214 Dr. Mac Culloch on the Herring. 



ment, they did not appear till November, when the Swedish 

 fishery commenced. The produce also was so abundant, that in 

 the short space of three weeks it amounted to 600,000 barrels. 

 Since that period, however, they have deserted this coast. 



This statement is sufficient to show the fallacy of the imaginary 

 visit and progress of the eastern division of the equally imaginary 

 Arctic herrings ; and I may now inquire respecting the supposed 

 western one that appears on our own shores. 



Now, so far are they from being migratory to us from the north, 

 that there can be no doubt of their breeding on our own coasts. 

 Yet the period of breeding, no less than the time of their visits, 

 seems as irregular as every thing else that belongs to this appa- 

 rently most capricious fish. That they do breed with us, is proved 

 by their spawn being taken on many of the coasts where the full 

 grown fish is found : and if that has not been found on all, it pro- 

 bably depends, partly on want of observation, and partly on the 

 regulation for the minimum size of the herring nets. In Orkney, 

 in 1699, an immense quantity of herring spawn was thrown on 

 shore during some tempestuous weather ; proving that they then 

 bred there. Yet, for a long period, they have entirely deserted the 

 coasts of Orkney and Shetland : and it is only within three or 

 four years that the Orkney fishery has recommenced. This cir- 

 cumstance marks a change of haunt and of spawning-places, but 

 not a migration of the full-grown fish ; and is plainly inconsistent 

 with any progress from the northward. Had they migrated in 

 the manner stated, they must necessarily have appeared in Shet- 

 land and Orkney every year, while they would also have appeared 

 there first, instead of being, as is the fact, utterly unknown about 

 the former islands. 



It is difficult, or rather impossible, to account for their thus 

 changing the places of their spawning, not only in these islands, but 

 upon the British coasts in general ; but these very changes of 

 haunt prove also that they have no more any fixed rules for it 

 than they have fixed migrations. Whether they did always 

 spawn in these places where they were formerly abundant, cannot 



