Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-02-15
The Herring.

The herring, though a small fish, is
commercially attractive enough to often
find its own prospects Of peace and
longevity seriously endangered. Its
diminutive size causes it to suffer more
from fnny enemies than either the cod
or the mackerel, and its spawning ca
pacity is comparatively feeble-a mere
trife Of thirty thousand eggs, which the
mackerel exceeds by fifteen or twenty
times, and the cod by hundred or
more. And yet there seems 10 limit to
the quantity OF herring. We're the de-
mand many times as great as it is, it
could easily be supplied from this side
of the ocean. This is doubtless due IN
great measure to the peculiar security
enjoyed by the spawn and the young.
Instead of floating, orifce downward,
like the eggs of most other fish, herring
spawn sinks to the bottom, the oritices
Of the eggs being upward. and, as 1t IS
deposited in deep water, there are but
few fish that interfere with It. The
young, finding no loving parent near
to guide their youthful steps, senslbly
remain close to their birthplace, feed
ing upon diatoms and the smaller crust
acea, until they grow old enough and
strong enough to venture abroad. Mi
gratory only to limited extent, it IS
probable that the herring changes its
base only on account of annoyance from
larger fish. They are caught inshore
by many varieties of seines and pounds,
and the hook has occasionally been
tried upon them by seh-suficient city
youths, urged thereto by sea shore boys
who wished to remove the conceit from
their visitors. To attempt to lure with
hook and line fish which cannot bite,
but lives wholly by suction, and to
spend long hours at the attempt, under
the stimulus OF some wonderful story
about how many some other city youth
caught in the same way, is very stimu-
lative of ones memory of the impreca-
tory Psalms and of other scripture as
misquoted by the wicked.
The herring, like the other fish
named, inhabits cold water, the line OF
Long Island sound being its southern
boundary, while it is far to the north
that it must be sought in quantity.
lar localities for fish homes seems ex-
planned by an examination of the course
of the great Arctic current. This body
of cold water, starting from the Spitz-
bergen seas, flows westerly until it
strikes the Greenland coast, when it
changes its course to the southwark,
and carries great masses of cold water
into localities the latitude of which
leads one to look for high temperature
in the water. 1t is a branch of this
current that enables the cod to live and
multiply about Block island and Nan
tucket shoals, in water at 40 deg, while
farther north bathers at the beach lux
uria!e in water at 20 deg. The same
current forces its way into the Gulf of
st. Lawrence, which is the most profit
able fishing ground in the world. and
probably has something to do with the
phenomenal tides in the Bay of Fundy.
This current brings not only cold water
but food for the fish. This food con-
sists of diatoms and other minute forms
of vegetable and animal life. Coming
into existence in latitude higher than
that of the fish that devour it, this food
is swept southwark by the great Arctic
current, and wherever it is found the
waters are almost alive with fish. Prof.
Hind says that although the sea off
Canada and the United States appears
abundant in life, it is nevertheless al
most desert compared with the North
ern seas, particularly on the Labrador
and Greenland coasts. There the
ocean at times seems to be thick with
fish, and to such an extent that
during single night the temperature
of the water will be materially inhu-
enced by animal hfe!-Johaa Ha66er-
ton, IN Rarper's Magazine.