332 PBOSE HALIEFTICS. 



stition still obtains, no one is allowed to discharge a gun 

 during the fishing season : opposed to the wisdom of 

 such restrictions, Smith and Griffiths mention, in one of 

 their instructive supplements to Cuvier's ' Pisces,' that, 

 though ' no shot has perhaps been fixed in the Western Is- 

 lands since the days of Cromwell, they have on that coast 

 many times changed quarters/ As to the non-iuterfer- 

 ence of steam-boats in determining the erratic proceed- 

 ings of herrings, though the keels of a hundred of these 

 vessels have now for many years daily traversed the 

 Scotch lochs, where they most abound, no deficiency has 

 as yet has been observed in the supplies. On one part of 

 the Irish coast, where these fish had formerly abounded, 

 but suddenly left, without notice of their intentions, the 

 peasantry explained the matter, to their own satisfaction, 

 thus : — A new clergyman, on taking possession of his 

 living, had been heard openly to declare an intention of 

 tithing the produce of the sea, at which imprudent no- 

 tice the herrings took huflF, and never again showed their 

 scales there during his incumbency. Easy as it may be 

 thus to pronounce what has not, it is impossible to say 

 what has to do with the migratory movements of any fish, 

 while the difficulty of studying the economy of herrings, 

 since they are too delicate for manipulation, is greater in 

 regard to them than it is with almost any other species : 

 the only thing which appears certainly made out about 

 these peripatetics, is that their corps, in whatever direc- 

 tion it moves, and at whatever time it may be on the 

 march, is always preceded, for some days, by a small ad- 

 vance-guard of males, sent thus before, no doubt, as pio- 

 neers to the main body. 



Of the enormous consumption of herrings we cannot 

 form any adequate estimate ; it is the most productive of 

 aU fisheries,* and yet the total amount consumed by man 



* In some inconsiderable creek of the Norway coast, more than 



