l62 



COMMON HERHING, 



joices and feeds the inhabitants of the coasts that 

 border it. ■•-^^^^ 



" These brigades, as we may call them, which are 

 thus separated from the greater columns, are often 

 capricious in their movements, and do not shew an 

 invariable attachment to their haunts." 



The reality of the migration of the Herring, so 

 well detailed by Mr. Pennant, begins at present to 

 be greatly called in question ; and it is rather sup- 

 posed that this fish, like the Mackrel, is in reality 

 at no very great distance during the winter months 

 from the shores which it most frequents at the com- 

 ' mencement of the spawning season ; inhabiting in 

 winter the deep recesses of the ocean, or plunging 

 itself beneath the soft mud at the bottom ; but at 

 the vernal season it begins to quit the deeper parts, 

 and approach the shallows in order to deposit its 

 spawn in proper situations ; and this is thought a 

 sufficient explanation of the ghttering myriads 

 which at particular seasons illumine the surface of 

 the ocean for the length and breadth of several 

 miles at once*. As a proof of this Dr. Bloch ob- 

 . serves that Herrings are in reality found at almost 

 all seasons of the year about some of the European 

 coasts, and that the northern voyages, supposed by 

 Pennant and others, are impracticable in the short 

 period assigned by naturalists ; the fish, in its 

 swiftest progress being utterly incapable of moving 

 at so rapid a rate as this migration necessarily sup- 



* Herrings spawn at different season^; 8@m«i in spring, some 

 Hi *unin;er, and some in autulmu 



