New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-05-19
THE SPRING FISHERIES.

Accounts from the Chesapeake Bay represent it as
being literally alive with shad and herring The latter
are showing themselves in swarns of unexampled
magnitude even for those celebrated waters. One
fishing master is said have caught 300 barrels at
single haul; another OOO and many others are catch
ing from 800 to 500 barrels daily. The of herring
is said TO be greater than has been known for thirty
years and those engaged in taking them will be likely
to make email fortunes.
There are many interesting facts in the history and
peculiar habits of the herring. This fish Is never
known to srawn in the fresh waters of Europe Until
TIE discovery and settlement of this country 1t was an
unsolyed problem with naturalists of the Old World
as to whittier they resorted TO perform this operation
But il now known that the vast schools which ira
we're the ocean, visiting the shores Of Europe in their
progress, are on their annual journey to the American
coast in the creeks and rivers of which they find their
favorite spawning ground The herring is fish OF
passage II follows one annual route in the sea- shift.
ing its climate with the SUM- and it is the same school
which is found at time in Great Britain and at
another in America. There is no visible difference in
the fish caught OH the English coast and that caught
on ours except that the former somewhat fatter
and rounder than the latter. Their great feeding
ground If IN the Arctic circle, amid perpetual ice, and
from this region they issue annually forth, fat and
juicy TO be caught anddeyoured by the waiting nations
Oh the eastern skirt OF the Atlantic. On their long,
and doubtless weary journey OF many thousand miles
before reaching the American coast they are no doubt
deprived of the peculiar food which cooler waters
afford them and hence they reach our coast in worse
condition than they found at the British islands
The movements of the herring appear to be slow
and deliberate, governed by an instinct which enables
il to distinguish season. climate and temperature. In
June il il found in the North Sea, and about the Shet-
hand islands Here the vast school divides and literally
surrounds all England and Ireland, where countless
numbers are taken and cured The appearance of this
grand shoal is marked by certain signs, such rs the
numbers of birds which follow to prey on them, while
il alters the very appearance Of the ocean. Ii il
divided into distinct columns OF five or six miles in
rgh, 10y three four in breadth, which drive the
water before them in percepuble ripple. Sometimes
they sink for few minutes and then rise again to the
surface. IN fine weather they reflect variety of
gorgeous colors, like field Of precious gems. At the
Shetland Isles wing takes to the east and the
otEer 10 the western shores of Great Britain where
they ill every bay and creek with their prodgious
numbers. They then pass through the British Channel
and then measunbly disappear. The western column,
after Offering itself TO the great stationary fisheries of
the Hebrds, proceeds TO the north of Ireland where
it again divides surrounds the island rejoicing and
feeding the inhabitants, and then disappears in the
immensely Of the ocean. The numbers taken from
these columns while sporting around the British
Islands must count up by tens Of millions Five years
ago the catch amounted TO 900 900 barrels employing
1900 boats, manned by Al 900 fishermen and boys
while the total number employed in the 6sheries was
$1,000. f.
After leaving these i-lands, the divided columns
sgsin unite in one vast shosJ, and taking south