HERRING. 99 



In these schools there are many more males than females ; 

 and how prolific they are is shewn by the incalculable numbers 

 that are taken from the sea by human industry, which in 

 Scotland alone amounts annually, on an average, to about five 

 hundred thousand barrels prepared for exportation, besides a 

 large consumption at home; and this must form only a moderate 

 proportion of what is taken in other parts of our own country. 

 It is probable, further, that the multitudes which in every 

 stage of their existence fall a prey to the ravenous inhabitants 

 of the ocean are still more considerable: for when only just 

 escaping from the egg they are watched for and devoured by 

 the many small fishes which have, only a little before, themselves 

 been exposed to the same fate. When of larger growth they 

 are the food of fishes near the shore; while later in life they 

 are the victims of Dogfishes and Sharks, Blowers or Physeter 

 Whales; and fishermen are guided where to shoot their nets 

 by gannets, which sail aloft in the air, and with piercing 

 sight discern their prey at no small distance beneath the 

 wave. With instinctive judgment the bird rises to a height 

 that in its fall shall carry it to a sufficient depth, and then 

 with half-closed wings it drops with headlong plunge upon its 

 prey, and rarely returns to the surface without the prize. 



But in addition to these causes of destruction, which may 

 be regarded as unavoidable, there are others which are caused 

 by ignorant human agency, and which, therefore, are so much 

 more to be deprecated. We are informed that on one occasion, 

 near the end of August, when the fishermen of Dunbar had 

 discovered that a school of Herrings were in the act of 

 spawning near the land, they let down their nets close to the 

 ground, by which large numbers were taken, and when drawn 

 into the boat the spawn was found to flow from them in great 

 abundance; and yet after this the fishermen continued the 

 same thoughtless conduct. And the evil result of such un- 

 seasonable waste has been shewn in another instance on the 

 coast of Norfolk, where an enormous quantity of the fry was 

 caught in the spring in those bags of net called stow-nets; 

 and for three years afterwards the numbers of Herrings in 

 the autumn in that neighbourhood were so small that fishermen 

 scarcely thought it worth their while to employ their time in 

 fishing for them. If we could suppose, that, like many migrating 



