308 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
expect to find those on the southern coast of a finer and 
richer quality than those taken further north. This, however, 
is not the case, for “ the Yarmouth herrings are inferior in 
some respects to those of the north of Scotland.” * * * § It seems 
far more reasonable to suppose, that the quality of the herring 
is dependent in some measure upon the character of the sea 
or ocean in which it resides during the intervals between the 
spawning seasons. We are disposed to coincide in the view 
expressed by Wilson, t that there must be something in 
connection with the form and physical features of the pro- 
tecting shores and sea-bed of an ocean, which influences the 
quality of these fish. The operation also of currents, of peculiar 
forms of vegetation, and of the geographical distribution of 
Annulosa and Mollusca, deserves the attention of those who 
are desirous of explaining the reason of the superiority which 
the fish of one locality possess over those of another. That 
it is not to be accounted for by evoking* Pennant's theory is 
evident. 
4. We have no evidence to prove that shoals of herrings 
have been observed in the extreme Northern Ocean. Prom an 
examination of the stomachs of the whales of Boreal seas, 
it has been found that herrings do not constitute the food 
of these monsters of the deep, which, on the contrary, devour 
only the molluscan, annulose, and coelenterate creatures, which 
exist abundantly in mid- water. It is true that Crantz J has 
described a small species of herring, found even north of 
Greenland ; but this is a very different animal from our Glujoea 
liar eng us. § 
5. There have been no reliable statements made to the 
effect that the herring shoals have been seen approaching the 
Southern from the Northern Ocean. 
6. It is a remarkable fact, that those species of whales 
whose food consists chiefly of herrings, are found in greatest 
numbers upon our own coasts. Now, if these fish were to 
be captured in higher latitudes, it is very improbable that 
* Mitchell — “ The Herring,” &c. 
t “ Coasting Voyage,” p. 199, et scq. 
+ Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 184. — “ On the southern coast of Greenland the 
herring is a rare fish ; and only a small variety of it, according to Crantz, is 
found on the northern shore. This small variety or species was found by Sir 
John Franklin on the shore of the Polar basin, on his second journey.” 
§ Badham, loc. cit. p. 321. — “ The common herring seems unknown in 
Greenland. The Greenlanders’ most common food is the augmarset, or small 
herring, near half a foot long, a kind of lodden, called by the Newfound- 
landmen capelin : the back is dark-green, the belly silver-white ; like herrings, 
they swim into the bays in such quantities, to lodge their spawn upon the 
rocks, that the sea looks black, and is ruffled or curled.” 
