rough gravelly ground at varying distances from the coast and always in comparatively shallow water. The season of spawning is different in different places, and even in the same district, e.g. the east coast of Scotland, there are herrings spawning in spring and others in autumn. These are not the same fish but different races. Those which breed in winter or spring deposit their spawn near the coast at the mouths of estuaries, and ascend the estuaries to a considerable distance at certain times, as in the Firths of Forth and Clyde, while those which spawn in summer or autumn belong more to the open sea, e.g. the great shoals that visit the North Sea annually.
Herrings grow very rapidly; according to H. A. Meyer’s observations, they attain a length of from 17 to 18 mm. during the first month after hatching, 34 to 36 mm. during the second, 45 to 50 mm. during the third, 55 to 61 mm. during the fourth, and 65 to 72 mm. during the fifth. The size which they finally attain and their general condition depend chiefly on the abundance of food (which consists of crustaceans and other small marine animals), on the temperature of the water, on the season at which they have been hatched, &c. Their usual size is about 12 in., but in some particularly suitable localities they grow to a length of 15 in., and instances of specimens measuring 17 in. are on record. In the Baltic, where the water is gradually losing its saline constituents, thus becoming less adapted for the development of marine species, the herring continues to exist in large numbers, but as a dwarfed form, not growing either to the size or to the condition of the North-Sea herring. The herring of the American side of the Atlantic is specifically identical with that of Europe. A second species (Clupea leachii) has been supposed to exist on the British coast; but it comprises only individuals of a smaller size, the produce of an early or late spawn. Also the so-called “white-bait” is not a distinct species, but consists chiefly of the fry or the young of herrings and sprats, and is obtained “in perfection” at localities where these small fishes find an abundance of food, as in the estuary of the Thames.
Several excellent accounts of the herring have been published, as by Valenciennes in the 20th vol. of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, and more especially by Mr J. M. Mitchell, The Herring, its Natural History and National Importance (Edinburgh, 1864). Recent investigations are described in the Reports of the Fishery Board for Scotland, and in the reports of the German Kommission zur Untersuchung der Deutschen Meere (published at Kiel). (J. T. C.)
HERRING-BONE, a term in architecture applied to alternate
courses of bricks or stone, which are laid diagonally with binding
courses above and below: this is said to give a better bond to
the wall, especially when the stone employed is stratified, such
as Stonefield stone, and too thin to be laid in horizontal courses.
Although it is only occasionally found in modern buildings, it
was a type of construction constantly employed in Roman,
Byzantine and Romanesque work, and in the latter is regarded
as a test of very early date. It is frequently found in the Byzantine
walls in Asia Minor, and in Byzantine churches was employed
decoratively to give variety to the wall surface. Sometimes the
diagonal courses are reversed one above the other. Examples
in France exist in the churches at Querqueville in Normandy
and St Christophe at Suèvres (Loir et Cher), both dating from
the 10th century, and in England herring-bone masonry is
found in the walls of castles, such as at Guildford, Colchester and
Tamworth. The term is also applied to the paving of stable
yards with bricks laid flat diagonally and alternating so that the
head of one brick butts against the side of another; and the
effect is more pleasing than when laid in parallel courses.
HERRINGS, BATTLE OF THE, the name applied to the
action of Rouvray, fought in 1429 between the French (and
Scots) and the English, who, under Sir John Falstolfe (or
Falstaff), were convoying Lenten provisions, chiefly herrings,
to the besiegers of Orleans. (See Orleans and Hundred Years’ War.)
HERRNHUT, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony,
18 m. S.E. of Bautzen, and situated on the Löbau-Zittau railway.
Pop. 1200. It is chiefly known as the principal seat of
the Moravian or Bohemian brotherhood, the members of which
are called Herrnhuter. A colony of these people, fleeing from
persecution in Moravia, settled at Herrnhut in 1722 on a site
presented by Count Zinzendorf. The buildings of the society
include a church, a school and houses for the brethren, the sisters
and the widowed of both sexes, while it possesses an ethnographical
museum and other collections of interest. The town
is remarkable for its ordered, regular life and its scrupulous
cleanliness. Linen, paper (to varieties of which Herrnhut gives
its name), tobacco and various minor articles are manufactured.
The Hutberg, at the foot of which the town lies, commands a
pleasant view. Berthelsdorf, a village about a mile distant, has
been the seat of the directorate of the community since about
1789.
HERSCHEL, CAROLINE LUCRETIA (1750–1848), English
astronomer, sister of Sir William Herschel, the eighth child and
fourth daughter of her parents, was born at Hanover on the
16th of March 1750. On account of the prejudices of her mother,
who did not desire her to know more than was necessary for
being useful in the family, she received, in youth only the first
elements of education. After the death of her father in 1767 she
obtained permission to learn millinery and dressmaking with a
view to earning her bread, but continued to assist her mother
in the management of the household until the autumn of 1772,
when she joined her brother William, who had established himself
as a teacher of music at Bath. At once she became a valuable
co-operator with him both in his professional duties and in the
astronomical researches to which he had already begun to devote
all his spare time. She was the principal singer at his oratorio
concerts, and acquired such a reputation as a vocalist that she
was offered an engagement for the Birmingham festival, which,
however, she declined. When her brother accepted the office
of astronomer to George III., she became his constant assistant
in his observations, and also executed the laborious calculations
which were connected with them. For these services
she received from the king in 1787 a salary of £50 a year. Her
chief amusement during her leisure hours was sweeping the
heavens with a small Newtonian telescope. By this means she
detected in 1783 three remarkable nebulae, and during the
eleven years 1786–1797 eight comets, five of them with unquestioned
priority. In 1797 she presented to the Royal
Society an Index to Flamsteed’s observations, together with a
catalogue of 561 stars accidentally omitted from the “British
Catalogue,” and a list of the errata in that publication. Though
she returned to Hanover in 1822 she did not abandon her astronomical
studies, and in 1828 she completed the reduction, to
January 1800, of 2500 nebulae discovered by her brother. In
1828 the Astronomical Society, to mark their sense of the benefits
conferred on science by such a series of laborious exertions,
unanimously resolved to present her with their gold medal, and
in 1835 elected her an honorary member of the society. In 1846
she received a gold medal from the king of Prussia. She died on
the 9th of January 1848.
See The Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel, by Mrs John Herschel (1876).
HERSCHEL, SIR FREDERICK WILLIAM (1738–1822),
generally known as Sir William Herschel, English astronomer,
was born at Hanover on the 15th of November 1738. His
father was a musician employed as hautboy player in the
Hanoverian guard. The family had quitted Moravia for Saxony
in the early part of the 17th century on account of religious
troubles, they themselves being Protestants. Herschel’s earlier
education was necessarily of a very limited character, chiefly
owing to the warlike commotions of his country; but being at
all times an indomitable student, he, by his own exertions, more
than repaired this deficiency. He became a very skilful musician,
both theoretical and practical; while his attainments as a
self-taught mathematician were fully adequate to the prosecution
of those branches of astronomy which he so eminently advanced
and adorned. Whatever he did he did methodically and
thoroughly; and in this methodical thoroughness lay the secret
of what Arago very properly termed his astonishing scientific
success.
