100 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.—CLASS IV. PISCES. 
beyond which no fishing is carried on, except that it occasionally extends to 
Dartmouth; a second station is included between the Lizzard and Land’s 
End; and the third is on the north coast of the county, the chief station 
being about St. Ives. The subordinate motions of the shoals are much reg- 
ulated by the tide, against the current of which they are rarely known to 
go, and the whole will sometimes remain parallel to the coast for several 
weeks, at the distance of a few leagues; and then, as if by general consent, 
they will advance close to the shore, sometimes without being discovered till 
they have reached it. This usually happens when the tides are strongest, 
and is the period when the principal opportunity is afforded for the prosecu- 
tion of the seine fishery.” The quantity of Pilchards taken is sometimes 
incredibly large. In 1847 (a very productive year), forty thousand hogs- 
heads were cured in Cornwall alone, representing, probably, after all deduc- 
tions, a net value to the takers of eighty thousand pounds ; of these, sixteen 
thousand were sold in Naples, and ten thousand in the ports of the Adriatic 
—the two principal markets. The fish are cured simply by pressure in 
layers strewn with bay salt. 
Some investigations which we haye made into the natural history and 
habits of the Pilchard serve to confirm our idea, that herrings of every 
description breed all the year round, and that there are spring, summer, 
autumn, and winter races of herring ever coming to maturity, as month 
follows month, with the greatest possible regularity. Some writers have 
indicated an opinion that fishes of the herring kind spawn twice a year. 
We do not believe that to be the case. The individuals of the herring kind 
that spawn in March are not the same fish that spawn again in August. They 
evidently belong to different varieties. Mr. Jonathan Couch, a distinguished 
naturalist of Polperao, is of this opinion. 
The same idea prevails about this fish that used to prevail about the 
common herring; namely, that it is migratory, or, at least, that it roams 
about from place to place. An old poet says, — 
“ Pilchards and shads in shoals together keep; 
The numerous fry disturbs the mantling deep ; 
No home they know, nor can confinement love, 
But, fond of hourly change, unsettled rove ; 
Now choose the rocks, now seek the wider seas, — 
No place can Jong the restless wanderers please.” 
We can only say of the Pilchard, as we have already said of the common 
herring, that it is not migratory in the sense meant. The fish gather to- 
gether from their feeding-grounds in order to spawn; after that is accom- 
plished, they in all probability separate, and lead an individual life, till the 
reproductive instinct again seizes upon them. 
