The herring usually arrives on the Norfolk coast about the last week in September, for the purpose of spawning, and they are then in the best condition to become the food of man.  The name "herring" is derived from the German _heer_, an army, to which they are likened in consequence of the vast number which keep together.  They are mostly caught at a considerable distance from the coast; but they do not always appear in the same place.  Formerly it was supposed that they were migratory; but it is now believed that they keep within the deeper parts of the ocean until they rise nearer the surface in the autumn to deposit their eggs. For some years they have appeared near the surface as early as the last week in August.  A herring seldom measures more than fourteen inches in length; but we were told that one was caught some years ago seventeen and a half inches in length, seven and a half in girth, and that it weighed thirteen ounces!  Each lugger carries from sixty to a hundred nets; each net is about fifteen yards long, and is floated by corks placed a few feet apart.  The united nets form what is called a train fleet, or drift of nets.  The depth to which they are sunk is regulated by ropes seven or eight yards long, called seizings, of which there are two to each net.  They are made fast to a stout warp, running along the whole of the train, which is upwards of a mile in length, and supported near the surface by kegs, called "bowls."  The warp is useful in taking the strain off the nets, and in preventing their loss, in case the nets should be fouled, or cut by a vessel passing over them.  The meshes are about an inch square.