About fifty years ago, the shoals of herrings came into Loch Urn,
Scotland, in such amazing quantities, that, from the narrows to the
head, about two miles, it was quite full. So many of them were forced
ashore by the pressure, that the beach, for four miles round the head,
was covered with them from six to eighteen inches deep; and the ground
under water, as far as could be seen, was in the same condition.
Indeed, so dense and forcible was the shoal, as to carry before it
every other kind of fish; even ground-fish, skate, flounders, and
plaice, were driven on shore with the force of the herrings, and
perished there.
It is a curious fact, that herrings die the moment they are taken out
of the water; whence originated the adage, which is much used, _as
dead as a herring_.