THE HERRING. 317 



in the Whitebait that part is of a pale greenish ash colour ; 

 the origin of the first ray of the dorsal fin in the Herring 

 is situated exactly half-way between the point of the up- 

 per jaw and the base of the middle caudal ray ; in the 

 Whitebait the same fin is placed mid-way between the 

 point of the upper jaw and the end of the middle caudal 

 ray. 



Herrings enter the Firth of Forth about the end of De- 

 cember or the beginning of January, and remain two or 

 three weeks at the mouth of the estuary, before they at- 

 tempt to ascend. This delay seems greatly to depend on 

 the state of the weather, for in some seasons when it is mild 

 and fine, they have been observed to swarm in the Firth off 

 Musselburgh in the early part of January ; whilst in the 

 rough and stormy seasons they do not make their appear- 

 ance on that part of the coast before the middle of February, 

 and always disappear before the end of March. They seem 

 to visit the Firth regularly every winter, and a season very 

 seldom passes without a few being captured, and sent to the 

 Edinburgh market. Some years they appear in much 

 larger shoals than in others, the reason of which is not ac- 

 counted for. In the year 1816, pilchards were taken in 

 the Firth of Forth, in great abundance, when not a dozen 

 herrings were seen during the whole winter. Since that 

 time not a single Pilchard has been known to enter the 

 estuary. 



" The herring is in truth a most capricious fish," says 

 Dr MacCulloch, " seldom remaining long in one place ; 

 and there is scarcely a fishing station round the British 

 Islands, that has not experienced in the visits of this fish the 

 greatest variations, both as to time and quantity, without 

 any accountable reason. In Long Island, one of the He- 

 brides, it was asserted that the fish had been driven away 





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