212 Dr. Mac Culloch on the. Herring. 



This latter again splits on that point into two lines, one of which 

 defiles along the eastern shore of Denmark, and then entering the 

 Belts, reunites itself to the Baltic division ; while the other, coast- 

 ing Heswick, Holstein, Bremen, and Friesland, enters by the 

 Texel into the Zuyder Zee, so as again to return into the north sea. 



The second grand division of the original army, which had taken 

 to the westward, is, according to this naturalist, the largest of the 

 two. It proceeds straight for Shetland and Orkney, and thence 

 goes on to Scotland. Here it divides, like the former eastern 

 column into two divisions, or subsidiary columns, one of which 

 proceeds down the eastern coasts so as make the round of England 

 by the British channel, while at the same time it detaches parties 

 into the harbours of Friesland, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, Flan- 

 ders, and France. The western division, during this time, sepa- 

 rates itself again in such a manner as to visit the coasts of Ireland 

 and the western lochs of the Highlands, producing the Irish and 

 Highland fisheries ; visiting also the Isle of Man, where the her- 

 ring fishery is notedly abundant. In its further progress, this 

 Irish and Highland army reaches the land's end, and here finally re- 

 unites itself to the eastern one whence it had separated, meeting it 

 at the entrance of the channel. Thus reunited, the great original 

 western division of the entire northern army, makes a rendezvous 

 in the Atlantic, where, it must be supposed, they take an account 

 of the killed and missing, before they return again to Iceland and 

 the Polar seas, to renew the same march in the following summer. 



It is sufficient to read this account to perceive, even without 

 evidence to the contrary, or an examination of the subject, that it 

 must be a pure romance. It is plain, a priori, that there are no 

 means of ascertaining such a series of facts, nor even of approxi- 

 mating to a much less detailed history than that which is here 

 given ; even admitting that the basis of the extravagant super- 

 structure were true. The few facts that I have to offer, will de - 

 monstrate that it is an entire vision. That the herring is, to a cer- 

 tain degree, a migratory fish, may be true ; but even a much more 

 limited migration than this is far from demonstrable. It is at any 

 rate perfectly certain that it does not breed exclusively in the 



