180 THE HERRING. 



swarms of various species ofmollusca, especially medusce, 

 which alone are suitable for its singularly limited pow- 

 ers of deglutition, which, it is asserted by arctic voy- 

 agers, could not embrace any object larger than an egg. 

 However great the havoc which other species of whales 

 commit on the herring-shoals, if Clupea harengus, the 

 herring of our coast, wish to lead a peaceful life, he 

 should remain in the circumpolar waters, and have no 

 dread of the great Greenland whale. As this huge 

 creature does not molest the herring, the southward 

 migration of the latter cannot be owing to his dread 

 of being swallowed wholesale by tons at a time as 

 Bonnet fancies. If bent on such a gratification, there 

 is reason for doubting where he could find them. Her- 

 rings are nearly unknown within the polar seas, and 

 have scarcely been observed by the arctic voyagers, 

 and they are not taken by the Greenlanders. A small 

 variety of the herring is sometimes found, and is no- 

 ticed by Sir John Franklin. 



As already indicated in our extract from his preface, 

 we are surprised to find Mr Mitchell writing as if he had 

 made important discoveries. Having read his work with 

 care, we acknowledge its value as a repository of facts ; 

 but we cannot admit his claims to be regarded as an 

 original observer, whose researches solve the hitherto 

 disputed questions in the natural history of the herring. 

 So far back as the year 1814, we find the writer of the 

 article "Fishes/' in the 'Edinburgh Encyclopaedia,' 

 thus combating Mr Pennant : u For what purpose they 

 should have received an instinct to retire to the polar 

 seas, is to us incomprehensible. The salmon, the shad, 

 the smelt, are never found at sea, yet it is never said 

 that they depart to any great distance from our shores. 

 The most reasonable conjecture we can form is, that the 

 herring, like our other migratory fishes, takes to the 

 deepest parts of the ocean." "In migrating from the 

 deep seas to our shores, the herring seerns to be prompt- 

 ed by a similar instinct to that of the shad and salmon 



