98 



MARINE AND FISHERIES 



6-7 EDWARD VII., A. 1907 



In Canada there is a spring and fall migration of the herring, the earliest fish 

 coming inshore as early as the month of March, or as soon as the ice disappears ; but 

 they are of small size, poor in condition, and used chiefly for bait in cod fishing. Later 

 the fine fat bank herring move easterly from the west, and are taken some distance oif 

 shore, but in June and July the best herring for market purposes are generally taken. 

 The spring spawners deposit their ova in shallow water in May, while the fall spawners 

 come in in the months of September and October, and besides containing large roes or 

 milts are of much larger size than the earlier runs. On the Labrador coast very large 

 herrings are taken, the season commencing as a rule at the end of August, and being 

 carried on in September and October. They are regarded as of very superior quality. 



Owing to its vast commercial importance, it is not surprising that the herring has 

 formed the subject oi many reports and disquisitions. In 1864 the well-known work 

 treating solely of the herring, by Mr. J. M. Mitchell, appeared. It was entitled ' The 

 Herring, its Natural History and National Importance,^ and in that work the Arctic 

 migration theory was finally demolished. Accurate information upon the eggs of the 

 herring and the spawning grounds was long wanting, but the eminent Professor G. J. 

 Allman, on March 1, 1864, assisted by Dr. Bain, obtained off the Isle of May, on 

 the coast of Life, a quantity of herring spawn which was found attached to the rocky 

 bottom at 144 to 20 fathoms depth. In February and March, spawning, or ' full ' herr- 

 ing were known to occur there in quantity, and dredges were used and divers were 

 sent down in order to secure the eggs deposited under natural and normal conditions. 

 The nature of the eggs and their mode of attachment to the sea bottom was thus fin- 

 ally settled. In 1874, some interesting experiments were carried out at Kiel, in Ger- 

 many, the herrings' eggs being artificially fertilized and incubated under the supervi- 

 sion of a special commission in May, and the young fry, after hatching, were kept 

 until the yolk bag was exhausted in the sixth day. Other eggs were obtained, later in 

 the same year, and carefully studied, viz., in October. The United States Fish Com- 

 mission, four years later, hatched herring at Gloucester, Mass., and in 1883, Professor 

 Ewart, Mr. J. T. Cunningham, and Dr. J. Gibson, carried out further hatching ex- 

 periments in Edinburgh. An exceedingly able naturalist, the late Mr. Geo. Sim, of 

 Aberdeen, treated fully the spawning and feeding habits of the herring, in certain 

 original papers, notably one included in the Edinburgh Fisheries Exhibition Essays, 

 1882, while authorities such as Meyer, Heincke, Dr. F. Day, Duncan Matthews, George 

 Brook, Prof. J. A. Eyder, Mr. E. W. L. Holt, and Drs. Mcintosh and Masterman, 

 have added greatly to our knowledge of the herring and allied species. More recently 

 Ehrenbaum, P. P. C. Hoeck and others have published fine memoirs upon the subject, 

 and references to these will be found on subsequent pages. 



A valuable series of young Clupeoids was recently obtained by me in certain 

 rivers and harbours in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and formed the subject of 

 my study at the Canadian Marine Biological Station, and I am able to add to our 

 knowledge of these fishes, especially the anadromous alewife, kyack or gaspereau 

 (Pomolohus pseudoharengus, Wilson, and P. oestivalis, Mitchell), and to present in 

 succinct form my researches, along with the results of various other scientific workers, 

 I also include some notes made on the gaspereau spawning grounds on the Washade- 

 moak lake, St. John river. New Brunswick. 



My first acquaintance with Clupeoid ova dates from April, 1885, when a batch 

 of herring eggs, handed to me by Professor Mcintosh, of the University of St. 

 Andrews, occupied my attention, and I made drawings of the ova and of the young 

 fry when they hatched out. These -eggs, picked ofl the cart of a fish ^ cadger ^ 

 or pedlar in St. Andrews, Scotland, were placed in the tanks of the Marine (now 

 the Gatty) Laboratory, where they were duly incubated. The eggs had been 

 squeezed out of the ripe herring by the pressure of the fish heaped up in the 

 cart, and in the mixed mass the sperms from the ripe males mingled with and fertil- 

 ized the ova. The sun's rays had dried the outside of the spongy masses, and the inner 

 eggs survived as clear glassy globes about of an inch in diameter, thus convincingly 



