HERRINGS AND HERRING- FISHING. 809 
sucli cetaceous species as Balcena musculus would be seen upon 
our coasts. 
7. In order to bear out Pennant’s hypothesis, it would 
be necessary to show that the herrings travelled at certain 
seasons towards the North Pole also. For, those which we 
find in shoals spawn upon our shores, and not upon the coasts 
of Greenland. This being the case, how are the herrings 
transported to northern seas ? 
8. The authority of the celebrated Valenciennes* is in 
opposition to the migration theory. 
The foregoing evidence is, in our opinion, sufficiently 
conclusive. The herring is not, then, a migratory fish, at least 
in Pennant’s acceptation of the term. It is, nevertheless, of 
a capricious turn, and occasionally it leaves fishing-grounds 
where it has appeared before with the utmost regularity. The 
why and wherefore of its departure are not, as yet, understood, 
though many conjectures are afloat. The inhabitants of the 
Hebrides believed at one time that the fires employed in the 
manufacture of kelp drove the herrings away from Long 
Island. Others have attributed their disappearance to the 
effect produced by the report of fire-arms. Thus it has been 
gravely asserted that the cannon-firing at the battle of 
Copenhagen drove the herrings from the Baltic. The 
ancient Highlanders fancied f that they deserted a coast where 
blood had been shed. An amusing anecdote is told by 
Badham, J which would seem to show that the Irish herrings 
are not devoid of the Celtic character for sensitiveness ; it is 
to this effect : — A new clergyman on taking possession of his 
living, had been heard openly to declare an intention of tithing 
the produce of the sea, at which imprudent notice the herrings 
took huff, and never again showed their scales there during 
his incumbency. It is the complaint of many of the fishermen 
of the present day, that the paddles and screws of steam- 
boats cause the herrings to leave their resorts; but this 
is clearly disproved by the fact, that in localities where (as on 
the Firth of Clyde) hundreds of steamboats ply daily, the 
herrings have not abandoned their old grounds. We can only 
suppose, in the absence of any more plausible explanation, 
that the reason of the herrings’ departure is to be sought in 
the absence of certain forms of animal or vegetable life, 
necessary to their existence. The herring approaches the 
coast only for the purpose of delivering itself of spawn, and 
this function is performed twice in every year : first, in spring, 
and again in autumn. We do not imply by this that any 
* “ Histoire naturelle des Poissons,” Cuvier & Valenciennes, vol. xx. 
t Yarrell, loc. cit. p. 180. X “Fish Tattle,” p. 022. 
VOL. Ill, — NO. XI. 
Y 
