Ichthyology of the Firth of Forth. 55 



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 Macul- 

 loch, " 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 Hebrides, it was asserted that the fish had been driven away by 

 the manufactory of kelp ; some imaginary coincidence having been 

 found between their disappearance and the establishment of that 

 business. But the kelp fires did not drive them away from other 

 shores, which they frequent and abandon indifferently without re- 

 gard to this work. It has been a still more favourite and popular 

 fancy, that they were driven away by firing of guns ; and hence 

 this is not allowed during the fishing season. A gun has scarcely 

 been fired in the Western Islands, or on the west coast, since the 

 days of Cromwell : yet they have changed their places many times 

 in that interval. In a similar manner, and with equal truth, it was 

 said that they had been driven from the Baltic by the battle of Co- 

 penhagen. It is amusing to see how old theories are revived. This 

 is a very ancient Highland hypothesis, with the necessary modifica- 

 tions. Before the days of guns and gunpowder, the Highlanders 

 held that they quitted coasts where blood had been shed : and thus 

 ancient philosophy is renovated. Steam-boats are now supposed to 

 be the culprits, since a reason must be found. To prove their ef- 

 fect, Loch Fyne, visited by a steam-boat daily, is now their favou- 

 rite haunt, and they have deserted other lochs where steam-boats 

 have never yet smoked. A member of the House of Commons, in 

 a debate on a tithe bill lately stated, that a clergyman having ob- 

 tained a living on the coast of Ireland, signified his intention of 

 taking the tithe of fish, which was, however, considered to be so ut- 

 terly repugnant to the privileges and feelings of the finny race, that 

 not a single herring has ever since visited that part of the shore." 



In June, July, and August, herrings are taken off the Dunbar and 

 Berwick coasts in considerable number, from whence the Edinburgh 

 market is abundantly supplied, when scarcely a single herring is to 

 be seen higher in the Firth of a size worth the notice of the fishermen. 



Herrings are said to deposit their spawn towards the end of Oc- 

 tober, and it is nearly three months previous to this operation that 

 they are found to appear on our shores, when they become of so 

 great a national importance. 



The spawning of these fish in October only, does not appear to 



