THE HERRING. 



313 



of several miles extent with their nets called 

 saines. To direct them in their operations, 

 there were some years ago (but I believe they 

 are discontinued) several men placed on emi- 



ney, found around the isle of Man and all along the 

 western shores of Scotland, and in the western lochs. 

 A greater degree of observation would most probably 

 prove that it is deposited around the British coasts gen- 

 erally, particularly the coast of Scotland. 



Fishermen have remarked that the herring was most 

 abundant where the medusae, and other marine animals 

 which give the sea a luminous appearance, were to be 

 found. The movements of herrings are doubtless fre- 

 quently determined by the time and place where food is 

 abundant. If it is not to be found in one spot it must 

 be sought for in another; and the apparent caprice which 

 they show in frequenting places at irregular times and 

 irregular intervals, is determined by a provident regard 

 to the abundance of food with which those places are 

 supplied. 



Lastly, in endeavouring to escape from whales, gram- 

 puses, sharks, and other enemies, the movements of the 

 herring are the result of necessity ; and nothing seems 

 more unlikely than that they should, under such circum- 

 stances, display an instinctive attachment to particular 

 places. 



Herrings enter the Frith of Forth about the end of 

 December or the beginning of January, and remain two 

 or three weeks at the mouth of the estuary before they 

 attempt to ascend. This delay seems greatly to depend 

 on the state of the weather, for in some seasons when it 

 is mild and fine, the herring has been observed to swarm 

 in the Frith oft' Musselburgh in the early part of Janu- 

 ary; whilst in the rough and stormy seasons they do not 

 make their appearance in that part of the river before 

 the middle of February, and always disappear before the 

 end of March. They seem to visit the Frith regularly 

 every winter, and a season very seldom passes without a 

 few being captured and sent to the Edinburgh market. 

 Some years they appear in much larger shoals than in 

 others, the reason of which is not accounted for. In the 

 year 1816, pilchards were taken in the Frith of Forth 

 in great abundance, when not a dozen herrings were 

 .seen during the whole winter. Since that time not a 

 single pilchard has been known to enter the estuary. 



'In June, July, and August, herring are taken off the 

 Dunbar and Berwick coasts in considerable number, 

 from whence the Edinburgh market is abundantly sup- 

 plied, when scarcely a single herring is to be seen higher 

 in the Frith of a size worth the notice of the fisher- 

 men. 



Herrings are said to deposit their spawn towards the 

 end of October, but this spawning does not account for the 

 number of small fiy, two inches in length, that are found 

 in the Frith of Forth during the month of July; and the 

 young herrings that are taken from six to seven inches 

 long in the month of February, mixed with fry from two 

 to three inches in length. When herrings are brought 

 to the market in the first two months of the year, they 

 are found full of spawn, and in the middle of March 

 they are observed to be very lank, with not a single ovum 

 to be seen. Hence it is not improbable, that the same 

 species of herring might spawn twice in the year, early 

 in the month of March and also towards the end of 

 October. 



The most common length of a full-grown herring is 

 eleven inches, and two and a quarter deep. Each jaw on 

 the anterior part is furnished with six or eight teeth placed 

 in one row, which are more perceptible on the lower than 

 on the upper jaw ; the vomer is supplied with a double 

 row, about sixteen in number; on each side is another 

 row of teeth, which are rather smaller ; the tongue is also 

 armed with teeth, arranged in three or four rows, with 



VOL it 



nences near the shore, called huers, who, with 

 brooms in their hands, gave signals where the 

 nets were to be extended, and where the shoals 

 of fishes lay : this they perceived by the colour 



their points directed inwards; the under jaw is longest, 

 and is tipped with black ; eyes large and silvery, placed 

 nearer to the point of the nose than to the posterior 

 margin of the operculm. The first ray of the dorsal fin 

 in an adult fish arises exactly half way between the point 

 of the upper jaw and the base of the middle caudal rays ; 

 the origin of the ventral fins is placed behind the third 

 dorsal ray, half way between the point of the lower jaw, 

 and a little beyond the end of the middle caudal rays. 



The tail is deeply forked, the middle rays less than 

 half the length of the longest ray of the same fin; the 

 second ray of the dorsal fin, a little~Iongfir than the base 

 of that fin ; the scales are large, oval, and very decidu- 

 ous, placed in fifteen rows between the dorsal and ven- 

 tral fins. Most authors suppose that the belly of the 

 herring is not serrated in any stage of its growth, which 

 is said to form a good specific distinction between it and 

 the sprat; but it will be found that this is not the case, 

 for a herring less than six inches in length is as dis- 

 tinctly serrated on the belly with thirty-six teeth, 

 between the ventral and anal fins, as a sprat of equal 

 size ; but as the herring increases in size, so the serra- 

 tures become obliterated, and, by the time the fish reaches 

 to the length of eight inches, the belly will be found to 

 be no longer serrated, but carinated. 



The most prominent specific distinction of the herring, 

 from the sprat, white-bait, and pilchard, is in the posi- 

 tion of the dorsal fin, which is placed exactly in the 

 middle of the fish, half way between the point of the 

 upper jaw, and the end of the longest caudal ray. 



Dr Knox considers the food of the herring, while 

 inhabiting the depths of the ocean, to consist principally 

 of minute entomostracous animals; but it is certainly 

 less choice (adds Mr Yarrell) in its selection when near 

 the shore. Dr Neill found five young herrings in the 

 stomach of a large female herring; he has also known 

 them to be taken by the fishermen on their lines, the 

 hooks of which were baited with limpets. The young 

 of the white-bait and small shrimps are often found in 

 the stomach of herrings when they are not in roe ; but 

 when they are about to spawn, their stomachs (as is ob- 

 served in most other fishes at that period,) appear as if 

 empty and destitute of any perceptible food. On the 

 authority of Dr Fleming the fry have even been caught 

 with a trout-fly^ " 



On the coasts of the West Highlands, herrings for 

 many years past have been taken with the rod, th'e hook 

 dressed with a white feather (generally from some of the 

 gulls.) Near Oban, and upon the snores of Mull and 

 Jura, twelve dozen are sometimes taken by a single boat 

 during the evening. 



Mode of taking and curing Herrings. The herring- 

 fishery is only carried on during the spawning season, 

 when the fish are in the highest perfection. The Yar- 

 mouth herring-fishery commences about the middle of 

 September, but the season varies at different parts of 

 the coast. On the coast of Sutherland the early her- 

 ring-fishery commences in June ; the late fishery about 

 the middle of July, and continues until September. 

 On the coast of Cromarty large shoals appear as early 

 as the month of May. The great object is to obtain a 

 supply for the purpose of curing, although, in the early 

 part of the season, large numbers of fresh herrings are 

 brought to the London market from Yarmouth; and 

 the consumption at Norwich and other places, which 

 are not at a great distance from the coast, is also con- 

 siderable. The fish are sometimes so rich in the early 

 part of the season as to be unfit for curing, and on this 

 aocount they are brought into the market for immediate 

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