FECUNDITY OF THE HERRING. 



129 



The track of the herring-shoal is indicated at night by 

 a bright and continuous phosphoric gleam ; in the day, 

 by the gulls and other sea-birds which pursue them. 

 These are not the only enemies of the herring ; the hake, 

 the dog-fish, the porpoise, and, it is said, the whale and 

 the shark, consume them in enormous quantities. And 

 when we reflect on the millions which are caught for the 

 use of man, we shall own that their fecundity was a wise 



PHOSPHORESCENT SHOALS OF HERRING. 



provision of Nature. It enables the product to keep pace 

 with the consumption, as many as 68,606 eggs having 

 been counted in a single female. We may add that the 

 females outnumber the males in the proportion of seven 

 to two. 



It was anciently believed that the herring was a mi- 

 gratory fish, and some of the earlier writers trace with 

 the most curious particularity the route it was supposed 

 to follow. Thus they say that the great caravan which 

 every January starts from the icy regions of the Pole 



