HEKRLNG. 
99 
In these schools there are many more males than females; 
and how prolific they are is shewn by the incalculable numbers 
that are taken from the sea by human industry, which in 
Scotland alone amounts annually, on an average, to about five 
hundred thousand barrels prepared for exportation, besides a 
large consumption at home; and this must form only a moderate 
proportion of what is taken in other parts of our own country. 
It is probable, further, that the multitudes which in every 
stage of their existence fall a prey to the ravenous inhabitants 
of the ocean are still more considerable: for when only just 
escaping from the egg they are watched for and devoured by 
the many small fishes which have, only a little before, themselves 
been exposed to the same fate. When of larger growth they 
ai'e the food of fishes near the shore; while later in life they 
are the victims of Dogfishes and Sharks, Blowers or Physeter 
Whales; and fishermen are guided where to shoot their nets 
by gannets, which sail aloft in the air, and with piercing 
sight discern their prey at no small distance beneath the 
wave. With instinctive judgment the bird rises to a height 
that in its fall shall carry it to a sufficient depth, and then 
with half-closed wings it drops with headlong plunge upon its 
prey, and rarely returns to the surface without the prize. 
But in addition to these causes of destruction, which may 
be regarded as unavoidable, there are others which are caused 
by ignorant human agency, and which, therefore, are so much 
more to be deprecated. Wc are informed that on one occasion, 
near the end of August, when the fishermen of Dunbar had 
discovered that a school of Herrings were in the act of 
spawning near the land, they let down their nets close to the 
ground, by which large numbers were taken, and when drawn 
into the boat the spawn was found to flow from them in great 
abundance; and yet after this the fishermen continued the 
same thoughtless conduct. And the evil result of such un- 
seasonable waste has been shewn in another instance on the 
coast of Norfolk, where an enormous quantity of the fry was 
caught in the spring in those bags of net called stow-nets; 
and for three years afterwards the numbers of Herrings in 
the autumn in that neighbourhood were so small that fishermen 
scarcely thought it worth their while to employ their time in 
fishing for them. If we could suppose, that, like many migrating 
