476 SUPPLEMENT ON 



the Orcades, advances between Scotland and Ireland, coasts 

 towards the south of this latter island, extends to the east of 

 Great Britain, and proceeds as far as Spain, traversing the 

 coasts of Germany, Batavia, and France. 



Recent naturalists, however, have utterly denied the truth 

 of these marvellous emigrations, resting upon the simple fact, 

 that many years often elapse without any herrings being seen 

 near the shores indicated as the most remarkable in the route 

 of these fishes ; and also, that in many other pretended sta- 

 tions plenty of these fish is taken all the year round ; that 

 their bulk often varies, according to the quality of the waters 

 which they frequent, without any relation with the season, 

 with their remoteness from the northern regions, or with the 

 length of space which they may have had to traverse ; and 

 finally, that no certain sign has ever indicated their regular 

 re-entrance under the ice of the high latitudes. 



It is not known, in fact, what becomes of them. Their 

 shoals have never been observed pursuing the homeward 

 route. Why is it, moreover, that the smallest kind of herrings 

 turn towards the direction of the Baltic, and the largest to- 

 wards the North Sea ? If, as has been asserted, it is their 

 dread of the whales which causes them to emigrate, how is it 

 that they proceed many hundreds of miles beyond the lati- 

 tudes which these cetacea usually inhabit ? Wherefore are 

 they again to be found in the very same places from which 

 they fled but a few months before ? and why do they issue 

 forth from the Baltic, where they have nothing to fear from 

 these redoubtable enemies ? Why, if they are driven by the 

 want of aliment from the ices of the north, do they always 

 arrive at the same period of the year ? Finally, how is it 

 that we scarcely ever see the small herrings, which ought to 

 accompany the large ones, if they were acted upon by general 

 causes ? 



