HERRING 
971 
mals, and under the microscope we may see the layers 
of fat between the muscles and viscera within the frail 
shell of these minute organisms.” The Gulaat is made 
up principally of Annelid larvae, the Svartaat of small 
mollusks, the larvae of larger mollusks, and Pteropods. 
When the Herring has gorged itself with this food, and 
not had time for digestion or to excrete the remains, 
it is worthless as an article of trade. The fish decom- 
poses rapidly, will not absorb the salt, and emits a 
disgusting stench. In Norway it has therefore been 
prescribed that such fish must be left three days in the 
seine before being drawn up and salted. The Svartaat 
271) enter into the diet of the Herring; and it is no 
doubt partial to all other kinds of small fishes. 
The Herring has enemies in numbers. Among fishes 
its most destructive foes are the Cod, the Coalfish, the 
Hake, large Scombroids, the Salmon, and Sharks. Among 
whales the lesser rorqual ( Balcenoptera rostrata), the 
great northern rorqual ( Balcenopt . I ait ceps) and the fin- 
whale {Balcenopt. musculus ) feed on Herrings. The por- 
poises are also Herring eaters; and among the most 
troublesome of all are the seals, which often leave no- 
thing in the net but the heads of the fish. Numerous 
birds (gulls, terns, the gannet, etc.) swell the tale of 
Pig. 243. A Yarmouth drift boat out fishing. After Holdsworth. 
is the worst, and almost hopelessly spoils the fish. But 
animals of a relatively small size are not the Herring’s 
only food: it can also devour fishes of comparatively 
great dimensions. In the stomach of a large Baltic 
Herring Ekstrom found three good-sized specimens of 
Gobius minutus; and the stomach of a female Herring 
3 dm. long, which was caught in the island-belt of 
Stockholm in January, 1893, and in which the ovaries 
were swollen to about a third of their full size, con- 
tained portions of five Herring-fry that had been almost 
equal in size, and the largest of which had measured 
6 V 2 cm. We have remarked above that the Doubly- 
spotted Goby (p. 251) and Cry st alio gobius Nilssonii (p. 
its persecutors. But in the war of extermination against 
the Herring the most prominent part is taken by man. 
In the open sea and in the great arms of the sea 
the Herring is taken in drift-nets, gill-nets, and purse- 
seines. Nearer land the gill-net and purse-seine are 
also used, but most commonly the seine (Sw. vad“) or, 
as in Denmark, the band-yarn , a sort of stake-net. 
The drift-net is a continuous train of nets (Sw. 
lank) seized to a stout rope or warp (Sw. drift-rep ), to 
which large tloats (clumps of wood — Sw. Jclabbar, kob- 
bar — or kegs — Sw. dunkar , brillar — or bags of skin, 
usually dogskin — Sw. sdckbojar) are attached with 
stronger seizings, so as to keep the whole ‘drift’ afloat 
° The word vcid is difficult of explanation. Some write vada, and derive it from the verb vada (to wade). The Danes write v&d , 
and it is a question whether the word is not the same as that we find in tclci dning svad (a breadth of cloth) etc. 
