MIGRATION. 169 



other to the western shores of Great Britain, 

 and fill every creek with their numbers. Others 

 proceed towards Yarmouth, the great and 

 ancient mart of herrings ; they then pass 

 through the British Channel, 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. One branch takes to 

 the western side, and is scarcely 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 most of the 

 coasts that border on it. These brigades, as 

 we may call them, which are thus separated 

 from the greater columns, are often capricious 

 in their motions, and do not show an invariable 

 attachment to their haunts." 



It would seem as if Pennant had been the 

 leader of a wing or brigade of the herring army, 

 so precisely does he describe the course of 

 advance from north to south. But alas, like 

 many theories entertained by men of high 

 intellect and observant minds, Pennant's history 

 of the fish in question, as far as its army move- 

 ments are concerned, is altogether visionary. 

 We deny not that the herring migrates, but it 

 is from the deep sea to shoal-water, and vice 

 versa- — and this is all. The herring is never 

 seen in the Arctic seas. The whale fishers do 

 not meet with it in high latitudes. Crantz 

 f2 



