PERIODICAL VISITS OF THE HERRING. 67 



having first commenced in that year. The discovery was 

 previously made by a poor man, residing at Donibristle, 

 of the name of Thomas Brown, while fishing small had- 

 docks ; he concealed the discovery as long as possible, 

 while he supplied his own wants by the simple means of 

 dipping pails or buckets into the sea at such places and sea- 

 sons as he found most suitable ; it is also said, that, twenty 

 years before that year, a seaman having let his sail fall 

 overboard in Inverkeithing Bay, brought several herrings 

 into the boat within its folds, and although he told several 

 fishermen residing near the spot, none of them could be 

 tempted to make a trial. (Sir Eobert Sibbald's History 

 of Fife, p. 306.) Some fishermen at Queensferry were at 

 last, in 1793, induced to commence, and their great suc- 

 cess encouraged others. Since then the fishing has been 

 annually resorted to by boats and vessels from various 

 quarters ; several hundred boats have in some years come 

 from the west coast of Scotland, and even from Ireland, 

 Wales, and the Isle of Man, to this fishery. For several 

 years lately, however, the fishing has not been very 

 abundant, and it latterly has been confined to the fisher- 

 men of the Forth and immediate neighbourhood. These 

 herrings are every year of a uniform size and shape, from 

 the eighth to the ninth class ; they are of a good quality 

 for curing, being not fat, and are excellently adapted for 

 the West India market, and for red herrings. The fish- 

 ing commences sometimes in the month of November, 

 but often not till January, and generally lasts till Febru- 

 ary or March, the time that they are generally observed 

 to spawn. It is seen every year that the herrings always 

 spawn before they return to the sea. 



Eyemouth, Dunhar, and from the mouth of the Forth to 

 Berwick. — Considerable shoals of herrings appear here 



e2 



