THE HERRING. 



311 



so close a body, that a shovel, or any hollow 

 vessel, put into the water, takes them up 

 without farther trouble. 



. That body which comes upon our coasts, 

 begins to appear off the Shetland isles in 

 April. These are the forerutmers of the 

 grand shoal which descends in June ; while 

 its arrival is easily announced, by the number 

 of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, 

 the shark, and the porpoise. When the main 

 body is arrived, its breadth and depth is such 

 as to alter the very appearance of the ocean. 

 It is divided into distinct columns, of five or 

 six miles in length, and three or four broad; 

 while the water before them curls up, as 

 if forced out of its bed. 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 bespangled with purple, gold, and 

 azure. The fishermen are ready prepared to 

 give them a proper reception ; and, by nets 

 made for the occasion, they take sometimes 

 above two thousand barrels at a single draught. 



From the Shetland isles, another body of 

 this great army, where it divides, goes off to 

 the western coasts of Ireland, where they meet 

 with a second necessity of dividing. The one 

 takes to the Atlantic, where it is soon lost in 

 that extensive ocean ; the other passes into the 

 Irish sea, and furnishes a very considerable 

 capture to the natives. 



In this manner the herrings, expelled from 

 their native seas, seek those bays and shores 

 where they can find food, and the best defence 

 against their unmerciful pursuers of the deep. 

 In general, the most inhabited shores are the 

 places where the larger animals of the deep 

 are least fond of pursuing ; and these are chosen 

 by the herrings as an asylum from great dan- 

 pers. Thus, along the coasts of Norway, the 

 German shores, and the northern shores ol 

 France, these animals are found punctual in 

 their visitations. In these different places 

 they produce their young; which, when come 

 to some degree of maturity, attend the general 

 motions. After the destruction of such num- 

 bers, the quantity that attempts to return is 

 but small; and Anderson doubts whether they 

 ever return. 



Such is the account given of the migration 

 of these fishes, by one who, of all others, was 

 best acquainted with their history ; and yet 

 many doubts arise, in every part of the migra- 

 tion. The most obvious which has been made 

 is, that though such numbers perish in their 

 descent from the north, yet, in comparison to 

 those that survive, the account is trifling: and 

 it is supposed, that of those taken by man, the 

 proportion is not one to a million. Their 

 regularly leaving the shore also at a stated 

 time, would imply that they are not in these 



visits under the impulse of necessity. In fact, 

 there seems one circumstance that shows these 

 animals governed by a. choice with respect to 

 the shores they pitch upon; and not blindly 

 drove from one shore to another. What I 

 mean, is their fixing upon some shores for 

 several seasons, or, indeed, for several ages 

 together ; and, after having regularly visited 

 them every year, then capriciously forsaking 

 them, never more to return. The first great 

 bank for herrings was along the shores of Nor- 

 way. Before the year 1584, the number of ships 

 from all parts of Europe that resorted to that 

 shore exceeded some thousands. The quantity 

 of herrings that were then "assembled there 

 was such, that a man who should put a spear 

 in the water, as Olaus Magnus asserts, would 

 see it stand on end, being prevented from 

 falling. But soon after that period, these 

 animals were seen to desert the Norway shores, 

 and took up along the German coast, where 

 the Hanse- Towns drove a very great trade by 

 their capture and sale ; but, for above a century, 

 the herrings have, in a great measure forsaken 

 them ; and their greatest colonies are seen in 

 the British channel, and upon the Irish shores. 

 It is not easy to assign a cause for this seem- 

 ingly capricious desertion : whether the num- 

 ber of their finny enemies, increasing along 

 the northern coasts, may have terrified the 

 herring tribe from their former places of re- 

 sort; or, whether the quantity of food being 

 greater in the British Channel, may not allure 

 them thither; is not easy to determine. 1 



1 The Herring, v/ith the pilchard sprat, shad, anchovy, 

 and white-bait, belongs to the Clupeae genus. It weighs 

 about five ounces and a half. The upper part of the 



body is blue or dark green, and the lower parts of a silvery 

 white. Owing to the gill-lids being very loose and 

 opening wide, the herring dies almost the instant it is 

 taken out of the water; hence, perhaps, the saying, " as 

 dead as a herring." In twenty-four hours the gill-covers 

 present an extravasated appearance. 



The herring is not found in warm regions, nor farther 

 south than the northern coasts of France. The most 

 interesting point connected with its natural history is 

 the annual movement which it makes. Pennant, whose 

 zoological labours entitle him to much respect, about the 

 middfe of the last century gave an account of their per- 

 iodical migration, which has been implicitly copied by 

 nearly every succeeding writer, Goldsmith among the 

 rest. In a work on subjects of marine natural history, 

 published quite recently, Pennant's account is substan- 

 tially repeated, and it is stated in addition that the dif- 

 ferent columns of herrings, in the course of their migra- 

 tions, are led by herrings of more than ordinary size. 

 Other writers have stated that the annual visitations of the 

 herring are adjusted with the most scrupulous precision to 

 the character of the country along which they pass, and 

 that wherever the soil is meagre and the climate severe, 

 there they never fail to resort. This is going much 



