•7v> 
MU. J. T. HOTBLA0K ON THE HERRING. 
Black Sea and the Caspian are alike, thus pointing to a long since 
time when these two waters were one. 
Mr. Stacy- Watson, in his paper, refers to some fresh-water 
Herrings in the Niagara River, hut I much doubt if they are true 
Herrings. I have seen Herrings mentioned for the Cape of Good 
Hope, and other distant places in still more southern latitudes, but 
I suspect none of these are the same fish as ours. It is stated 
that early in the present century, some Cornish fishermen were 
employed by the Russians to teach them drift-net fishing in the 
Black Sea, when among a catch of many Herrings was one solitary 
Pilchard. I fancy that Pilchard was still further from home than 
the poor little Anchovy which our friend Mr. Patterson bagged 
a year or two since at Yarmouth. 
Yarrell says that Pilchards were at times taken off Yarmouth in 
some quantities ; and Mr. Patterson has, to some extent, confirmed 
this, by besides reporting, from time to time, solitary captures, 
telling us of a large school met with not many years since off that 
port. Y r et it is most certain that these two species do not overlap 
to any great extent, and that, as the Herrings come from the north, 
and never from the south, so the Pilchard comes from the south and 
never from the north. The Cornish fishermen, as a rule, go out to 
meet the Pilchards, and surround them with their nets as soon as 
they are close enough to the laud ; but it has been said that they 
sometimes find the fish coming from the land, and that they then 
declare them to have been hidden away since the last fishing in 
some mysterious way in the fissures and crannies of the rocky coast. 
I take this to be about as reasonable as to suppose that the myriads 
of Herrings which annually visit our East Coast can have just 
popped up from the bottom. I fear you will think my time but 
ill spent in trying to combat so manifest an impossibility, though 
1 confess that to have been the main object of this paper. 
