or HERRING, in Ichthyology, a genus belonging to the order of abdominales. The upper jaw is furnished with a serrated myftache; the branchiofuge membrane has eight rays; a fcaly serrated line runs along the belly from the head to the tail; and the belly-fins have frequently nine rays. There are 11 species, viz.
1. The harengus, or common herring, has no spots, and the under jaw is longer than the upper one. A herring dies immediately after it is taken out of the water; whence the proverb arises, As dead as a herring. The meat is everywhere in great esteem, being fat, soft, and delicate; especially if it is dressed as soon as caught, for then it is incomparably better than on the next day.
The herring was unknown to the ancients. Notwithstanding the words ἡλίκης and ἡλίκης are by translators rendered halec, the characters given to those fish are common to such numbers of different species as render it impossible to say which they intended.
Herrings are found from the highest northern latitudes yet known, as low as the northern coasts of where France; and except one instance, brought by Dod, offfound, a few being once taken in the bay of Tangier, none are ever found more southerly. They are met with in vast shoals on the coast of America, as low as Carolina. In Chesapeake-bay is an annual inundation of those fish, which cover the shore in such quantities as to become a nuisance. We find them again in the seas of Kamtchatka, and probably they reach Japan; for Kempfer mentions, in his account of the fish of that country, some that are congeners. The great winter rendezvous of the herring is within the arctic circle; there they continue for many months in order to recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning; the seas within that space swarming with insect food in a far greater degree than those of our warmer latitudes.
This mighty army begins to put itself in motion in the immense spring; we distinguish this vast body by that name; shoals of the word herring comes from the German heer, "an army," to express their numbers. They begin to appear off the Shetland isles in April and May; these are only the forerunners of the grand shoal which comes comes in June; and their appearance is marked by certain signs, by the number of birds, such as gannets and others, which follow to prey on them; but when the main body approaches, its breadth and depth is such as to alter the appearance of the very ocean. It is divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before them with a kind of rippling; sometimes they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, and then rise again to the surface; and in fine weather reflect a variety of splendid colours like a field of the most precious gems; in which, or rather in a much more valuable, light should this stupendous gift of Providence be considered by the inhabitants of the British isles.
The first check this army meets in its march southward is from the Shetland isles, which divide it into two parts; one wing takes to the east, the other to the western shores of Great Britain, and fill every bay and creek with their numbers; others pass on towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings: they then pass through the British Channel, and after that, in a manner disappear. Those which take towards the west, after offering themselves to the Hebrides, where the great stationary fishery is, proceed to the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second interruption, and are obliged to make a second division: the one takes to the western side, and is scarce perceived, being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic; but the other, that passes into the Irish sea, rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of most of the coasts that border on it. These brigades, as we may call them, which are thus separated from the greater columns, are often capricious in their motions, and do not show an invariable attachment to their haunts.
Were we inclined to consider this partial migration in a moral light, we might reflect with veneration and awe on the mighty power which originally impressed on this most useful body of his creatures the instinct that directs and points out the course, that blest and enriches these islands, which causes them at certain and invariable times to quit the vast polar deeps, and offer themselves to our expecting fleets. That benevolent Being has never been known, from the earliest account of time, once to withdraw this blessing from the whole; though he often thinks proper to deny it to particulars, yet this partial failure (for which we see no natural reason) should fill us with the most exalted and grateful sense of his providence for impressing such an invariable and general instinct on these fish towards a southward migration when the whole is to be benefited, and to withdraw it when only a minute part is to suffer.
This instinct was given them, that they might remove for the sake of depositing their spawn in warmer seas, that would mature and vivify it more assuredly than those of the frozen zone. It is not from defect of food that they set themselves in motion; for they come to us full of fat, and on their return are almost universally observed to be lean and miserable. What their food is near the pole we are not yet informed; but in our seas they feed much on the omnivorous marinus, a crustaceous insect, and sometimes on their own fry.
They are full of roe in the end of June, and continue in perfection till the beginning of winter, when they deposit their spawn. The young herrings begin to approach the shores in July and August, and are then from half an inch to two inches long; those in Yorkshire are called herring file. Though we have no particular authority for it, yet as very few young herrings are found in our seas during winter, it seems most likely that they must return to their parental haunts beneath the ice, to repair the vast destruction of their race during summer by men, fowl, and fish. Some of the old herrings continue on our coast the whole year: the Scarborough fishermen never put down their nets but they catch a few; but the numbers that remain are not worth comparison with those that return. See Herring-Fisher.
