Dr KNOX on the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. 463 



It will, I hope, be admitted, that an inquiry into the habits 

 of gregarious fishes, necessitates more than a hasty glance at a 

 few specimens ; this mode had been often attempted, but had 

 constantly failed in discovering the truth. The nature of the 

 food of the Herring, Corregonus, and Salmon, was not to be 

 stumbled on by accident. I feel happy in having to offer it 

 as a direct result of patient scientific inquiry- The obstacles in 

 the way of truth and of discovery in respect to these animals, has 

 been finely glanced at in a short notice by a distinguished geo- 

 logist and scientific man, to which my attention has been called 

 since these memoirs went to the press *. 



When the evidence before the Parliamentary Committee on the 

 Salmon question was published, I examined that evidence, with a 

 view to the obtaining additional knowledge as to the generation 

 of osseous fishes. In this I was much disappointed : on compa- 

 ring the evidence with itself, and with my own inquiries, I found 

 it to be, in my judgment, an inextricable mass of confusion and 

 error. Having satisfied myself as to this, I, after mature delibe- 

 ration, but still with considerable reluctance, proceeded to extend 

 my inquiries into the natural history of the Salmon, Herring, and 

 their congenerous species ; the result I have now the honour to 

 submit to the public in the form of a brief text. The Appendix 

 contains a mass of matter, criticisms, &c. in support of the opi- 

 nions contained in the text, and will shew what all preceding ob- 

 servers have evidently neglected, the particular and personal 

 nature of my inquiries, the varied nature and extent of the field 

 of observation, the infinite care taken to avoid error, and that 

 scarcely any thing herein stated rests on hearsay evidence, or on 

 conjecture. Of my competency to make correct anatomical and 

 physiological remarks, no reasonable person I hope, who is at 

 all acquainted with the nature of my pursuits, will have any 



* See a Memoir by Dr MAcCuLLOCH in Brande's Journal for 1829- 



