Proceedings of the R(yycd Society of' Edinburgh. 399 



out of order. Nor can he ever recover from this state, till he has 

 revisited the feeding-ground in the ocean. It is easy to perceive 

 in these few statements, how entirely they alter the whole question 

 of the salmon-fisheries. 



These inquiries led the author to examine into the history of the 

 herling. They resemble in their habits the salmon-trout, haunt- 

 ing the feeding-ground of the salmon ; and when fed on the pecu- 

 liar food of the salmon, their flavour is excellent ; but they take 

 readily to coarser food, as small herrings, fry, sand-eels, and the 

 fry of any other fishes. Their stomach and intestines get loaded 

 with putrescent debris, their flesh loses its flavour, and their con- 

 dition, as articles of human food, has changed materially. No two 

 conditions can be supposed more opposite^ than the herling pre- 

 sents, when fed on salmon food, and when fed on fishes. They 

 diflTer, therefore, from salmon- trout in this respect ; that, when feed- 

 ing on the food of the salmon, they attain almost the flavour of the 

 salmon, which the salmon-trout never does. 



The author discovered and exhibited the food of the Vendace of 

 Lochmaben, which had never been seen before by any one ; ex- 

 plained the reasons why this fish could not be taken with bait ; 

 proved the vendace to be male and female, and off'ers suggestions 

 for the stocking of the various lakes in Britain with this exquisite 

 fish, pointing out first the necessity of locating its natural food, 

 without which, it cannot live. The discovery of these circum- 

 stances, with regard to the vendace, led the author immediately to 

 think of the herring, whose food and natural history generally he 

 believed to be unknown. 



It was ascertained that tlie herring resembles the herling 

 in its habits, as to food more particularly ; and that whilst feed- 

 ing on the incredibly minute entomostraceous animals, which 

 it more especially afl*ects, the condition of the herring is ex- 

 cellent, rendering it an extremely desirable food for man. In 

 this state, the stomach seems as if almost altogether empty, 

 though at the moment full of minute animals, to be discovered 

 only with the microscope, and on which the animal has been feed- 

 ing. The intestines also seem as if empty ; the tunics of the 

 whole digestive canal are fine and semi-transparent, and as free of 

 intestinal and putrescent debris found in the stomach and intes- 

 tines of animals, as if the herring actually fed on nothing but air 

 and water. When he approaches the shores, thus quitting the 

 proper feeding- ground, he, like the herling, takes to other and 



