HERRINGS AND HERRING-FISHING. 
307 
which, in point of fact, is from beginning to end unsupported 
by the faintest tittle of genuine evidence. The herring can 
hardly be said to be a nomadic animal, and though we may 
find the species abundantly distributed over a very wide area, 
it does not follow that the individual which is to-day observed 
upon the coast of Norway is that which at a later date is 
captured in the neighbourhood of the Shannon. We find 
Scotchmen in Van Diemen’s Land and Canada; but that 
circumstance would not justify the conclusion that the indi- 
vidual discovered in either locality had proceeded to it from 
the other. Similarly with the herring, which, as a clever 
writer* states, “is a native fish, born and bred along our 
shores, which it never leaves for any length of time or space, 
although it has its periods of retirement and repose like 
other considerate creatures, and is in the habit of sinking for 
security, especially after spawning, into the deeper and more 
tranquil places of the sea.” 
The herring resides for a season in the deep sea, not far 
from the coast, and when about to spawn, it approaches the 
nearest shore for the deposition of its ova.f The following 
are some of the facts in support of this view. 
1. Herrings of a certain size constantly frequent the same 
locality. 
2. Herrings are often captured off the southern coasts long 
before they make their appearance on the northern shores. 
If they travelled in huge shoals from the arctic circle towards 
the equator, the reverse would occur. We should find them 
first appearing in the neighbourhood of the Hebrides, whilst 
the French coasts would present the latest specimens. 
3. Particular fishing-stations are characterized by the quality 
of the herrings they produce. The fish caught in these 
localities are usually of the same description. Thus, the 
herrings got on the east coast of Scotland are of a quality 
inferior to those captured on the west. Did the herrings 
proceed in a body from the Northern oceans, we should (inas- 
much as the more mature they are the better is their flavour) 
* “ Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine,” vol. lxxix. p. 522. 
I This is the opinion of Mitchell (Joe. cit.) ; Yarrell ( u British Fishes,” 
vol. ii.) ; and also of Wilson, who in his “ Coasting Voyage round Scotland,” 
remarks : “ Another conclusion to which we have come, is that the herring is 
not a migratory fish in the proper acceptation of the term, but is merely 
subject, like most other species, to its periods of approach and recession to 
and from our shores, in accordance with certain natural instincts, connected 
•mainly with the important process of spawning and the search for food. 
There is no season of the year in which these fish may not be captured along 
many portions of our Scottish shores.”— Pp. 201-2. 
; 
