FISH. 



493 



numbers. It has been supposed by some, that when 

 coast fishes entirely disappear both from the shores 

 and from the surface of the water, they retire to a 

 considerable depth, and remain there in a state of 

 inaction ; but the evidence in favour of this is far 

 from complete, and the analogy is rather against it. 

 If ever so numerous a shoal from the coasts were to 

 spread themselves over the whole surface of one of 

 the wide seas, it is quite evident that they might be 

 so far asunder as that a ship on its passage might not 

 observe one of them except by accident. The 

 migrations of those fishes used to be very much 

 misrepresented, especially in the case of herrings and 

 some others, which were alleged to breed in count- 

 less numbers in the regions of the poles, and to come 

 annually thence, for no reason that could well be 

 explained, except as a bonus to the fishermen of more 

 southerly latitudes. We know that when those 

 fishes, whether herring, pilchard, mackerel, or any 

 other which appear thus periodically, the milts 

 and roes are in a progressive state ; that as they 

 remain these advance to maturity ; and that if the 

 attempt to catch them is too long protracted, they 

 are found to have shed their spawn, or to be in the 

 condition of what is called " shotten herrings," which 

 are empty, lean, and unwholesome. The same applies 

 to every other species of periodical fish with which 

 we are acquainted. The probability, therefore, is 

 that such fishes have liltle migration in latitude with 

 the seasons, or rather that they have none at all ; but 

 that, if it be their habit to feed in the clear waters, 

 and not on the banks as ground fishes, they make 

 their way as the spawning season approaches for the 

 nearest shore, if it happens to be adapted for their 

 purpose. In proof of this, it may be remarked that 

 they do not remain off the points, or hang in the 

 currents, as if they were seeking the substances with 

 which the latter are loaded, but that they frequent 

 the estuaries, the bays, and other shallow indentations 

 of the coasts, where the spawn which they deposit 

 may remain undisturbed. In addition to this, we 

 have the further proof of the countless myriads of 

 the fry, or "soil" as it is called in the case of 

 herrings, which is observed on many parts of our 

 shores in the early part of summer, and which is 

 sometimes overcome by violent action of the weather, 

 and stranded in a close and extended stratum along 

 the beach. This takes place on many parts of the 

 coast where there are none of the fishes in the mature 

 state, or at least where they are not generally fished 

 for ; and this proves that though these fishes may 

 accumulate in such numbers as to make the capture 

 of them a profitable trade at particular points only, 

 yet that they contrive to range a great way in line 

 along the coast for the purpose of spawning, but that, 

 as is the habit with most animals, they perform this 

 operation during the night, or at all events at times 

 when they are not observed. 



Whether, after these fishes have left the coast and 

 dispersed themselves through the sea, it would be 

 worth while to fish the depths for such of them as 

 are net fishes, is doubtful ; but it is highly probable 

 that, whether their numbers would repay the labour 

 and expense of their capture or not, yet they may be 

 found at all times and at all seasons in those seas on 

 whose shores they spawn, if sought for at a sufficient 

 distance from the land. It is also doubtful whether 

 the same fish spawns annually, or requires two or 

 more years to recover its tone and bring forward its 

 vast progeny ; but probability is in favour of the 



latter, and this probability is strengthened by the 

 fact that, on some parts of the coast, after several 

 kinds of fish, the haddock among others, have, gener- 

 ally speaking, left the fishing grounds, and the few 

 that remain are " run," " shotten," and out of season, 

 the fishermen have only to stand some ten, fifteen, or 

 twenty miles from the shore, according to the nature 

 of the bottom, and their industry is rewarded by fish 

 as abundant and in as good condition as ever. 



On some places of the coast too, where the fisher- 

 men have a little speculation, and will listen to 

 general principles (for, generally speaking, they are 

 a superstitious and dogged race, and can hardly be 

 driven from an old custom, however absurd and in- 

 jurious to their own interest it may happen to be), 

 they are enabled, so to express it, to go out and 

 meet the fish, and thus bring them to market much 

 earlier and in better condition ; nor is there any 

 doubt that, if duly sought for, all the fish which 

 come seasonally upon the shores of any country 

 might be found in good condition in some parts of 

 the surrounding seas at every season of the year. 

 Whether this may be the case with bottom fishes, 

 which never come close in shore to spawn, unless 

 the depth there bears some correspondence to that 

 over the banks on which they generally reside, it is 

 not so easy to say, because, as they of course, in the 

 case of their moving shoreward to spawn, take the 

 bottom sooner or farther from the land, they are not 

 so easily or so frequently observed. It is probable 

 that when we come to those fishes which are abso- 

 lutely ground feeders, there is very little migration 

 for the purpose of spawning, but that they rather 

 deposit their spawn in the banks and shallows which 

 they habitually frequent ; and as those banks, instead 

 of being swept bare by the tide, are places of deposit 

 for those substances which are carried in the waters 

 of tides and currents, it is highly probable that a 

 much smaller proportion of the spawn of such fishes 

 is destroyed, than there is of that of those which 

 inhabit nearer to the surface and deposit their spawn 

 in the shallows. The quantity of the latter which 

 must annually be destroyed by birds, by young fishes, 

 by Crustacea, and by many other creatures which 

 inhabit the margin of the sea, must be greatly 

 beyond what we might suppose, and thus it is not 

 easy to say how many races of animals may be in 

 great part supported by the excessive production of 

 the roe fishes, and yet leave a sufficient number of 

 those animals themselves. 



There is no doubt that the circulating currents 

 which are put in motion by the rotation and revolu- 

 tion of the earth, and the different actions of the sun 

 and moon at different times of the day, and different 

 seasons of the year, have a considerable effect upon 

 the seasonal distribution of these fishes which come 

 within their range, and inhabit near the surface of the 

 waters. But we have hardly space left even to 

 glance over the outlines of this ; and even if we had, 

 the subject is beset with very many difficulties. We 

 do not know the depth to which those currents ex- 

 tend, or how the counter currents may act under them ; 

 but it is very probable that the profound depths of 

 the great oceans are not disturbed by any of them, 

 or even that they have much effect in changing the 

 abodes of the still deeper inhabiting fishes, especially 

 those of the tropical ones, where, as we have said, 

 fishes inhabit to a greater depth than they do in the 

 colder latitudes, But it is natural to suppose that 

 when any of these are caught by the current and 



