MR. •). T. HOTBLAOK ON THE HERRING. 
19 
“ If, like many migratory birds and the Salmon in the sea, Herrings 
were led instinctively to return from the deep water to the place 
of their birth, much of the obscurity which hangs over their 
motions would he removed.” We know that the Salmon actually 
do return to the very same rivers year by year, though we do not 
yet very well know where they spend their time in the sea ; and it 
is certain that many migratory birds not only return yearly to the 
same locality, hut travel immense distances to and fro. I believe 
it is the same with the Herring, and that, as the Swallow Hies to 
places far south in the great African continent immediately after 
rearing its young with us, so the Herring swims yearly to and fro 
between us and tho vast waters of the broad North Atlantic, 
which has been jokingly, and I contend correctly, called the 
Herring Pond. I attribute their early appearance off the Western 
Hebrides to the influence of the Gulf Stream in making those 
waters then warmer than the east coast would be. 
It is, I think, certain that they come into our warmer and 
shallower waters mainly for the purpose cf depositing their spawn. 
I should hold that even Matties (about which more hereafter) are 
lisli which are already congregating for this purpose, having got fat 
and, as it were, into a state tit to commence the reproducing 
process. I expect that not only the estuaries, creeks, and inlets, 
but the whole of the shallower waters of the North Sea are one 
huge spawning ground, as there is not only good evidences of 
spawning in the former, but it is well known, for instance, that in 
August large quantities of Haddock congregate on the western 
spits of the Dogger and in the Swashway to the southward of 
the great Silver Pits, and these fish are so full of Herring spawn 
that their stomachs often seem like bursting ; and they are there 
and in this condition, generally, till the end of October. Now 
this must be the spawn of fish that have spawned before the 
Yarmouth fishing commences. 
Day says that Herrings caught at Stornoway early in the season 
are “ Matties ” (the name being a corruption of maiden, or those 
which have not spawned), fat Herrings destitute of roe, and adds, 
that there is a good market on the Continent for such ; but I am 
certain that when I was there in June, the fish then being taken 
were full of roe, for I saw the fine big roes in the refuse tubs, 
being carted away from the kipping shops. Several other authors 
c 2 
