HERRING. Clupea harengvt. 



HPIIAT. Cliipea sprattvt 



Herrings, retire to the deep whence they issued, and there remain until the succeeding 

 year summons them to a repetition of the same duties. 



The usual method of catching Herrings is by drift-nets, which are spread, or " shot," 

 in innumerable lines of complicated cordage, forming a veritable labyrinth of ropes and 

 meshes, the back lines adding to the general complexity of the structure. 



The night view of a Herring fishery is singularly beautiful, owing to the phospho- 

 rescent properties of the fish, a phenomenon common to many of the finny tribes, and which 

 is well described by Mr. W. H. Maxwell, in his " Wild Sports of the West." " The 

 darkness of the night increased the scaly brilliancy which the phosphoric properties of 

 these beautiful fish produce. The bottom of the boat, now covered with some thousand 

 Herrings, glowed with a living light which the imagination could not create and the pencil 

 never imitate. The shades of gold and silvery gems were rich beyond description ; 

 and much as I had heard of phosphoric splendour before, every idea I had formed fell 

 infinitely short of its reality." 



The Herring is one of the fish that cannot endure absence from water, and dies 

 almost immediately after it is taken out of the sea, thus giving rise to the familiar saying, 

 as " dead as a Herring." 



The food of the Herring is extremely varied, even in the comparatively shallow 

 waters, and its subsistence during the time it is submerged in the deep is necessarily 

 unknown. In the stomach of the Herring have been found Crustacea of various kinds, 

 molluscs, the spawn and fry of other fish, and even the young of its own kind. It can 

 be taken with a hook, and has been known to seize a limpet that was used as bait. 



