THE OCEAN WORLD. 



Baltic and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up 

 to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But 

 the finest herrings are said to be caught on Loch Fyne, on the west 

 coast of Scotland. 



The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely 

 packed together shoals in which the herrings may be counted not by 

 hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, in many a shore 

 and bay. It was the favourite theory, not very long ago, that 

 herrings emigrated to and from the arctic regions. It was asserted, 

 by the supporters of this theory, that in the inaccessible seas of high 

 northern latitudes herrings existed in overwhelming numbers, an 

 open sea within the arctic circle affording a safe and bounteous feed- 

 ing-ground. At the proper season vast bodies gathered themselves 

 together into one great army, which in numbers exceeding the powers 

 of imagination, departed for more southern regions. This great Heer, 

 or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they reached the 

 different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen, by herrings 

 of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking the west 

 side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result being an 

 adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated every 

 bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth. 

 Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence 

 in fact. Lacepede denies that these periodical journeyings take place. 

 Valenciennes also rejects the idea. It is true that the herrings have 

 disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly 

 very plentiful ; but it is also certain that in many of the fishing 

 stations fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery 

 that the herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of 

 Europe (which, smoked, is known as the " Digby Chick ") is against 

 the theory. In short, there is a total absence of proof of their 

 pretended migrations to high northern latitudes ; and recent discoveries 

 all tend to show that the herring is native to the shores on which it is 

 taken. 



" It has been demonstrated/' says Dr. Bertram, " that the herring 

 is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the 

 year round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins 

 at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and 

 goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off 

 the coast of Caithness ; while in autumn and winter we find large 

 supplies of herrings at Yarmouth : there is a winter fishery in the 

 Firth of Forth. Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before 

 it ought to be there, according to the emigration theory. It has been 



