Ichthyology of the Firth of Forth. 55 
were taken in the Firth of Forth in great abundance, when not a 
dozen herrings were seen during the whole winter. Since that time 
not a single pilchard has been known to enter the estuary. 
" The herring is in truth a most capricious fish," says Dr Macul- 
loch, " seldom remaining long in one place ; and there is scarcely a 
fishing station round the British islands that has not experienced in 
the visits of this lish the greatest variations both as to time and 
quantity, without any accountable reason. In Long Island, one of 
the Hebrides, it was asserted that the fish had been driven away by 
the manufactory of kelp ; some imaginary coincidence having been 
found between their disappearance and the establishment of that 
business. But the kelp fires did not drive them away from other 
shores, which they frequent arid abandon indifferently without re- 
gard to this work. It has been a still more favourite and popular 
fancy, that they were driven away by firing of guns ; and hence 
this is not allowed during the fishing season. A gun has scarcely 
been fired in the Western Islands, or on the west coast, since the 
days of Cromwell : yet they have changed their places many times 
in that interval. In a similar manner, and with equal truth, it was 
said that they had been driven from the Baltic by the battle of Co- 
penhagen. It is amusing to see how old theories are revived. This 
is a very ancient Highland hypothesis, with the necessary modifica- 
tions. Before the days of guns and gunpowder, the Highlanders 
held that they quitted coasts where blood had been shed : and thus 
ancient philosophy is renovated. Steam-boats are now supposed to 
be the culprits, since a reason must be found. To prove their ef- 
fect, Loch Fyne, visited by a steam-boat daily, is now their favou- 
rite haunt, and they have deserted other lochs where steam-boats 
have never yet smoked. A member of the House of Commons, in 
a debate on a tithe bill lately stated, that a clergyman having ob- 
tained a living on the coast of Ireland, signified his intention of 
taking the tithe of fish, which was, however, considered to be so ut- 
terly repugnant to the privileges and feelings of the finny race, that' 
not a single herring has ever since visited that part of the shore." 
In June, July, and August, herrings are taken off the Dunbar and 
Berwick coasts in considerable number, from whence the Edinburgh 
market is abundantly supplied, when scarcely a single herring is to 
be seen higher in the Firth of a size worth the notice of the fishermen. 
Herrings are said to deposit their spawn towards the end of Oc- 
tober, and it is nearly three months previous to this operation that 
they are found to appear on our shores, when they become of so 
great a national importance. 
The spawning of these fish in October only, does not appear to 
