THE HERRING. 



Manner of iu miration. 



two divisions: that to the right sheering off to 

 the west, the left proceeding eastward. The 

 former pressing close to each other, seek an asy- 

 lum on the coasts of Iceland, where they arrive 

 about the month of March ; then turning west- 

 ward, they arrive at the great bank of Newfound- 

 Jand, after which it is not ascertained what be- 

 comes of them. The other division proceeds 

 southward* and forms two columns, one of which 

 descends along the Norwegian coasts, through 

 the Sound and Belt into the Baltic; the other 

 steers westward to the Orkney and Shetland 

 islands. The latter column is again divided into 

 two brigades; one portion turning towards Ire- 

 land and Scotland, then making the circuit of 

 Ireland, enters the Atlantic, passes through the 

 Channel, and arrives on the coasts of the Nether- 

 lands. The other part, following the east coasts 

 of Scotland and England, passes into the north 

 sea, where the two columns unite. At length, 

 after these vast shoals have fed the inhabitants of 

 all the coasts bordering on the Baltic and the 

 German ocean, the remainder assemble in the 

 latter and again disappear. At last, as no traces 

 of them are afterwards found on the Europe&u 

 coasts, it is presumed that they return to their 

 native deeps." 



Bloch, however, ventures to call in question 

 the accuracy of this hypothesis, though inge- 

 nious, and generally adopted. " The herring," he 

 asserts, " never, or at least very rarely, appears 



5 



