the Salmon, Herring, and Vendace. 508 



Observations on the Natural History of the Salmon, Herring, and 

 Vendace. By ROBERT KNOX, F. R. S. Ed. 



(Read 1th and %\st Jan. 1833-) 



PART II. THE HERRING AND VENDACE. 



IT is a fact sufficiently curious in itself, independent of all 

 scientific consideration, that the discovery of the food of certain 

 gregarious, important and much prized fishes, as the Herring, 

 Vendace, Salmon, &c., should have defeated the efforts of all in- 

 quirers. Even persons the least curious, or who think at all, 

 must be sensible that there can be nothing more calculated to 

 excite curiosity than a fact of this kind, however indifferent they 

 may be to zoological science. The natural history of the Com- 

 mon Herring alone its importance to the nation its incredible 

 abundance and the really enormous sums lavished on its en- 

 couragement by a Legislature by whom every thing nautical and 

 commercial has uniformly been encouraged ;-*- these considera^ 

 tions render a decisive step in the natural history of its food arj 

 object not so much of zoological as of commercial consequence. 

 To the scientific part of the inquiry alone, however, it is my 

 intention here to limit myself ; the consequences and results can 

 easily be calculated and made public at a future period and in 

 another form. 



