t 



CHAP, vi.j THE HERRING A LOCAL FISH. 229 



well-divided supply of this fine fish in all our larger seas and 

 rivers, as the herrings penetrated into every bay, and filled 

 all our inland lochs from Wick to Yarmouth. Mr. Pennant 

 was not contented with the development of this myth, but 

 evidently felt constrained to give eclat to his invention by 

 inditing a few moral remarks just by way of a tag. " Were 

 we," he says, "inclined to consider this migration of the 

 herring in a moral light, we might reflect with veneration 

 and awe on the mighty power which originally impressed on 

 this useful body of His creatures the instinct that directs and 

 points out the course that blesses and enriches these islands, 

 which causes them at certain and invariable times to quit the 

 vast polar depths, and offer themselves to our expectant fleets. 

 This impression was given them that they might remove for 

 the sake of depositing their spawn in warmer seas, that would 

 mature and vivify it more assuredly than those of the frigid 

 zone. It is not from defect of food that they set themselves 

 in motion, for they come to us full and fat, and on their return 

 are almost universally observed to be lean and miserable." 



Happily, the naturalists of the present day know a vast 

 deal more of the natural history of the herring than Mr. 

 Pennant ever knew, and, on the authority of the most able 

 inquirers, it may be taken for granted that the herring is a 

 local and not a migratory fish. It has been repeatedly demon- 

 strated that the herring is a native of our immediate seas, and 

 can be caught all the year round 011 the coasts of the three 

 kingdoms. The fishing begins at the island of Lewis, in the 

 Hebrides, in the month of May, and goes on as the year 

 advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off the coast of 

 Caithness ; while in autumn and winter we find large supplies 

 of herrings at Yarmouth ; and there is a winter fishery in the 

 Firth of Forth : moreover, this fish is found in the, south long 

 before it ought to be there, if we were to believe in Pennant's 

 theory. It has been deduced, from a consideration of the 



