350 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



seas, and although at one time supposed, like the 

 herring, to migrate to the north, is extremely 

 limited in its range. 



The pilchard is a smaller fish than its relative 

 the herring, and is by no means of such general 

 occurrence along our coasts. Its chief locality is 

 the south coast of England, and especially that 

 of Cornwall and Devonshire, and although a few 

 stragglers may sometimes be obtained along the 

 eastern shores of the island, yet the range of this 

 fish seldom extends on the east beyond the Straits 

 of Dover, and on the coast beyond the parallel of 

 the southern shores of Ireland. The prodigious 

 multitude of both these kinds of fishes which are 

 annually caught in the British seas has rendered 

 the herring and pilchard fisheries of the greatest 

 value and importance, employing as they do many 

 thousands of fishermen, affording support for their 

 families, and supplying a large quantity of food. 



But what is especially worthy of our remark is 

 the instinctive impulse by which these fishes quit 

 the deep water and approach the shore. This in- 

 stinct, which is possessed by them in common 

 with many others of the finny tribes, is, like all 

 other instances of it, how differently soever 

 directed, a blind and unintelligent impulse. The 

 shallower parts of the shores, probably because of 

 the higher temperature of the sea in such places, 

 the greater amount of light which reaches the 

 spawn, and the increased supply of oxygen which 

 it obtains, are the only suitable localities in which 

 the ova could be rendered productive. But of 



