184 THE HERRING. 



Instead of wasting time assigning fanciful reasons 

 for what is known to be a fact in the natural history of 

 the fish, it will be more to the purpose that we should 

 consider whether, as in the case of salmon, the migrat- 

 ory instincts of the herring can be so guided as to make 

 this fish inhabit waters which it has not heretofore 

 frequented, or return to those which it has for a time 

 deserted. 



Its habits, there is reason for believing, are such as 

 to encourage experiments in pisciculture such as have 

 thrown so much light on the habits of the salmon. If 

 rivers, heretofore destitute of this most valued of the 

 fresh-water fishes, are no longer salmonless, we are en- 

 couraged to hope that the coast-haunting herring, if 

 introduced in any favourable locality, may be found as 

 regular in its periodic movements to and from the 

 ocean-deeps as is the salmon in its migration from the 

 sea to the river. We are glad to learn that " La- 

 cepede says, that in North America the spawn of the 

 herrings has been carried by the inhabitants and de- 

 posited at the mouth of a river which had never been 

 frequented by that fish, and to which place the indi- 

 vidual fishes from these spawn acquired a habit, and 

 returned each year, bringing with them probably a 

 great many other individuals of the same species." " It 

 might," observes Mr Mitchell, " perhaps add to our 

 knowledge of the natural history of this animal, if some 

 of the proprietors of sea- water fish-ponds were to make 

 experiments in the same way, or even by transporting 

 the herring alive. The said author also states that in 

 Sweden they have been transported alive to waters 

 where they were wanted." 



This is a statement equally interesting and impor- 

 tant, and if Lacepede gives any details, it is to be 

 regretted that they have not been fully given by Mr 

 Mitchell, whose account of the mode in which the her- 

 ring spawns, though apparently accurate enough, does 

 not appear to throw upon it all the light that is desired, 



