26o the living animals ol the world 
tide, where it deposits its spawn in the spring months. It is a gratifying tribute to the 
good work done of late years by the local authorities in purifying the Thames that, after 
a long absence, this valuable fish has reappeared in that river, which it now ascends in con- 
siderable numbers as high as Teddington Weir. 
Much discussion has taken place recently with regard to the question whether salmon 
feed while in fresh-water. 
Not long ago it was 
announced that they 
suffered from a diseased 
condition of the stomach 
during this period, and 
were consequently quite 
unable to feed. Subse- 
quently it was found 
that the supposed dis- 
eased condition of the 
stomach was due to the 
fishes not being perfectly 
fresh when they were examined. It is now known that although salmon do not feed freely 
in fresh-water, yet they take a certain amount of nutriment, such as an occasional shrimp, fly, 
or even small fish, while there. 
Photo by A. 0, Rudland ^ Sons 
SMELT 
This fish IS remarkable for its peculiar smell ivhen freshly caught, luhich resembles that of the cucumber 
CHAPTER XIV 
THE HERRING AND ITS KINDRED 
BY F. G. AFLALO, F.Z.S. 
K ing herring,” as the trade-paper of the fishing industry rightly calls it, is one of 
the chief commercial fishes of the British seas, and the enormous North Sea herring 
fisheries probably support more boats and men from all parts than any other. Europe 
has no very large herring; but the Tarpon of the Mexican coast, as well as another giant which 
occurs in the northern waters of Australia, grows to an enormous size. All the members of the 
Herring Eamily feed and travel near the surface of the sea, and are therefore caught in drift- 
nets, miles of which are “shot” a few fathoms from the top of the water, catching the 
shoaling-fish in their meshes. All of them, too, are wanderers, most capricicus in their goings 
and comings. Hence the uncertainty of the fisherman’s wage. 
The principal kinsmen of the herring in British seas are the Spr.\T and PiLCILARD, though 
the two kinds of Shad, which, like the salmon, ascend certain rivers for spawning purposes, 
also support a number of fishermen ; and the Anchovy is, authorities have lately suspected, 
sufficiently numerous on the British coasts to repay a regular fishery, if the men could be 
induced to try the experiment and use a sufficiently fine-meshed net for this little fish. 
The Herring of the more northern waters is larger than that of the English Channel, 
17 inches being recorded as its maximum size in the former, as against only I 2 j inches farther 
south. In the Baltic, however, the writer found the herrings still smaller than those of the 
English Channel. The herring lacks the lateral line, already alluded to in other fishes; its 
scales are large and thin ; its under-edge is smooth and keeled ; and the male is slightly the 
larger of the two sexes. The Sprat, on the other hand, is a smaller species. It has no teeth ; 
its belly is saw edged ; its back fin starts nearer the tail than that of the herring. The 
herring, moreover, differs from the sprat, and indeed from all our most important fishes, in that 
its eggs sink to the bottom The eggs of almost all other sea-fish float at or near the surface 
of the sea. so that the herring’s spawn alone can be damaged by the operations of the ground- 
