172 THE HERRING. 



is very great. Still we are not sufficiently alive to the 

 national importance of this branch of marine industry. 

 The ignorance of most of us in regard to the natural 

 history of this most interesting fish is astonishing ; for 

 which, indeed, we are not altogether to be blamed. 

 Our " practical men," and our reputedly learned men 

 besides, have been too long blind leaders of the blind. 

 Assertions have been made and assented to, in regard 

 to the habits and the habitat of the herring, which ought 

 to have been discontinued and disbelieved long ere 

 now. But as ignorance in regard to this important fish, 

 and partial comprehension of its influence on our na- 

 tional fortunes, are still prevalent, we are glad that the 

 publication of Mr Mitchell's very useful work affords us 

 the opportunity of treating of various matters connected 

 with this branch of British fisheries. 



This gentleman, occupying the position of Belgian 

 Consul at Leith, and living on the banks of the Forth, 

 has excellent opportunities of examining into the natu- 

 ral history of the herring and its congeners ; and the 

 information he communicates is the more trustworthy, 

 from his having been at the pains to prosecute his 

 researches by visiting not only the chief sites of the 

 British herring-fisheries, but also the shores of the Baltic 

 and of the German Ocean, besides residing in Norway, 

 and inspecting the principal fishing districts of that 

 country. He has also visited the principal fishing ports 

 of France from Dieppe to Marseilles. 



We willingly acknowledge the value of the informa- 

 tion thus acquired, while demurring to the rather too 

 self-complacent tone of the following sentence in his 

 preface : " The author believes he has satisfactorily 

 solved the hitherto disputed questions as to food, peri- 

 odical visits, migration, &c.; he has also, for the first 

 time, established the important fact that herrings visit 

 our coasts twice in the year ; that, in fact, there is a 

 winter and a summer herring periodically arriving on 

 the different coasts, and already, from this knowledge, 



