276 
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES 
mesh, stretched measure, so that all sizes were obtained, from several only 3 inches 
in length to one great herring of 15 inches — the largest encountered in four seasons 
of field work. 
On examining this sample it was noticed that some of the mature herring had 
spawn which ran easily — the eggs being clear and translucent with a faint yellowish 
tinge — while other mature herring had eggs practically as large as the translucent 
ones, but opaque and white. The opaque eggs were found equally in all sizes of 
fish, making it appear as though age or size does not influence the exact time of 
ripening of the eggs, but this point, however, will bear further investigation. 
During the next few days we watched for the herring to leave the lagoon as 
they were expected to spawn outside. On the 26th of April we noticed a small 
school of herring outside of the lagoon in Halibut Cove in the morning and a large 
school in the evening, which must have come out on the night tide of the 25th, which 
we were unable to observe. 
In the early afternoon of April 27 we entered the lagoon on the flood tide. Acres 
of herring were breasting the current on the lagoon side of the narrows. As soon 
as the tide slackened enough for them to make headway against it they commenced 
to leave and were carried through the channel on the first of the ebbing tide, passing 
as a steady stream of herring for over half an hour. 
Later we learned that a school of herring spawned on the early morning tide of 
the same day on Homer Spit, a distance of about 7 miles from the lagoon. A few 
also spawned on Homer Spit on the 1st and 2d of May. We had occasion to visit 
Homer Spit on May 10 and discovered that the herring had entered a lagoon that 
extended lengthwise of the narrow gravel spit for about 3 miles and was from 1 00 to 
200 yards in width and a few feet in depth. This lagoon is entered on the Kachemak 
Bay side of the spit through an entrance about 25 yards wide, so shallow that only 
about a 17-foot tide flows through it. There is no vegetation on the muddy bottom 
of the lagoon, which is in reality an immense tide pool. The herring had entered 
the lagoon on an 18-foot tide, one of the highest tides of the month, causing the water 
to overflow the banks of the lagoon and covering to the depth of a foot or more much 
of the short, sparse, wiry grass that fringed them. Not having any other vegetation 
available, the herring had spawned in this scanty grass above the reach of ordinary 
high tides. 
When the place was visited over a week later the sea gulls were still gathered 
in thousands, and for a couple of miles the grass was trampled flat. So thoroughly 
had the birds done their work that it required careful search to find any of the eggs, 
and nowhere did we find more than one or two to the square inch. Practically all 
of the eggs found were shriveled by the sun and wind. That many of them could 
survive a several days’ wait for another tide high enough to immerse them appeared 
impossible. 
From the 27 th to the 29th of April several schools of herring were observed in 
Halibut Cove, and on the 29th a sample was seined in the little harbor behind Ismailof 
Island. These herring were the ripest so far encountered, as in this sample the eggs 
and milt flowed freely while brailing them into a skiff with a scoop net, whereas in 
all previous samples they would flow only under a slight pressure. 
On the 30th of April the harbor behind Ismailof Island was again full of large 
herring swimming close to the surface around the shores, but none spawned. 
On the following day all of the large herring had departed. The shores of 
Ismailof Island and Peterson Bay were searched without success. On May 2 we 
