STUDENTS AND HERRING. 171 



Scotch don't like whisky, he would certainly nonplus 

 his antagonist. How, then, after being so frank in our 

 admission of the fishy odour pervading Scottish life and 

 conversation, can we maintain that the Scotch neither 

 catch nor eat enough of herring ? 



As to the poor students at Edinburgh University 

 living on herrings and oatmeal, that is not to be won- 

 dered at, considering the proximity of Newhaven to the 

 Scottish metropolis. But since the days of Principal 

 Lee we suspect there is no small change in the style of 

 student diet. At all events, when attending that re- 

 nowned university, we certify that our fellow-students, 

 though daily hearing the (now, alas ! discontinued) 

 merry chimes of St Giles's playing "Caller Herrin," 

 responded to the call, 



' ' Wha'll buy my herrin', fresh frae the sea ? " 



in a fashion not likely to find favour with a fishwife. 

 They were addicted to having a red herring to supper, 

 having made the curious physiological discovery that 

 the fish so prepared, if eaten and washed down by a pot 

 of porter, left on the palate so strong a flavour of raw 

 oysters as to necessitate its removal by the speedy im- 

 bition of a tumbler of toddy. As to the inference re- 

 garding the fish-eating habits of the people which a 

 stranger might draw from the ichthyological similitudes 

 to be found in Scottish songs and proverbs, we must 

 correct it by means of our better knowledge. We are 

 not ^ven- now a fish-eating race to anything like the 

 extent which might be anticipated from our maritime 

 position. We do not eat salmon because they are too 

 dear, and must so continue until pisciculture be resorted 

 to on the large scale which we have so often recom- 

 mended; cod and haddocks are not habitually eaten 

 even by the middle classes ; skate, generally under- 

 valued, is scorned by the multitude ; and as to eels, the 

 antipathy to them is notorious. 



As to the herring, the extent to which it is captured 



