MU. J. T. HOTfiLACK ON THE HERRING. 
21 
largely on the Sand-Eels ; and Day says that in Scotland they call 
gut-pocked a Herring which has its stomach distended with small 
Crustaceans or other food ; hut for my own part 1 have never seen 
any in this condition, and I should like to know the experience of 
my friends upon this point. It has always seemed to me that the 
Herring, like the Salmon, when caught with milt and roe at all 
developed, never has anything in its stomach, and it seems to lie 
generally admitted that they feed very little, if at all, after the 
milt and roe has commenced to form. I have heard of their 
rising at a Uy, and that they will bite at anything bright, even an 
unbaited hook if it is bright enough, but I suspect that this is 
only play. 
After spawning they are, no doubt, most ravenously hungry, and 
then quickly disperse in search of food, which accounts lor shotten 
Herring being, 1 think, never taken in very large quantities ; but 
where do they go? And this brings me again to the range of our 
species, which I take to bo the whole of the North Atlantic, and 
from the Arctic Ocean (they have been found in the White Sea 
of Kussia) down to the latitude of the South of England, and 
lower on the American side because of the difference in temperature 
on this side caused by the Gulf Stream. I do not say that they 
are to be found far within the Arctic Circle, though I should not 
be much surprised if they are ultimately found to go into very 
high latitudes. They are found in large quantities all down the 
Eastern Coast of North America, and, of course, they visit all the 
coasts of Norway and Denmark. 
As I have said, on the American side they do not go into waters 
warmer than our own, and it is a fact that the fish found in the 
South of England always appear to come from the north and never 
from the west : in fact the Herring never seems to come round the 
Land’s End of Cornwall, though there is fishing, more or less, 
down the whole coast of the West of England. Off the West 
coast of Cornwall the Herring appears to meet its cousin, the 
Pilchard, and goes no further. 
Herrings are said to be equally plentiful on the west coast of 
North America; but if this Pacific fish is really the same as ours 
or no, 1 really do not know. There are said, also, to be Herrings 
in the Black Sea and the Caspian ; but these are, I think, admitted 
not to be quite the same as ours, though I expect those of the 
