CHAP, vi.] OVERISSUING OF THE HERRING. 227 



selecting a nursery for its young, contriving, when not ob- 

 structed, to deposit its ova on such, bottoms as will ensure 

 the adherence of its eggs and the favourable nourishment of 

 the young fish. 



The herring is taken throughout the year in vast quan- 

 tities, thus affording a plentiful supply of cheap and whole- 

 some food to the poorer classes, whilst its capture and cure 

 afford remunerative employment to a large body of industrious 

 people. It is greatly to be regretted, therefore, that recent 

 fluctuations in the quantity caught have given occasion for 

 well-grounded fears of an ultimate exhaustion of some of our 

 largest shoals, or at all events of so great a diminution of their 

 producing power as probably to render one or two of the 

 best fisheries unproductive. This is nothing new, however, 

 in the history of the herring-fishery : various places can 

 be pointed out, which, although now barren of herrings, 

 were formerly frequented by large shoals, that, from over- 

 fishing or other causes, have been dispersed. 



This supposed overfishing of the herring has resulted 

 chiefly from our ignorance of the natural history of that fish 

 ignorance which has long prevailed, and which we are only 

 now beginning to overcome. Indeed, much as the subject 

 has been discussed during the last ten years, and great as 

 the light is that has been thrown on the natural and economic 

 history of our fish, considering the elemental difficulty which 

 stands in the way of perfect observation, there are yet persons 

 who insist upon believing all the old theories and romances 

 pertaining to the lives of sea animals. We occasionally hear 

 of the great sea-serpent ; the impression of St. Peter's thumb 

 is still to be seen on the haddock ; " Moby Dick," a Tom 

 Sayers among fighting whales, still ranges through the squid 

 fields of the Pacific Ocean ; and I know an old fisherman who 

 once borrowed a comb from a polite mermaid ! 



Not very long ago, for instance, the old theory of the 



