6-7 EDWARD VII. SESSIONAL PAPER No. 22a A. 1907 



XI 



THE EGGS AND EARLY LIFE-HISTORY OF THE HERRING, GASPEREAU, SHAD AND 



OTHER CLUPEOIDS. 



BY PROFESSOR EDWARD E. PRINCE, DOMINION COMMISSIONER AND 

 GENERAL INSPECTOR OF FISHERIES FOR THE 

 DOMINION OF CANADA. 



(with three plates.) 



In view of the economic importance of the herring family (the Clupeidge), of 

 which some species, such as the sea-herring, the shad, sardine, &c., have a high commer- 

 cial value, it is a matter of surprise that accurate information regarding the habits 

 and life history of most clupeoids is not available, or, at any rate, not generally ac- 

 cessible. For a long period the most absurd opinions prevailed respecting the migra- 

 tions and spawning of so familiar a member of the family Olupeidse as the common 

 herring of the Atlantic ocean and the North Sea. Pennant's version of the theory, 

 universally accepted a century and a half ago, is so often referred to in works on fishing 

 industries, that I quote somewhat fully from his ' British Zoology,' vol. III., London, 

 1769. ^ The herring,' he says, ^ are met with in vast shoals on the coast of America 

 as low as Carolina, and in Chesapeake bay there is an annual inundation of those fish, 

 which cover the shores in such quantities as to become a nuisance. We find them 

 again in the seas of Kamtzchatka, and possibly they reach Japan,* for Koempfer men- 

 tions, in his account of the fish of that country, some that are congenerous. The great 

 winter rendezvous of the herring is within the Arctic circle; there they continue for 

 many months, in order to recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning, the seas 

 within that space swarming with insect food, in a degree far greater than in our 

 warmer latitudes. This mighty army puts itself in motion in spring, we distinguish 

 this body by that name, for the word " herring " is derived from the German Heer,'' 

 a.n army, to express their numbers. They begin to appear off the Shetland isles in 

 \pril and May; these are only forerunners of the grand shoal which comes in June, 

 and their appearance is marked by certain signs, by the numbers of birds, such as gan- 

 nets, and others which follow to prey upon them; but when the main body approaches, 

 its breadth and depth are such as to alter the appearance of the ocean. It is divided 

 into two distinct columns 5 or 6 miles in length and 3 or 4 in breadth, and they drive 

 ^;he water before them with a kind of rippling, sometimes they sink for the space of 10 

 or 15 minutes, then rise again to the surface, and in bright weather reflect a variety 



of splendid colours, like a field of the most precious gems The first 



check this army meets it divides into two parts, one wing takes to the east, the other 

 to the western ^shores of Great Britain:, and fill every bay and creek with their numbers ; 

 others pass on towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings; they then 

 pass through the British channel, and after that in a manner disappear. Those which 

 take to the west, after offering themselves to the Hebrides, where the great stationary 

 fishery is, proceed towards the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second inter- 



* There is an important herring fishery in Japan to which I refer on a subsequent page. 



95 



