48 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
THE HEEEING FISHEEY. 
LECTURE BY B. J. RIDGE. 
(Read February 2nd, 1887.) 
For the political economist fish may be considered from two 
separate, though practically united standpoints ; viz., those of 
food and of commerce. As an article of diet, recent investigations 
have clearly shown that many fish contain as much solid matter as 
lean beef ; and that the herring contains between twenty-four and 
thirty-one per cent, of solid matter, and is therefore very often 
more solid than lean beef. As a matter of commerce, the supply 
of sea fish being practically inexhaustible, the importance of 
our fisheries can hardly be overestimated. The fecundity of fish 
is simply marvellous. Thus the roe of a crayfish contains 
3,000,000 eggs; ling, 19,000,000; sole, 1,000,000; mackerel, 
500,000, and of a herring, 32,000; while herrings spawn more 
than once a year. 
The Herring Fishery is among the most important, if it be not 
itself the most important, of the fisheries of Great Britain, 
alike as regards the number of men and boys engaged and the 
amount of capital invested. And it must not be forgotten that it 
requires considerable hard and intelligent labour, seeing also that 
it gives employment directly to so great a number in the building 
and repairing of the boats and their equipments, as well as in 
delivering the fish to the consumer. 
The herring belongs to the family Clupeidce, of which the shad 
(Clupea finta), pilchard (Clupea pilchardus), and sprat (Clupea 
sprathis) are members. There seems to have been no systematic 
and detailed description of its anatomy till recently. This has 
been given by Mr. J. Duncan Matthews, who during 1886 
prepared a paper referring principally to the skeleton, and for 
obvious reasons chose the British herring as the type to be 
described in detail. 
