590: THE OCEAN WORLD. 
Baltic and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up 
to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But. 
the finest herrings are said to be caught on Loch Fyne, on the west: 
coast of Scotland. ' 
The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely 
packed together—shoals in which the herrings may be counted not by 
hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, in many a shore 
and bay. It was the favourite theory, not very long ago, that 
herrings emigrated to and from the arctic regions. It was asserted, 
by the supporters of this theory, that in the inaccessible seas of high 
northern latitudes herrings existed in overwhelming numbers, an 
open sea within the arctic circle affording a safe and bounteous feed- 
ing-ground, At the proper season vast bodies gathered themselves 
together into one great army, which in numbers exceeding the powers 
of imagination, departed for more southern regions. ‘This great Heer, 
or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they reached the 
different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen, by herrings 
of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking the west 
side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result being an 
adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated every 
bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth. 
Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence 
in fact. Lacépéde denies that these periodical journeyings take place. 
Valenciennes also rejects the idea. It is true that the herrings have 
disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly 
very plentiful; but it is also certain that in many of the fishing 
stations fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery 
that the herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of 
Europe (which, smoked, is known as the “ Digby Chick”) is against 
the theory. In short, there is a total absence of proof of their 
pretended migrations to high northern latitudes ; and recent discoveries 
all tend to show that the herring is native to the shores on which it is 
taken. 
“It has been demonstrated,” says Dr. Bertram, “that the herring 
is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the 
year round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins 
at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and 
goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off 
the coast of Caithness; while in autumn and winter we find large 
supplies of herrings at Yarmouth: there is a winter fishery in the 
Firth of Forth. Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before 
it ought to be there, according to the emigration theory. It has been 
