10G REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISII AND FISHERIES. 



iug its passage to the south, and finally drive it into the bays and inlets 

 where it is caught. During its passage southward, it dispatches two 

 flank divisions, the right flank toward the coast of Iceland, of whose 

 fate Anderson does not speak in his book, while he does state that the 

 great mass of the herring, when near the coast of Norway, divides into 

 two columns, one of which goes toward the coasts of Scotland and En- 

 gland, where it is for the greater part captured by the fishermen of those 

 countries ; while some are driven partly along the eastern coast of En- 

 gland, and partly along the coast of Ireland, till they finally meet in the 

 English Channel, where they are caught by the French fishermen. That 

 school, which, it was conjectured, passed toward Norway, continued its 

 journey along the coast of that country. Some pass through the sound 

 and belts into the Baltic, where the Swedes and Prussians are ready 

 to receive them ; another portion of the school follows the coasts of Den- 

 mark, Germauj', and Holland, while the remainder reach the Atlantic, 

 where they disappear. 



This theory became so popular that it has been handed down from 

 one writer to another, even to our time, and has intrenched itself even 

 in text-books on natural history. It met, however, with some opposi- 

 tion, and Bloch, who published in 1782 his book entitled - ; Ockonomische 

 NaturgescMchte der Fische Deutschlands," {Economical Natural History 

 of the Fish of Germany,) a work very remarkable for its time, raises 

 many weighty objections to it. He first showed that the herring is not 

 so common in the northern countries as was generally supposed, and 

 that it was impossible for it to travel so many thousands of mdes in 

 the short period between spring and autumn. Besides, the herring is 

 found at all times of the year in the Baltic and on the coasts of Nor- 

 way, and the Dutch continue their herring-fisheries even throughout 

 the entire winter until spring. It would also be very remarkable if just 

 the smallest herring should make the longest journey far down to the 

 Baltic. But as Bloclfs books were not popular, being only intended 

 for scientists, his opinions did not become widely known. An Amer- 

 ican by the name of. Gilpin,* went even beyond Anderson in promul- 

 gating another fanciful migration theory. He showed that 'herring 

 were also caught in America, and that here it first approached the 

 coast of Florida, and then, passing along Virginia, went as far as New- 

 foundland, moving, therefore, from south to north, and thus differing 

 from its direction in Europe. The American herring must, therefore, 

 come from schools out of the English Channel ; and his theory was that 

 the herring, in the course of a year, described in his migration an ellipse 

 of not less than forty-seven degrees of latitude, crossing the Atlantic 

 twice a year, the first time to escape the strong heat in the south, and 



* Gilpin, John, " Oil the Annual Passage of Herrings," Transactions Amer. Phil. Soc., 

 II, (1786,) p. 236-239. 



