388 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



Irish Bca, rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of 

 most of the coasts that border on it." In a work 

 on subjects of marine natural history, published 

 not more than a year ago, this account is substan- 

 tially repeated, and it is stated in addition tliat the 

 different columns are led by herrings of more than 

 ordinary size. Other writers have stated that the 

 annual visitations of the herring are adjusted with 

 the most scrupulous precision to the character of 

 the country along which they pass, and that 

 wherever the soil is meager and the climate se- 

 vere, there they never fail to resort. This is go- 

 ing much farther than Mr. Pennant, who notices 

 the caprice which the herrings exercise with re- 

 gard to their haunts. The promulgation of these 

 and similar erroneous notions is productive of 

 mischief in various ways. The belief that a par- 

 ticular part of the coast was invariably haunted 

 by the herrings, excited hopes of commercial 

 prosperity from the fishery, and led to the forma- 

 tion of establishments which it was afterwards 

 found necessary to abandon, owing to the laws 

 which direct the arrival of the fish being so com- 

 pletely fktctuating. Factitious views of the de- 

 signs of Providence have been taken, which, be- 

 ing founded on error, were liable to be suddenly 

 overthrown; whereas, within the bounds of^ as- 

 certained facts, there are to be found abundant ma- 

 nifestations of beneficent design, the evidence of 

 which rests upon a more secure foundation. The 

 very uncertainty which characterizes the herrings 

 in the choice of their haunts is attended with ad- 

 vantage, as it occasions attention to be directed to 

 agriculture and to other means of subsistence 

 than that which the ocean supplies, and thus the 

 chances of scarcity are lessened. 



So far from the arctic seas being the great resort 

 to which the herrings retire for the winter after 

 having deposited their spawn, it is nearly certain 

 that they are not in the habit of leaving the seas 

 on the shores of which they periodically appear. 

 They leave the shore for the deep sea, and the 

 returnof warm weather agains brings them around 

 the coasts. The herring, it may also be stated, is 

 nearly unknown within the polar seas, and has 

 scarcely been observed by the navigators of those 

 regions; nor are they taken by the Greenlanders. 

 A small variety ol' the herring is sometimes found, 

 and is noticed by Sir John Franklin. The young 

 are found at the mouth of the Thames, and on 

 the coasts of Essex and Kent during the winter. 

 The Dutch at one period carried on the fishery in 

 the deep sea at all seasons. On the western coast 

 of Scotland the fishery has sometimes terminated 

 before that on the eastern coast has commenced. 

 It has sometimes commenced earlier in a southern 

 part of the coast than further north, and on the 

 western coast of the county Cork, before any 

 other part of the United Kingdom. These facts 

 are all adverse to the accounts which have been 

 given of a grand movement in military order 

 from the arctic seas. On the east coast of Scot- 

 land the lierrings often spawn at a different 

 period from those which resort to the western 

 coast, and at the same time their condition is quite 

 dissimilar. Mr. Jesse, in his " Gleanings in Na- 

 tural History," states that the herrings of Cardi- 

 gan Bay are much superior to those taken at 

 Swansea. Dr. Macculloch* is of opinion that 



this may arise from their obtaining more abun- 

 dant or different food. He states that in Scotland 

 no migration takes place even between the two 

 coasts, and that when the herrings first appear on 

 the western coast it is not in shoals; and instead 

 of being taken by the net they are taken by the 

 line. Sir Humphry Davy has remarked as fol- 

 lows in his " Salmonia :" " It has always ap- 

 peared to me, that the two great sources of change 

 of places of animals, was the providing of food ibr 

 themselves, and resting-places and food for their 

 young. The great supi)osed migrations of her- 

 rings from the poles to the temperate zone, have 

 appeared to me to be only the approach of succes- 

 sive shoals from deep to shalloAv water, ibr the 

 purpose of spawning." The presumption, there- 

 fore, is that the herring is a permanent inhabitant 

 of our seas, and that there are difflsrent varieties 

 of the species. Mr. Yarreli* says : — " There 

 are three species of herrings said to visit the Bal- 

 tic, and three seasons of roe and spawning. The 

 stromling, or small spring herring, spawns when 

 the ice begins to melt; then a large summer herring; 

 and lastly, towards the middle of September, the 

 autumn herrinc makes its appearance and deposits 

 its spawn." The same naturalist has discovered 

 what he believes to be a second species of British 

 herring; it is found heavy with roe at the end of 

 January, which it does not deposit till the middle 

 of February. The flavor is milder than that of 

 the common herring, but it is not so large, its 

 lenffth being seven inches, and its depth two. 



The frequent changes of their haunts by her- 

 rinss have been a fruitful source of speculation, 

 though this fact is adverse to the accounts which 

 gave to their mitrration all the regularity which 

 would seem to belong to so well organized an ar- 

 my. At one time they frequent a particular part 

 of the coast for several years, and they afterwards 

 suddenly abandon it. The change is doubtless oc- 

 casioned by circumstances which it is their nature 

 to obey. In the time of Charles I, the Long 

 Island, one of the western islands of Scotland, 

 was a favorite resort of the herring, and buildings 

 were erected for the purpose of establishing a 

 fishery, but it was abandoned in consequence of 

 the fish ceasing to frequent that part of the coast. 

 Dr. MaccuUoch, in his work on the " Highlands 

 and Western Isles of Scotland," has introduced 

 some remarks which are too apt to be omitted in 

 this place. " As vulgar philosophy (he says) is 

 never satisfied unless it can find a cause for every- 

 thing, this disappearance of the herring has been 

 attributed to the manufacture of kelp. But kelp 

 was not introduced for very many years after the 

 herrings had left the Long Island, as well as many 

 other coasts which they had frequented. It is 

 also a popular belief that naval engagements, or 

 even the firing cf guns, cause them to change 

 their haunts. Thus their desertion of Sweden 

 was attributed to the battle of Copenhagen; and 

 now, when guns are at peace, the steamboats are 

 the "sufficient reason." The one reason is as va- 

 lid as the other. It is a chance if there has been 

 a ffun fired in the Western Islands, since the days 

 of Cromwell, and thev have shifted their quarters 

 within that period many a time. They have long 

 left Loch Hourn, and Loch Torridon, where 

 steamboats never yet emoked ; and since the 



• " The Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland," * « A History of British Fishes," by William Yar- 

 by Johu MaccuUoch, M. D., F. R. S. rell= F. L. S. 



