TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 149 



fonn of a pari-pinnate leaf; that a palmate leaf is a coutracted pinnate leaf, bearirg 

 the same relation to the pinnate leaf that opposite leaves do to alternate ones, &c. 



I 



On the Migration of the Herring. 

 By J. M. Mitchell, F.R.8.S.A., F.A.S., 4-c. 

 In a fonncr paper read at the Economical and Statistical Section last yeai* at 

 Oxford, the author pouited out the great jjational importance and gi'owing- pros- 

 peiitj^ of the British heniug-fisheiy ; in the present paper he restricted himself to 

 that important part of the natm-al history of the herring connected with its migTa- 

 tion, -with the ^-iew of proving that the hemngs visiting the various coasts are 

 undoubtedly natives of the said coasts and the adjacent seas, and that they do not 

 come from any distant part of the ocean. The fact once satisfactorily established, 

 that the herrings belong to the adjacent seas or coasts; may direct public attention 

 more closely to the importance of thoroughly investigating their natm'al history. The 

 ropriety of controverting the statements as to the migi'atiou of the herring must 

 e obvious when we find Pennfint's accoimt of its progress from the arctic regions 

 continued in each new edition of several works of high authority. Such works 

 state that " the herring comes from the arctic cu'cle, in large shoals of some leagues 

 extent, di\-iding into lesser shoals on coming towai-ds the north of Scotland, one 

 body proceeding to the west coast of Scotland and to Ireland, and another to the 

 east coast, eacn directing its couree southward." Others state that, although 

 hemngs do not come from the arctic cii-clo, they at least come from a considerable 

 distance northwai'd of Scotland. He, however, considered that as the henings 

 spawn upon our coasts, or in the rivers and bays, they are consequently natives, 

 and that, after spawning, the full-sized herrings proceed to sea in the neighbour- 

 hood of the coasts, where they continue, and where they feed until the spawning- 

 season again approaches; while the 3'Oung on being vivified continue near the 

 spa\\Tiing-grouud imtil they become of mature size. This is the most natural con- 

 clusion ; and after several other remarks he said — 



1. We find every year, at a certain period of the year, a particular size of her- 

 ring generally resorting to the same place : for example, the size of the heri-ings 

 caught ofl' the projecting coast of Stadtland, in Norway, is much larger than the 

 size of those caught on the west coast of Shetland ; which kind, again, is nearly 

 twice as large as the first-caught Thurso hen-ings ; and these are smaller than the 

 Isle of Man, jMinch, and Loch Fyne herrings, smaller than the Caithness and Banff 

 hemngs, and much smaller than the herrings caught off Aberdeenshire, Fifeshire, 

 and Berwickshire. Again, the Yannouth hemngs are smaller than those of Aber- 

 deenshire and Bei-wickshire ; and in the West Highland lochs the size of the her- 

 rings is distinctly seen and known; for instance, in some of the Highland lochs for 

 years Large quantities have been caught, unifomily of the 10th class, which are of 

 a very superior quality. A size of hen-ings similar to those of Yannouth till 

 lately visited Liimfiord in Denmark, and still visits the coasts of that coimtry ; 

 while on the Mecklenbmg coast, in the Baltic, the size of the hemngs is larger 

 than those of Denmark ; and proceeding up the Baltic coast above Mecklenburg, 

 namely on the Pomeranian and part of the Prussian coasts, the herrings are fully 

 one-third smaller, and again still frnther up they are larger, and about the size of 

 the Moray Firth hemngs. Thus, those who argue that the hemngs come from the 

 north must fiu-nish two kinds of hen-ings, namely, one kind which in its ])rogTess 

 grows smaller on its journey, and another which gi-ows larger. Even in the English 

 Channel the varieties may be easily distinguished in the neighbom-ing localities ; 

 for instance. Professor Valenciennes, in his edition of Cuvier's ' Natural History 

 of Fishes,' vol. xx. p. 47_, says, " It is not difficult, -with a little practice, to dis- 

 cover the difference which exists between the hemngs fished near Calais and 

 those fished near Dieppe ; those fished near Calais have the body longer and more 

 Hat and compressed on the sides than those of Dieppe, which are rounder and 

 shorter." 



2. As to quality, nothing so much proclaims the error of the tale of tlieir all 

 coming from the north as the general state of the herring. For instance, as already 

 mentioned, those caught off Shetland are not nearly so fat as those caught about 

 the same time on the coast from Thurso to Loch Broom. In the first of the season, 



