HERRING. 97 



with their numbers. Others proceed towards 

 Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of her- 

 rings ; they then pass through the British Chan- 

 nel, and after that in a manner disappear. Those 

 which take to the west, after offering themselves 

 to the Hebrides, where the great stationary fish- 

 ery is, proceed towards the north of Ireland, 

 where they meet with a second interruption and 

 arc obliged to make a second division ; the one 

 takes to the western side and is scarcely perceived, 

 being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic, 

 but the other, which passes into the Irish sea, 

 rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of most of the 

 coasts that border on it. 



These brigades, as we may call them, which are 

 thus separated from the greater columns, are 

 often capricious in their motions, and do not show 

 an invariable attachment to their haunts. Pen- 

 nant may have thought himself quite correct in 

 his account of their migration, but I have never 

 been able to find from any authority that they 

 abound in any part of the Arctic Ocean. There 

 is no fishery of importance for them in Iceland 

 or Greenland, nor have the many Arctic voyagers 

 noticed them in particular. 



7 



