5.51 VIISTOKY OF 



tity 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 migration. The 

 most obvious which has been made is, that though such numbers 

 perish in their descent from the )iortb, 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 mil- 

 lion. 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 

 (.hey pitch upon ; and not blindly drove from one shore to another. 

 What I mean, is their fijcing 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 

 ftiore to return. The first great bank for herrings was along the 

 shores of Norway. Before the year 158i, the number of ships 

 from all parts of Europe that resorted to that shore exceeded 

 some thousands. The quantity of herrings that were then as- 

 sembled 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 seemingly 

 capricious desertion : whether the number of their finny enemies, 

 increasing along the northern coasts, may have terrified the her- 

 ring tribe from their former places of resort; or, whether tb 

 quantity of food being greater in the British Chaanel, may not 

 allure them thither ; is not easy to determine.* 



• Herringrs prefer the deep water, and, generally speaking, avoid the shoal 

 roasts ; and when they do get entangled upon one, great numbers aie 

 wrecked. The rocky promontory at the east end of the county of Fife, off 

 B'hich there lies an extensive reef or rock, sometimes has that effect ; and 

 there have been seas in which, when the difficulties of the place were ails'. 



