HERRING. 



and do not show an invariable attachment to their 

 haunts." Now so far is this from being the true state 

 of the case, that herrings are very rare in the polar 

 seas at all seasons of the year ; and the few that 

 are met with in the extreme north belong to a smaller 

 and much less valuable variety than that which is 

 caught in such numbers on the British shores. In 

 truth, the habit of the herrings, and, generally speak- 

 ing, of the whole herring family, does not differ much 

 in its great principles from that of the salmon, only 

 the species with which we are acquainted do not 

 ascend the rivers as the salmon do, though some of 

 them approach farther up the estuaries than others. 

 Their proper pastures, when their only objects are 

 feeding and recovering their strength, after having 

 been exhausted by the process of breeding, are the 

 deep waters of the sea, at a considerable distance 

 from the land. They arc however, to a certain extent, 

 surface fishes : and surface fishes, us we might expect, 

 do not deposit their spawn under a very great depth 

 of water ; because a certain degree of action of the 

 solar heat and light appears to be necessary for quick- 

 ening the eggs into life ; and not only this, but the 

 maturing of the spawn within the bodies of the ani- 

 mals appears to require an approach towards the 

 shores. Hence the herrings arrive off the coasts for 

 some time before they begin to deposit their spawn ; 

 and this is the time at which they are most valuable 

 for food, and caught in such numbers at the different 

 fishing stations. Whether they breed every year, 

 that is, whether, after having deposited their spawn 

 for one year, they are ready to return with an equally 

 productive load the next year, is a question which we 

 cannot determine. It is not very probable that so 

 excessive a production can go on year after year ; 

 but as we cannot follow those migratory fish which 

 disappear from our coasts at certain seasons into the 

 depths of the ocean, we cannot speak positively on 

 this part of the subject. We may rest assured, how- 

 ever, that there is no very great migration in latitude 

 in herrings or in any other species of fishes which 

 inhabit ihe sea. It is indeed said that whales not 

 only migrate, but migrate almost 'from the one pole 

 to the other in the course of the year ; but it will be 

 recollected that whales are not only warm-blooded 

 animals, but animals of comparatively high tempera- 

 ture ; and that they not only come to the surface to 

 breed, but feed with part of the body above water. 

 Therefore we can easily suppose that the rigour of 

 the polar winter might drive such an animal after the 

 sun into more southerly latitudes. This, however, 

 implies no necessity of migration in fishes, which 

 keep constantly below the water, and are not only in 

 their own temperature, but experience very little 

 change in that of the medium in which they swim 

 during the whole year. In our seas there is a slight 

 difference of temperature of the surface water in sum- 

 mer and in winter , but it is doubtful whether this 

 reaches to any considerable depth, and therefore we 

 can assign no cause why herrings or any other fishes 

 should migrate much in latitude. 



The most rational opinion, and indeed the only 

 one which has any thing like reason or philosophy in 

 it, is that those fishes inhabit the deep water around 

 our coasts at all seasons of the year when they do not 

 approach near the land ; and that their object in 

 approaching the land is that of breeding as above 

 stated. It is well known that they deposit their 

 spawn on our shores, beginning in some instances in 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



the month of October, in others not till November 

 and there are instances in which the operation is not 

 wholly completed until nearly the end of December. 

 When it is entirely over, and the fishes are on their 

 return to the deep water, their Hesh is exhausted and 

 tasteless, and even unwholesome, and they are pro- 

 verbially known by the name of " shotten 'herrings," 

 which is a common expression for any thing worth- 

 less ; but as long as they remain on the coast without 

 having actually spawned they are in good condition ; 

 and we have certainly seen good herrings selling at. 

 the very moderate rate of forty a penny as late as the 

 third week of December. 



They approach the land in vast shoals, often 

 extending many miles in length and breadth, and 

 probably fathoms in depth ; and sometimes, when 

 those shoals are caught in severe gales, the fishes are 

 stranded in numbers beyond all imagination. This 

 usually happens during the violent gales which 

 frequently occur about the time of the autumnal 

 equinox, for that is the period of the year at which 

 herrings approach our shores in the greatest numbers. 

 In some of the lochs or arms of the sea, on the wesf. 

 coast of Scotland, they have often been cast ashore 

 in such numbers that they were chopped up as manure 

 for the land ; and the writ'er of this article remembers 

 a case, on the east coast of Scotland, when, during a 

 strong gale from the north-cast, an entire shoal was 

 shipwrecked. It does not appear that herrings retreat 

 in any considerable numbers to the cod-banks in the 

 southern part of our eastern sea ; and there are two 

 reasons why they should not : in the first place, the 

 water there is comparatively shallow ; and, in the 

 second place, the cod are most ravenous fishes, and 

 would doubtless make terrible havoc of a shoal of 

 herrings if it should come within their locality. 

 Hence the greater number of those herrings which 

 reach the more southerly parts of our east coast cer- 

 ,ainly do come from a little way north, and, in their 

 passage, they keep between the cod-banks and the 

 land ; and as, during their migration shoreward, they 

 come pretty near the surface, it is natural to supposo 

 that, along with the surface-water, they should, to 

 some extent at least, drift before the wind. In the 

 case to which we allude, which occurred at the town 

 of Crail, at the eastern extremity of the peninsula of 

 Fife, a gentleman, on whose veracity we can rely, 

 was spending a day with a friend at the outskirts of 

 the town. The bellman passed, making a violent 

 clatter, with not the most musical of all instruments, 

 and then proclaimed, with stentorian voice, that any 

 one who chose to go to the shore, meaning thereby 

 the harbour of Crail, would get a cartload of live 

 herrings for a shilling. This passed without much 

 notice ; but by and by the bellman again came round, 

 proclaiming, that any one who pleased to resort to 

 the shore of Crail would get a cartload of live her- 

 rings for nothing. The second announcement, of 

 course, excited some speculation ; and it was soon 

 followed by a third one, that any one who would bo 

 kind enough to go to the shore of Crail would get a 

 shilling for taking away a cartload of live herrings. 

 This seemed something- very extraordinary, and the 

 .party set off for the shore accordingly. Upon arriving 

 there, they found that a shoal of herrings, on their 

 way probably to the Frith of Forth, and the sandy 

 beach between North Berwick and Dunhar, which 

 are understood to be favourite places for the de- 

 positing of the spawn, had been driven inside the 

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