The Dutch are most extravagantly fond of this fish when it is pickled. A premium is given to the first boat that arrives in Holland with a lading of this their ambrosia, and a vast price given for each keg. There is as much joy among the inhabitants on its arrival, as the Egyptians show on the first overflowing of the Nile. Flanders had the honour of inventing the art Pickling of pickling herrings. One William Beaulieu of Biervel, near Sluis, hit on this useful expedient; from him was derived the name pickle, which we borrow from the Dutch and German. Beaulieu died in 1397. The emperor Charles V. held his memory in such veneration for the service he did to mankind, as to do his tomb the honour of a visit. It is very singular that most nations give the name of their favourite dish to the facetious attendant on every mountebank. Thus the Dutch call him pickle herring; the Italians macaroni; the French, jean pottage; the Germans hans wurft, that is, jack sausage; and the English dignify him with the name of jack pudding.
2. The sprattus has 13 rays in the back fin. It is a sprattus, native of the European seas, and has a great resemblance to the herring, only it is of a less size. They found, come into the river Thames below bridge in the beginning of November, and leave it in March; and are, during that season, a great relief to the poor of the capital. At Gravesend and at Yarmouth they are cured like red-herrings; they are sometimes pickled, and are little inferior in flavour to the anchovy, but the bones will not dissolve like those of the latter.
3. The aloa, or flad, has a forked finout, and black aloa, or spots on the sides. According to Belonius and Haf-llad, where felquift, this is a fish of passage in the Nile. The last found says, it is found in the Mediterranean near Smyrna, and on the coast of Egypt near Rosetta; and that in the months of December and January it ascends the Nile as high as Cairo, where the people stuff it with pot marjoram; and when dressed in that manner, it will very nearly intoxicate the eater. In Great Britain the Severn affords this fish in higher perfection than any other river. It makes its first appearance there in May, but in very warm seasons in April; for its arrival sooner or later depends much on the temper of the air. It continues in the river about two months, and then is succeeded by a variety which we shall have occasion to mention hereafter.
The Severn flad is esteemed a very delicate fish about the time of its first appearance, especially in that part of the river that flows by Gloucester, where they are taken in nets, and usually sell dearer than salmon; some are sent to London, where the fishmongers distinguish distinguish them from those of the Thames by the French name alofe. Whether they spawn in this river and the Wye is not determined, for their fry has not yet been discovered. The old fish come from the sea into the river in full roe. In the months of July and August, multitudes of bleak frequent the river near Gloucester; some of them are as big as a small herring, and these the fishermen erroneously suppose to be the fry of the shad. Numbers of these are taken near Gloucester, in those months only, but none of the emaciated shad are ever caught in their return.
The Thames shad does not frequent that river till the latter end of May or beginning of June, and is esteemed a very coarse and insipid sort of fish. The Severn shad is sometimes caught in the Thames, though rarely, and called allis (no doubt alofe, the French name) by the fishermen in that river. About the same time, and rather earlier, the variety called, near Gloucester, the twaite, makes its appearance, is taken in great numbers in the Severn, and is held in as great disrepute as the shad of the Thames. The differences between each variety are as follow: the true shad weighs sometimes eight pounds; but their general size is from four to five. The twaite, on the contrary, weighs from half a pound to two pounds, which it never exceeds. The twaite differs from a shad only in having one or more round black spots on the sides; if only one, it is always near the gill; but commonly there are three or four, placed one under the other.
4. The encrasicholus, or anchovy, has its upper jaw longer than the under one, and is about three inches long. They are taken in vast quantities in the Mediterranean, and are brought over here pickled. The great fishery is at Georgia, a small isle west of Leghorn. See Anchovy-FISHERY.
The other species are, 5. The atherinoides has a shining line on each side, and small belly-fins. It is a native of Surinam. 6. The thrissa has 28 rays in the fin at the anus. It is found in the Indian ocean. 7. The fima has yellow fins, those of the belly being very small. The mouth is flat; the upper jaw is very short; the body is of a shining silver colour, and the fins are yellow. It is a native of Asia. 8. The sternicla has no belly-fins, and the body is broad. It is a native of Surinam. 9. The myctus is shaped like a sword, and the fins at the anus are united. It is found in the Indian ocean. 10. The tropica has a wedge-like tail, and a white, broad, compressed body. It is found at Ascension island. 11. The fenifinis is very like the common herring, but broader. It has no teeth, and is a native of China.