578 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



there, according to the emigration theory. Ifc has heen deduced, from 

 a consideration of the annual takes of many years, that the herring 

 exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity month after month. 

 It is well known that the herrings taken at Wick in July are quite 

 different from those caught at Dunbar in August and September ; 

 indeed I would go further, and say that even at Wick each month has 

 its changing shoal, and that as one race appears for capture another 

 disappears, having fulfilled its mission. It is certain that the herrings 

 of these different seasons vary considerably in size and appearance ; 

 localities are marked by distinctive features. Thus the well-known 

 Loch Fyne herring is essentially different from that of the Firth of 

 Forth ; and those differ again, in many particulars, from those caught 

 off Yarmouth. In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore 

 where it is taken ; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an 

 index of the feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The 

 superiority of flavour of the herring taken in our great iand-locked 

 salt-water lochs is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the 

 depth and body of water, from more plentiful marine vegetation, or 

 from the greater variety of land food likely to be washed into these 

 inland seas, has not yet heen determined, but it is certain that the 

 herrings of our western sea-lochs are infinitely superior to those 

 captured in the more open sea." " Moreover," he adds, " it is now 

 known, from the inquiries of the late Mr. Mitchell and other 

 authorities on the geographical distribution of the herring, that 

 the fish has never been noticed as being at all abundant in the arctic 

 regions." 



The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and even 

 on the fry of its own species. On the other hand, its enemies are the 

 most formidable inhabitants of the ocean ; the whales destroy them by 

 thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which threatens to 

 be on"e of extermination. In fact, the herring-fishery has been to 

 certain nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the founda- 

 tion of Dutch independence. Silk manufacture, coffee, tea, spices, 

 which are productive of great commercial movements, address them- 

 selves only to the wants of luxury or fashion. The produce of the 

 herring fishery, on the contrary, is one of necessity to the people ; 

 and Holland would have languished and quickly disappeared, with its 

 fictitious territory, if the sea had not added to its commercial industry 



