530 FISHES. 



and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before 

 them with a kind of rippling : sometimes they sink for the space 

 of ten or fifteen minutes; then rise again to the surface, and in 

 bright weather reflect a variety of splendid colours, like a field 

 of the most precious gems ; in which, or rather in a much more 

 valuable light, should this stupendous gift of Providence be con* 

 sidered by the inhabitants of the British isles. 



* The first check this army meets in its march southward, is 

 from the Shetland isles, which divide it into two parts ; one wing 

 takes to the east, the other to the western shores of Great Britain, 

 and fill every bay and creek with their numbers : others pass on 

 towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings : they 

 they then pass through the British channnel, and after that, in a 

 manner disappear : those which take to the west, after offering 

 themselves to the Hebrides, where the great stationary fishery is, 

 proceed towards the North of Ireland, where they meet with a 

 second interruption, and are obliged to make a second division : 

 the one takes to the western side, and is scarce perceived, being 

 soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic ; but the other, which 

 passes into the Irish sea, rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of the 

 coasts that border it. 



" These brigades, as we may call them, which are thus sepa- 

 rated from the greater columns, are often capricious in their 

 movements, and do not shew an invariable attachment to their 

 haunts.'* 



The reality of the migration of the herring, so well detailed by 

 Mr. Pennant, begins at present to be greatly called in question ; 

 and it is rather supposed that this fish, like the mackrel, is in 

 reality at no very great distance during the winter months, from 

 the shores which it most frequents at the commencement of the 

 spawning season ; inhabiting in winter the deep recesses of the 

 ocean, or plunging itself beneath the soft mud at the bottom ; but 

 at the vernal season it begins to quit the deeper parts, and ap- 

 proach the shallows in order to deposit its spawn in proper situa- 

 tions ; and this is thought a sufficient explanation of the glittering 

 myriads which at particular seasons illumine the surface of the 

 ocean for the length of several miles at once*. As a proof of this 



* Herrings spawn at different seasons; some in spring, some in summer, 

 and some in autumn, 



