24 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



usually fed with them. The fact, then, that the herrings spawn 

 in the sea-lochs and estuaries is, obviously, beyond all doubt ; 

 and it is equally indisputable that the herring-fry, while in 

 their infant state, perform a migration from their natal waters 

 to distant parts of the ocean, just as their little neighbours the 

 fry of salmon do from the rivers. 



Now, it is pretty well known that the fry of herrings migrate 

 to the Polar Sea, from whence they are seen to return annually, 

 their course beiag distinctly marked by the clouds of sea-birds 

 which hover above them, among whom the solan goose and 

 arctic gull, both birds of high latitudes, are conspicuous. 

 Herrings, too, Kke salmon, are gregarious fishes, forming them- 

 selves into divisions, or tribes, or fa mili es, composed of the 

 herrings of each bank, or sea-loch, which keep separate from 

 each other, even when collected into one great shoal. Thus Mr 

 Headrick remarks, — 



" The general opinion is, that the herrings retire to the Polar sea, 

 or frozen ocean, and from thence move southward, in one immense 

 mass, in June. On the outside of this great shoal whales are often 

 seen, while an immense assemblage of sea-fowl form a belt; or zone, 

 above it farther than the eye can reach, and whose screams are 

 heard, even when too remote themselves to be visible. This great 

 shoal is composed of subordinate shoals, or subdivisions, which keep 

 separate by themselves, as an army is composed of battaUons." 



And Mr Pennant observes, — ■ 



" The great rendezvous of the herrings is within the arctic circle. 

 There they continue many months, the seas within that space 

 swarming with insect food in a degree far greater than in our warmer 

 latitudes. The mighty army begins to put itself in motion in the 

 spring. "We distinguish this vast body by that name, for the word 

 herring is derived from the German Hear, an army, to express their 

 numbers. They begin to appear off the Shetland Isles in April and 

 May : these are only the forerunners of the grand shoal which comes 

 in June, and their appearance is marked by certain signs, and by the 

 numbers of birds, such as gannets and others, which follow to prey 

 on them : but when the main body approaches, its breadth and its 

 depth is such as to alter the very appearance of the ocean. It is 

 divided into distinct columns, and they drive the water before them 

 with a kind of rippling. Sometimes they sink for the space of ten 



