The Alaskan., 1927-07-08
TOKEN FROM BERGEN'S
 TIDENDE
Translated from the Norwegian by
 Rev. s. Sydness.
Continued from last week. )

In the previous article a descrip- tion was given of the scale of the fish, how the rings on the scale were formed, that each ring repre- scented the winter, the era between the ring, the summer, and further more that the width between each ring was determined by the growth of the herring each summer. When a person has scale of a herring and knows when it was caught, has knowledge as to the spawning sea son of the herring, it is compara
 lively easy to find out how many
 summers and how many winters
 the herring has lived.
 In order to find out the age by
 means of the scale, it is best to use
 the big scale found on the side ol the fish, The reason for this is that the rings on those scales found on the front part of the fish are
 more distinct. Usually it is neces- sary to wash the scale in order to get rid of the shiny substance that sticks to the scales. Afterwards, place them on a piece of glass with drop of water on it, and it is ready for examination.
 Some of the rings may easily be detected by the naked eye. By us ing little magnifying glass the rings may easily be seen. However. 1 if the herring is very old it is diff ficult to distinguish the outer rings due to the fact that they have iu this case grown very closely togeth- CT, and consequently it is hard to tell them apart. While the fishing season for storsild and vaarsild, is on, let us examine the scales, they are as beautiful as So many of
 natures small structures are.
 When we first were able to make use of this to establish the age of the fish, it gave us new method to study the fish from other points of view; and this age method has
 enabled us to find out more about the herring and fish in general than it otherwise would have been pos sible. Norway made use of this method very early through Prof. John Hjorth, that time director for the fishing industries. He knew the value of it, and adopted it be fore it was recognized by the world of science; and thereby gave us years of experiments and informa- tion of indispensable value. Quite a few very interesting facts could be mentioned, but the most important
 and that which also is of greatest of experiments. The work is not
 half complete, and the early years observations increase in value as the work is carried on.
 As mentioned in the previous ar ticle, the young herring which the fishermen call Mossa, are herring that are not one year old. The
 Bladsild is in it's second year. The
 Fetsild that especially is caught in the northern part of Norway, con Isists of individuals in their third
 and fourth year. Only on rare oc-
 casion have we found herring
 among the Fetsild older than four
 years. However, more about that
 later on. Vaarsilden and storsi1den
 appear to be older. Herring among that species has been found as old as twenty-three years.
 The experiment in the labratory
 is carried on in this way First we
 buy a barrel of herring and take it to our experiment station. Here every herring is masured, weighed
 cut open in order to find out if t3.e herring has roe or if it is milk sild eff this milky substance ls found in the herring) and how far