THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



195 



opportunity of examining. Professor Huxley, in an article on " The Herring/' 

 in Nature, for April 28th, 1.881, does not seem to have been much more 

 correct than I was, with all his opportunities. I can from personal obser- 

 vation confirm Mr. Sim, when he disputes Professor Huxley's statement as 

 to young herring attaining the length of three inches in ten weeks. Like 

 Mr. Sim I have seen young herring cast ashore in January and February that 

 were but If to %\ inches in length, and which must of necessity have been 

 from spawn deposited in the previous August. This harmonizes with the 

 results obtained by Dr. Meyer, who kept the fry under observation for 

 five months.- At the end of three months they were If inches long, at 

 the end of five they were 2 J- to 2| inches. No doubt fish grow with marvel- 

 lous rapidity under certain favourable conditions, but if Professor Huxley be 

 right, the fish washed ashore in the beginning of the year ought to be at 

 least five inches long. He also says in the same article, " It does not appear, 

 however, that there is any good evidence against the supposition that the 

 herring reaches its spawning condition in one year." And also, "Pull her- 

 rings may be met with little more than seven inches long." But it seems 

 more than, doubtful if herrings spawn within the first year, and if they were 

 three inches long in ten weeks surely they would attain their full size in one 

 year. But it is clear that herrings vary in size according to locality. Mr. 

 Buckland, in his " History of the Herring," says the largest he had seen 

 were from Shetland, they were 9J inches long and weighed 9J ounces : " The 

 roe and milt were slightly developed ; they were very fat." Mr. Sim says 

 the largest he has seen was a female taken on 4th August, 1880. It was 

 12| inches long and weighed 9f ounces. It was " full." Though so much 

 longer than Mr. Buckland's fish, and full of roe, it was only half-an»ounce 

 heavier, the Shetland fish, therefore, must have been a much thicker fish. 

 "With the exception of the skate and its allies, the eggs of all fishes I know 

 are extremely small, and the growth that may appear slow, is not so in reality 

 when we consider how very minute they must be when first hatched. The 

 cod is believed to spawn when five or six years old, the haddock when four 

 or five, and though nothing is known with certainty it seems unreasonable to 

 suppose that the herring does so within a year of the depositing of the spawn 

 from which it sprung. It is quite possible, and even probable, that some 

 fish will mature before others and spawn earlier. Perhaps the smaller fish 

 found " full " have thus developed their spawn a year before the larger ones. 



The food of the herring has been a disputed question, but this may now be 

 considered settled. They live on the smaller crustaceous that abound in all 

 seas at all times. It is a curious fact that as the spawn approaches its full 

 developement, the fish, which had been a^yoracious feeder, ceases, or nearly 



