



