HERRING. 113 



and is satisfied, for this reason, with imaginary ones. Thus, 

 in Long Island, one of the Hebrides, it was asserted that 

 the fish had been driven away by the manufactory of kelp ; 

 some imaginary coincidence having been found between their 

 disappearance and the establishment of that business. But 

 the kelp fires did not drive them away from other shores, 

 which they frequent and abandon indifferently without regard 

 to this work. It has been a still more favourite and popular 

 fancy, that they were driven away by the firing of guns ; and 

 hence this is not allowed during the fishing season. A gun 

 has scarcely been fired in the Western Islands, or on the west 

 coast, since the days of Cromwell ; yet they have changed 

 their places many times in that interval. In a similar man- 

 ner, and with equal truth, it was said that they had been 

 driven from the Baltic by the battle of Copenhagen. It is 

 amusing to see how old theories are revived. This is a very 

 ancient Highland hypothesis, with the necessary modification. 

 Before the days of guns and gunpowder, the Highlanders 

 held that they quitted coasts where blood had been shed : 

 and thus ancient philosophy is renovated. Steam-boats are 

 now supposed to be the culprits, since a reason must be 

 found : to prove their effect, Loch Fyne, visited by a 

 steam-boat daily, is now their favourite haunt, and they have 

 deserted other lochs where steam-boats have never yet 

 smoked." A Member of the House of Commons, during 

 the sessions of 1835, in a debate on a tithe bill, stated, that 

 a clergyman having obtained a living on the coast of Ire- 

 land, signified his intention of taking the tithe of fish ; 

 which was, however, considered to be so utterly repugnant 

 to their privileges and feelings, that not a single Herring had 

 ever since visited that part of the shore ! 



Our common Herring spawns towards the end of October 

 or the beginning of November ; and it is for two or three 



