220 Dr. Mac Culloch on the Herring. 



lected. In many seasons, the waters of particular bays are highly 

 luminous, and crowded with these animals ; while, in others, they 

 are utterly wanting. We might expect that the presence of the 

 herrings would vary accordingly ; but though I have thus observed 

 it, the observations have not been sufficiently repeated to allow of 

 establishing a general rule. 



I have already remarked that the season of spawning is appa- 

 rently uncertain and various, and this seems confirmed by the dis- 

 cordant opinions of the fishermen on this subject. It seems, at 

 any rate, to be fully ascertained, that they spawn in the same lochs 

 where they are taken. The herring spawn abounds in these places 

 in the season of the fishery ; and, with small nets, fish of all 

 sizes are taken. The spawn is also then devoured by cod, coal 

 fish, and others which follow them ; as they are in great abun- 

 dance by the sea birds, particularly by the smaller gulls and the 

 terns, which may be constantly seen flocking above the shoals, as 

 the shoals of coal-fish are also found following them. Thus also 

 they are found round the shores of the Isle of Man ; and hence it 

 appears that the proper season of the herring fishery in the lochs, 

 is that in which they arrive for the purpose of spawning; and 

 hence the condition in which they are taken. The young also 

 seem to haunt the seas and bays where they have been produced, 

 till they are full grown ; but they are now seldom taken under the 

 full size, on account of the strictness with which the law for de- 

 stroying the small meshed nets has been enforced. The fish which 

 has spawned returns to the deep sea to recruit itself ; and thus 

 the shotten herring, as it is called, is seldom taken. 



It is further evident that the season of spawning must vary on 

 different shores, because, at the same time, the fish is taken in 

 different conditions on different shores, or is found at far distant 

 times in the same condition. This happens comparatively on the 

 east and west coasts of Scotland ; as it does in comparing the west 

 coast, or the Isle of Man, with the eastern coast of England. It 

 would be very important for the fisheries to ascertain the exact 

 season of spawning for each place, on account of the great dif- 

 ference in the goodness of the fish according to the condition in 



