CLASS OF FISHES. 351 



the fishermen banes. These reunions can scarcely be called 

 societies, and they probably follow each other from a tendency 

 to imitation. 



491. However this may be, these animals unite in vast 

 troops to ascend rivers or to change their habitat. Some 

 lead a sedentary life, remaining always in the same locality ; 

 others are constantly wandering, and some perform distant 

 voyages. At fixed periods of the year they assemble in vast 

 numbers from regions which, if not distant, are at least un- 

 known. This is the case with the herring, and the same may 

 be said of the salmon. The herrings deposit their eggs near 

 the coast, and the young retire, in all probability, merely into 

 deeper waters. The idea of their travelling to and from the 

 Arctic Seas seems quite a fable. They appear on the coast in 

 winter and in early spring, and again at midsummer and 

 during the autumn. Their numbers when they first appear 

 seem incredible ; but they are capricious, and will abandon 

 certain waters for a long period. From the middle of October 

 to the end of the year they abound in the part of the sea called 

 La Manche (the English Channel), and principally in the 

 Straits of Dover, as far as the mouth of the Seine. In July 

 and August they are generally found in the open sea, at a 

 distance from the coast, and the spawn has been found at 

 every season of the year. After spawning, they are poor and 

 of little value. Sixty thousand eggs have been found in a 

 single female of a medium size. In conclusion, but little is 

 known of the natural history of the young of these fishes.* 



492. The sardine, mackerel, herring, and anchovy, are 

 fish of passage, or migratory, which periodically visit our 



* The herring fishery was formerly, especially with the Dutch, a branch of 

 industry of great national importance ; and in the two provinces of Holland 

 Proper and West Friesland, two thousand vessels and more than eight 

 hundred thousand people were engaged in this fishery. Although much 

 diminished in importance, everywhere, the various ports between Dunkirk 

 and the mouth ot the Seine still employ from three to four hundred vessels 

 and about five thousand seamen in this fishery, and the products have been 

 valued at nearly four millions of francs. 



It is a net fishery, the nets- being suspended in the sea like a wall : 

 into the meshes, which must be of a legal size, the herring enters head fore- 

 most beyond the gill covers, and is thus caught between the gill covers and 

 the pectoral fin. If intended for salting, it should be done as soon as pos- 

 sible. By the old Dutch laws, no herring was allowed to be salted after 

 sunset. The Dutch still maintain their superiority in the curing of herrings.t 



t The pilchard, still caught in great numbers on the coast of Cornwall, is 

 a fish analogous in its habits to the herring. K. K. 



