Fishes. 1713 



on different parts of the coasts, it appears that the herrings either go 

 from the south to the north, exactly the reverse of Pennant's views, or, 

 what is far more probable, approach from deep water off the shores on 

 which they appear. The produce of the fishery is very uncertain, 

 for the herring is a capricious fish; but the returns vary from £1200 

 to £2300 for the month in which they are engaged on it. 



The course the herring takes in the St. George's Channel, from 

 the accounts I can procure from the fishermen, is, that in June and 

 July they have a northerly direction, and at that time very few remain 

 near the Cornish shores; and that in September, October, and 

 November, they again come south, and are then caught at St. Ives. 

 This period of their migration north coincides with a similar mi- 

 gration of the pilchard, the habitation of both being north and 

 south of each other. I would call the attention of your readers 

 resident on the Norfolk coasts, to the opinion of their fishermen, 

 that the pilchard of St. Ives and the herring of Yarmouth appear 

 simultaneously. If such should prove to be the case, it will be 

 well worthy of record. 



The herring is a more lively fish than the pilchard, and a more 

 rapid swimmer ; it wanders more and is more uncertain, according to 

 Dr. M'Culloch. As you have readers on all parts of our coast, it 

 would not, perhaps, be difficult to procure accurate information as to 

 the dates of the commencement of the fishery at each station, with 

 notices of the directions in which the fish are moving at the time. 



Sprat, C. sprattus. The name of sprat is very vaguely applied by 

 the fishermen of Cornwall to the young of the pilchard, the herring, 

 and I believe of other fish. In the British Channel, or rather on the 

 southern shores of the county, it is very rare, being only occasionally 

 taken : on the northern coast it is more common, though it is not 

 abundant. It may, however, be on our shores more frequently than 

 we can detect, since we have no nets calculated to take them. They 

 assemble in small shoals on the north-eastern parts about December 

 and January. 



Whitebait, C. alba. Not found in the district of the Land's End, 

 but it occurs in the Fowey River. 



Twaite Shad, Alosa Jlnta. Damin-herring. This fish frequents 

 Mount's Bay and the western parts of Cornwall generally, in rather 

 large numbers, towards the latter part of the summer pilchard-fishery, 

 and early in the autumnal mackerel-fishery. They are frequently 

 caught in the mackerel drift-nets off Scilly, and are considered by the 

 fishermen as a mongrel kind of herring. At the time they are caught, 



