HIalacoptekous Abdominals.- 



-FISHES.- 



-IIalecoids. 



145 



ill the Thames, the Tay, and the Seine, ai'c rccoiJed, 

 but they are not frequent. The haunts of the great 

 sculls are supposed to bo iu deeper water, beyond the 

 reach of nets, but at no great distance from their 

 spawning places, so as to admit of sculls coming towards 

 the shore at all seasons of the year, which is the 

 case at one station or another. Tlie great fishery 

 commences, James Wilson says, in May, ofl" the 

 eastern side of Lewis ; at midsummer extends along 

 the western and eastern shores of Scotland; and con- 

 tinues until August, when it reaches its maximum olf 

 Caithness. In Loch Fine, and other western sea-lochs, 

 tlie fishery endures into the winter. In Yarmouth 

 (listiiot it comniencos in autumn and lasts over part of 

 the winter; and iu December it begins again in the 

 I'irth of Forth, and is carried on there as a winter 

 fishery. Finally, in spring the fishery is prosecuted 

 at Ballintrac on the Ayrshire coast, though the fish are 

 then spawning, and in bad condition. From this 

 review, we perceive that there are only a few blank 

 weeks between the end of March and the middle of 

 May. The young, adds this accomplished ichthyolo- 

 gist, arc too often captured in our firths and bays of 

 the size of sprats, and give suflicient proof that the 

 retirement of the parent fish to breed in the arctic 

 regions is a fable. Kecent observations made by order 

 of the Dutch government have shown that the appa 

 rently desultory movements of the Herring-sculls in 

 (he fishing season, depend on the temperature of the 

 sea; the Herrings seeking those parts which have 

 a temperature between 5Jt° and 58° of Fahrenheit. 

 Young Herrings are very abundant among the 

 Orkney and Zetland islands in summer, and may be 

 discovered in the shallow waters all round the British 

 coasts. In Yorkshire they are called Herring -site; the 

 Scandinavian name of Sill, belonging to the species, 

 being restricted there to the young. 



There are, however, other Herrings differing widely 

 in their habits from the fish of the British seas, which 

 have been nevertheless described under the same name 

 by able ichthyologists and observers. Pallas informs 

 us that Herrings inhabit the arctic seas from the bay of 

 Ucholsk, round the coasts of Kamtschatka and Siberia 

 to the Pctchora and AVhite Sex, in immense soidls. 

 About the summer solstice numberless bands of these 

 Herrings enter the bays, and find their way into the 

 fresh-water lakes, where they spawn. Part winter in 

 the fresh-water, tlieir return to the sea being often 

 prevented by bars of gravel which the autumn storms 

 throw up. On the approach of the following spring, 

 the Herrings daily visit the gravel bars in search of 

 openings whereby they may re-enter the sea, which 

 not finding they retire for the night to the depths of 

 tlie lakes. The Kamtschatdales profit by their know- 

 leilge of these facts, and moving with their families to 

 the bars, make gaps therein, in which they place bag 

 nets, by which they capture immense quantities of the 

 fish. Baron Wrangell says that the Herring season in 

 the Yenisei is of vast importance to the natives inhabit- 

 ing the banks of that river, and Eiman in his travels 

 through Siberia, mentions tlie large bands which annu- 

 ally ascend the Obi, and sock the sources of its aftlucnts 

 in the Ural mountains, where they pass the winter. 

 Vou 11. 



Though the Shad and some other Halecoids enter the 

 British rivers, the Common Herring is not generally 

 believed to do so, at least in any considerable numbers, 

 far less to pass the winter in them. But 5Ir. Ffennell, 

 inspector of fisheries, slated in 1853 to the Natural 

 History Society of Dublin, that he had obtained Her- 

 rings from the Lakes of Killarney, where they are 

 named by the fishermen Goxirccns. To remove doubts 

 it would be satisfactory to compare a Goureen with an 

 oceanic herring and also with the Corer/oni, which arc 

 popularly named Fresh-water Herrings. 



The Sprat {HareiiQula S2>ruUus) is another Clu- 

 peoid which abounds on some parts of the British 

 shores from November through the winter months, and 

 in some seasons is so plentiful as to be sold at sixpence 

 a bushel. This low price excludes the Sprat from the 

 tables of the rich, but it is excellent when fried, and 

 furnishes a pleasant variety in the diet of the labour- 

 ing classes. An immense quantity is disposed of in 

 London, and the surplus is used for manuring the hop- 

 grounds of Kent, at a cost of twenty shillings an acre. 



Tlie White-bait [Rorjenia alba), a still smaller 

 species than the preceding, bears a high price and is 

 reserved for luxurious tables. Great quantities are 

 consumed by visitors to Greenwich and Blackwall in 

 the summer months ; certain taverns being celebrated 

 for the manner in which they are served up, the other 

 delicacies that accompany them, and the high charges 

 for the repast. At the close of a session of the British 

 parliament, the ministers have been so much in the 

 practice of late years of concluding their labours by 

 eating White-bait at the West India Dock Tavern 

 at Blackwall or at Greenwich, that the dinner having 

 become almost an institution, its neglect would be con- 

 sidered an unpopular if not a dangerous innovation. 

 For long the White-bait was thought to be the fry ot 

 the Shad, and the Corporation of London as conserva- 

 tors of the Thames promulgated numerous laws for the 

 re]iression of the illegal fishery, the punishment by fine 

 and imprisonment of the fishermen engaged in it, and 

 the confiscation of their implements. Annually the 

 lord-mayor and his aldermen descended the river in 

 state to detect infringers of their edicts, and to punish 

 with severity any incautious and ill-informed fisherman 

 that they happened to pounce upon; but they concluded 

 the unwonted labours of the day by dining upon White- 

 bait. The corruption of the waters of the Thames in 

 the summer of 18G0 was assigned as a reason for the 

 scarcity of White-bait then prevalent. 



The Twaite-shad {Alausa vuhjnris) and Allicc- 

 shad {Ahiusa communis) are Clupeoids which ascend 

 certain British rivers, and also the rivers of France, 

 both on the side of the Bay of Biscay and of the Medi- 

 terranean. The Spaniard Ausonius, in his Latin poem 

 on the Moselle, celebrates the Alaiisa of that river. 

 The Shads are sometimes callcdMay-fish, in consequence 

 of their appearing in our rivers in that month ; and 

 sometimes kings or queens of the Herrings, because of 

 their resemblance to an overgrown herring. Tliey are 

 full of bones and in no great estimation for the table. 

 On the coasts of the United States tliero arc various 

 kinds of Shads having a general rcscmblanco to tho 

 European species, and bearing in tho New York market 



