natural feeding-ground, he deteriorates constantly, refuses all kind 

 of food, loses weight and flavour, and gets, in short, entirely out 

 of order. Nor can he ever recover from this state till he has re- 

 visited 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. 



Tiiese 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 

 differ, 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 offers 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 hening, whose food and natural history generally he 

 believed to be unknown. 



It was ascertained that the herring resembles the vendace in its 

 habits, as to food more particularly ; and that whilst feeding on the 

 inci-edibly minute entomostraceous animals, which it more espe- 

 cially affects, the condition of the herring is excellent, rendering 

 it an extremely desirable food for man. In this state, the sto- 

 mach seems as if almost altogether empty (as in the vendace), 

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

 only with the microscop<>, and on which the animal has been feed- 

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

 whole digestive canal arc fine and smiitransparcnt, and as free of 



