HERRING. 
m 
“ These brigades, as we may call them, which are 
thus separated from the greater columns, are often 
capricious in their movements, and do not show an 
invariable attachment to their haunts.” 
The herrings in our seas are said to feed on a 
crustaceous insect, the oniscus marinus Linn., and 
sometimes on their own fry. From the observation 
of Mr. Low of Birsa, it is probable that they likewise 
feed on flies. This gentleman assured Mr. Pen- 
nant that he had caught many thousands with a 
common trout fly, in a deep hole in a rivulet, 
into which the tide flows. He commonly went at 
the fall of the tide. They were young fish from 
six to eight inches in length. 
Herrings continue in perfection from the end of 
June to the beginning of winter, when they deposit 
their spawn, and the number of eggs in each good 
herring amounts, according to Mr. Harmer, to 
thirty-six thousand nine hundred and sixty. When 
we consider this wonderful fecundity, we are no 
longer surprised at the immense shoals which 
visited the Scotch coast in 1773. It appears like 
romancing when we say that, from a tolerably accu- 
rate calculation, not less than 1650 boat-loads were 
taken in Loch Terridon every night. 
This fish, whose importance in a commercial view 
must be acknowledged by every one, and which 
may justly be said to form one of the wonders of 
the northern world, is principally caught by the 
inhabitants of Great Britain off the Scotch and 
