Of this family the herring is the graceful, useful, and well-known type, to which also the pilchard, the shad, and the anchovy belong. The Clupea have the body longish and compressed, especially at the belly, where it comes to an edge; it is clothed with large scales, forming towards the belly a saw-like edge, which is very thin and easily removed. One dorsal fin without spinous rays, and one ventral, both placed near the middle of the body, are its locomotive characteristics.
The Herring, Clupea harengus (Fig. 383), is too well known to require description; its appearance is beautiful; but we shall only remark here that its back, which in the fish after death is of an indigo bluish colour, is green during life; the other parts vary considerably in their colours and markings, sometimes representing written characters, which ignorant fishermen have considered to be words of mystery. In November, 1587, two herrings were taken on the coast of Norway, on the bodies of which were markings resembling Gothic printed characters. These herrings had the signal honour of being presented to the King of Norway, Frederick II. This superstitious prince turned pale at sight of this supposed prodigy. On the back of these innocent inhabitants of the deep he saw certain cabalistic characters, which he thought announced his death and that of his queen. Learned men were consulted. Their science, as reported, enabled them to read distinctly words expressing the sentiment, "Very soon you will cease to fish herrings, as well as other people." Other savants were assembled, who gave another explanation; but in 1588 the king died, and the people were firmly convinced that the two herrings were celestial messengers charged to announce to the Norwegian people the approaching end of the monarch.
Fig. 383. The Herring (Clupea harengus).
This fish abounds throughout the entire Northern Ocean in immense shoals, which are found in the bays of Greenland, Lapland, and round the whole coast of the British Islands. Great shoals of them occupy the gulfs of Sweden, of Norway, and of Denmark, the Baltic and the Zuyder Zee, the Channel, and the coast of France up to the Loire, beyond which they never appear to be found. But the finest herrings are caught on Loch Fyne, on the west coast of Scotland.
The herrings are gregarious fishes, and live in great shoals closely packed together; shoals to be counted not by hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands, in many a shore and bay. It was the favourite theory, not very long ago, that herrings emigrated to and from the arctic regions. It was asserted, by the supporters of this theory, that in the inaccessible seas of high northern latitudes herrings existed in overwhelming numbers, an open sea within the arctic circle affording a safe and bounteous feeding-ground. At the proper season vast bodies gathered themselves together into one great army, which, in numbers exceeding the powers of imagination, departed for more southern regions. This great Heer, or army, was subdivided, by some instinct, as they reached the different shores, led, according to the ideas of fishermen, by herrings of more than ordinary size and sagacity, one division taking the west side of Britain, while another took the east side, the result being an adequate and well-divided supply of herrings, which penetrated every bay and arm of the sea round our coast, from Wick to Yarmouth. Closer observation, however, shows that this theory has no existence in fact. Lacepede denies that those periodical journeyings take place. Valenciennes also rejects them. It is true that the herrings have disappeared in certain neighbourhoods in which they were formerly very plentiful; but it is also certain that, in many of the fishing stations, fish are taken all the year round. Moreover, the discovery that the herring of America is probably a distinct species from that of Europe (which, smoked, is known as the "Digby Chick") is against the theory. In short, there is a total absence of proof of their pretended migrations to high northern latitudes; and recent discoveries all tend to show that the herring is native to the shores on which it is taken.
"It has been demonstrated," says Dr. Bertram, "that the herring is really a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all the year round on the coast of the three kingdoms. The fishing begins at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of May, and goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being prosecuted off the coast of Caithness; while in autumn and winter we find large supplies of herrings at Yarmouth; there is a winter fishery in the Firth of Forth. Moreover, this fish is found in the south long before it ought to be there, according to the emigration theory. It has been deduced, from a consideration of the annual takes of many years, that the herring exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity month after month. It is well known that the herrings taken at Wick in July are quite different from those caught at Dunbar in August and September; indeed I would go further, and say that even at Wick each month has its changing shoal, and that as one race appears for capture another disappears, having fulfilled its mission. It is certain that the herrings of these different seasons vary considerably in size and appearance; localities are marked by distinctive features. Thus the well-known Loch Fyne herring is essentially different from that of the Firth of Forth; and those differ again, in many particulars, from those caught off Yarmouth. In fact, the herring never ventures far from the shore where it is taken; and its condition, when it is caught, is just an index of the feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The superiority of flavour of the herring taken in our great land-locked salt-water lochs is undoubted. Whether or not resulting from the depth and body of water, from more plentiful marine vegetation, or from the greater variety of land food likely to be washed into these inland seas, has not yet been determined, but it is certain that the herrings of our western sea-lochs are infinitely superior to those captured in the more open sea." "Moreover," he adds, "it is now known, from the inquiries of the late Mr. Mitchell and other authorities on the geographical distribution of the herring, that the fish has never been noticed as being at all abundant in the arctic regions."
The herring feeds on small crustaceans, fishes just hatched, and even on the fry of its own species. On the other hand, its enemies are the most formidable inhabitants of the ocean; the whales destroy them by thousands, but man, above all, carries on a war which threatens to be one of extermination. In fact, the herring-fishery has been to certain nations the great cause of their prosperity. It was the foundation of Dutch independence. Silk manufacture, coffee, tea, spices, which are productive of great commercial movements, address themselves only to the wants of luxury or fashion. The produce of the herring fishery, on the contrary, is one of necessity to the people; and Holland would have languished and quickly disappeared, with its fictitious territory, if the sea had not added to its commercial industry this inexhaustible mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with persevering ardour. Struggling for an existence, it has conquered. Every year numerous vessels leave the coast of Holland for this precious marine harvest. The herring fishery is, for the Dutch people, the most important of maritime expeditions. It is with them known as the "great fishery." Whaling is known as the "small fishery." The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland; it is, besides, a very ancient occupation with ourselves. We find it flourishing in the twelfth century; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king with twenty-four thousand herrings. We also find mention made of the herring fishery in a chronicle of the Monastery of Evesham in the year 709.
Towards the year 1030 the French sent vessels into the North Sea from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch made the attempt; but as early as the thirteenth century that enterprising people employed two thousand boats in this industry. The Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians also threw themselves into this trade at an early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish at the present time only sufficient for home consumption. The monopoly of foreign trade belongs to the English, Dutch, and Norwegians. "The quantity of herrings gathered every year by our neighbours beyond the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly enormous. In Yarmouth alone four hundred ships, of from forty to sixty tons, are equipped, the largest being manned by twelve men. The revenue derived from this fleet is about seven hundred thousand pounds. In 1857 three of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors, carried home three millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand fishes."
Since the beginning of this century the Scottish fishermen have emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the British Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great attention to the subject, states "that there are nine hundred and twenty Wick boats engaged in the fishing, and that the produce was ninety-five thousand six hundred and eighty barrels" in one week alone, this being, however, a falling off of sixty-one thousand barrels from the previous year. The cause of this immense falling off was ascribed to a storm which had swept along the coast at the height of the season; but Mr. Cleghorn was inclined to ascribe it mainly to over-fishing, which had gradually diminished the number of herrings captured.