CLUPIDiE. 331 



this view is, that our herring is seldom if ever seen in 

 the extreme North : the clupea abounding there being, 

 in fact, a much smaller fish,* which do not visit our 

 coasts ; and what still further corroborates its accuracy, 

 is that the true harengus occurs on the western shores 

 of Ireland, in August, before appearing in higher lati- 

 tudes. The uncertain movements of these fish along a 

 coast are highly curious and interesting ; but as to the 

 precise objects sought or attained by them in their fit- 

 ful wanderings, we have not (any more than in those 

 of gipsies) a real clue to guide us. ' Here today, and,' 

 without any assignable cause, ' gone tomorrow,' is a pri- 

 vilege they for ever claim and act upon, repairing in vast 

 numbers for many years to some favourite haunt, and 

 then suddenly abandoning it, to appear in some other spot, 

 previously unvisited. These singular Sittings have indeed 

 appeared so inexplicable, as to induce the belief in some 

 persons that it was a duty to explain them; and gunpowder 

 and steam, inter alia, were accordingly brought in to ac- 

 count for such vagaries. It has been gravely said that 

 the camion of Copenhagen drove herrings from the Bal- 

 tic ; and among the Hebrides, where this popular super- 



* The common terring seems unknown in Greenland. The 

 Greenlanders' most common food is the augmarset, or small her- 

 ring, near half a foot long, a kind of lodden, called by the New- 

 foundlandmen ea^pelin: the back is dark green, the belly silver 

 white ; like herrings they swim into the bays in such quantities, 

 to lodge their spawn on the rocks, that the sea looks black, and is 

 ruffled or curled. Their first appearance is in Marcb or April, 

 and the common guU betrays the position of the shoal. They 

 spawn in May and June, and this is the Greenlanders' harvest, 

 when whole boatfuls are taken in a few hours, with a hoop- 

 sieve, knit with sinews. They are dried on rocks in the open 

 air, and then packed and laid by for winter.' Cured capehns are 

 to be procured in London ; they are not a bad rehsh for break- 

 fast, but wholly inferior to herrings. 



p 3 



