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blue ; the eyes are large ; the mouth without 

 visible teeth ; the openings of the gill-covers 

 very large ; the scales moderate in size, oval, 

 and thin ; the lateral line not very distinctly 

 visible ; the belly carinated, but not serrated : 

 the fins rather small than large for the size 

 of the fish ; and the tail considerably forked. 



It has long been asserted, and generally 

 believed, that Herrings are found in the 

 greatest abundance in the high northern 

 latitudes ; and that the prodigious shoals 

 which at certain seasons fill our seas, are 

 making their migratory excursions from 

 those icy regions. But this " great fact " in 

 natural history has not only been called in 

 question of late, but the migration of the 

 Herring from one latitude to another has 

 been denied by men of high scientific at- 

 tainments who have given the subject great 

 attention, and who assert that the Herring, 

 having passed the winter and spring months 

 in the deep recesses of the ocean, follows the 

 dictates of nature, and at the proper season 

 approaches the shallower water near the 

 coasts to deposit its spawn. We shall there- 

 fore lay the statements, pro and con, before 

 our readers 



Mr. Pennant, in his British Zoology, says, 

 " The great winter rendezvous of the Herring 

 is within the arctic circle : there they con- 

 tinue many months, in order to recruit 

 themselves after the fatigue of spawning, 

 the seas within that space swarming with 

 small Crustacea in a far greater degree than 

 in our warmer latitudes." He then thus 

 proceeds : " This mighty army begins to 

 put itself in motion in the spring : we dis- 

 tinguish this vast body by that name, for 

 the word Herring is derived from the Ger- 

 man, Heer, an army, to express their num- 

 bers. They begin to appear off the Shetland 

 isles in April and May : these are only fore- 

 runners of the grand shoal which comes in 

 June, and their appearance is marked by 

 certain signs, by the numbers of birds, such 

 as gannets and others, which follow to prey 

 on them : but when the main body ap- 

 proaches, its breadth and depth is such as to 

 alter the very appearance of the ocean. It 

 is divided into distinct columns of five or six 

 miles in length and three or four in breadth, 

 and they drive the water before them with a 

 kind of rippling : sometimes they sink for 

 the space of ten or fifteen minutes ; then 

 rise again to the surface, and in bright 

 weather reflect a variety of splendid colours, 

 like a field of the most precious gems, in 

 which, or rather in a much more valuable 

 light, should this stupendous gift of Provi- 

 dence be considered by the inhabitants of 

 the British isles. The first check this army 

 meets in its march southward, is from the 

 Shetland isles, which divide it into two 

 parts ; one wing takes to the east, the other 

 to the western shores of Great Britain, and 

 fill every bay and creek with their numbers : 

 Others pass on towards Yarmouth, the great 

 and ancient mart of Herrings : they then 

 pass through the British Channel, and after 

 that in a manner disappear : those which 

 take to the west, after offering themselves to 

 the Hebrides, where the great stationary 

 fishery is, proceed towards the north of Ire- 



land, where they meet with a second inter- 

 ruption, and are obliged to make a second 

 division : the one takes to the western side, 

 and is scarce perceived, being soon lost in 

 the immensity of the Atlantic ; but the 

 other, which passes into the Irish sea, re- 

 joices and feeds the inhabitants of the coasts 

 that border it. These brigades, as we may 

 call them, which are thus separated from the 

 greater columns, are often capricious in their 

 movements, and do not show an invariable 

 attachment to their haunts." 



The foregoing account, so well detailed by 

 Pennant, was until lately, as we have before 

 remarked, the generally received opinion ; 

 but it is now supposed that the Herring, like 

 the Mackerel, is in reality at no very great 

 distance during the winter months from the 

 shores which it most frequents at the com- 

 mencement of the spawning season ; and 

 this is thought a sufficient explanation of 

 the glittering myriads which at particular 

 seasons illumine the surface of the ocean for 

 miles together. As a proof of this, Dr. Bloch 

 observes that Herrings are in reality found 

 at almost all seasons of the year about some 

 of the European coasts, and that the north- 

 ern voyages, supposed by Pennant and 

 others, are impracticable in the short period 

 assigned by naturalists ; the fish, in its 

 swiftest progress, being utterly incapable of 

 moving at so rapid a rate as this migration 

 necessarily supposes. 



But the subject has been more amply dis- 

 cussed by Mr. Yarrell, who brings forward so 

 many valid and well-supported objections 

 to the theory of the Herring's migration from 

 the arctic seas, that we shall take the liberty 

 of extracting them from his excellent work. 

 " To show that this supposed migration to 

 and from high northern latitudes does not 

 exist, it is only necessary to state, that the 

 Herring has never been noticed, that I am 

 aware, as abounding in the Arctic Ocean : 

 it has not been observed in any number in 

 the proper icy seas ; nor have our whale- 

 fishers or arctic voyagers taken any parti- 

 cular notice of them. There is no fishery 

 for them of any consequence either in 

 Greenland or Iceland. On the southern 

 coast of Greenland the Herring is a rare 

 fish ; and only a small variety of it, accord- 

 ing to Crantz, is found on the northern 

 shore. This small variety or species was 

 found by Sir John Franklin, on the shore of 

 the Polar basin, on his second journey. 

 ' That the Herring is, to a certain degree, a 

 migratory fish,' says Dr. M'Culloch, ' may 

 be true ; but even a much more limited mi- 

 I gration is far from demonstrable. It is at 

 any rate perfectly certain that there is no 

 such progress along the east and west coasts 

 from a central point.' There can be no 

 doubt that the Herring inhabits the deep 

 water all round our coast, and only ap- 

 proaches the shores for the purpose of depo- 

 siting its spawn within the immediate 

 influence of the two principal agents in vi- 

 vification increased temperature and oxy- 

 gen ; and as soon as that essential operation 

 is effected, the shoals that haunt our coast 

 disappear : but individuals are to be found, 

 and many are caught, throughout the year. 



