tween them. The entrails are boiled into an oil; -8000 fish will yield ten gallons, valued at one shilling the gallon. A vessel of eighty tons takes out 144 barrels of salt; a drawback of 2s. 8d. is allowed for each barrel used by the foreign exportation of the fish; but there is a duty of 1s. per barrel for the home consumption, and the same for those sent to Ireland. The barrels are made of oak-staves, chiefly from Virginia; the hoops from several parts of our own island, and are either of oak, birch, hazel, or willow the last from Holland, liable to a duty. The barrels cost about 3s. each; they hold from 500 to 800 fish, according to their sizes, and are made to contain thirty-two gallons. The barrels are inspected by proper officers: a cooper examines if they are good; if faulty, he destroys them, and obliges the maker to stand to the loss. Loch Broom has been celebrated for three or four centuries as the resort of herrings. They generally appear here in July: those that turn into this bay are part of the brigade that detaches itself from the western column of that great army which annually deserts the vast depths of the arctic circle, and come, heaven-directed, to the seats of population, offered as a cheap food to millions, whom wasteful luxury or iron-hearted avarice hath deprived, by enhancing the price of the wonted supports of the poor. The migration of these fish from their northern retreat is regular; their visits to the Western Isles and coasts, certain; but their attachment to one particular loch, extremely precarious. All have their turns: that which swarmed with fish one year, is totally deserted the following; yet the next loch to it may be crowded with the shoals. These changes of place give often full employ to the busses, who are continually shifting their harbour in quest of news respecting these important wanderers. They commonly appear here in July; the latter end of August they go into deep water, and continue there for some time, without any apparent cause in November they return to the shallows, when a new fishery commences, which continues till January; at that time the herrings become full of roe, and are useless as articles of commerce. Some doubt, whether those herrings that appear in November are not part of a new migration, for they are as fat, and make the same appearance, as those that composed the first. The signs of the arrival of the herrings are flocks of gulls, which catch up the fish while they skim on the surface; and of gannets, which plunge and bring them up from considerable depths. Both these birds are closely attended to by the fishers. Cod-fish, haddocks, and dog-fish, follow the herrings in vast multitudes; these voracious fish keep on the outsides of the columns, and may concur in driving the shoals into bays and creeks. In summer they come into the bays generally with the warmest weather, and with easy gales. During winter, the hard gales from north-west are supposed to assist in forcing them into shelter. East winds are very unfavorable to the fishery.' : The nets being hauled on board, the fishes are taken out, and put into the warbacks, which stand on one side of the vessels. When all the nets are thus unloaded, one fills the gippers baskets. The gippers cut their throats, take out their guts, and fling out the full herrings into one basket, and the shotten into another. One man takes the full basket when they are gipped, and carries them to the rower back, wherein there is salt. One boy rows and stirs them about in the salt, and another takes them, thus rowed, and carries them in baskets to the packers. Four men pack the herrings into one barrel, and lay them, one by one, straight and even; and another man, when the barrel is full, takes it from the packers. It is left to stand a day or more open to settle, that the salt may melt and dissolve to pickle; after which it is filled up, and the cooper completes the work, by heading the casks very tight, and stowing them in the hold. The pickle is to be strong enough to sustain a herring; otherwise the fish decay in it. Bishop Watson observes, that the Dutch have long been famous for preparing a salt for the pickling of herrings, by which they have acquired a superiority in that article of commerce over all other European nations. Their principal secret in this business consists in evaporating the brine made from the solution of bay salt with the gentlest fire, and in mixing with the brine a proper quantity of very sour whey; the acid whey unites itself with the uncombined fixed alkali, and thus prevents it from adhering to the common salt as it crystallises. Any other mild acid might probably answer the same purpose.'-Chemical Essays, vol. 2. p. 63. In the report of the Downs Fishery, the committee, p. 21, observe, that the periodical shoals of herrings, in their progress from the North Sea to the Channel, appear in wonderful abundance in their straits, in the early part of October, and remain till the end of November; about which time they proceed gradually to the westward, and are caught off the Isle of Wight till the end of February. Such is the profusion of these fish, while they continue between the Forelands, where they are necessarily condensed by the conformation of the straits, that the quantities taken on this part of the coast, amount to more than double the average catch of our great fishery at Newfoundland, in proportion to the time and number of hands employed in it. The mackerel are also found during their season, in remarkable abundance in these straits, which appear to form the limits of their migration ap the channel. In this neighbourhood (Deal) they generally remain from May to July, affording, like the herrings, a rich harvest that seems to invite the industry of the fisherman.'—In p. 26 and 28, they add, that Holland has no herrings near her own coast, but takes them on the coast of Britain, from Shetland to the coast of Sussex; commencing at the distance of 250 leagues, and ending at fifty leagues from her own ports.' The Downs Society was associated in November, 1815, under the patronage of the earl of Liverpool, and is a gratifying example of the effect of spirited associations for the promotion of improvements in our fisheries. The fish which was cured by that society in the preceding year (with a very little, though very valuable in struction from Mr. Sicvers, a fishing merchant of London) received the first bounty paid under the late act, on that part of the coast. They sent sixty-two barrels of white herrings to Barbadoes, Antigua, Jamaica, and other West India Islands; from whence they received the most favorable and gratifying accounts of the excellence of their fish; which sold at very high prices, a third more than those from either the United States, or British America. See the Report of the committee of the Downs Society of Fisherman's Friends, 17th August, 1816. : salutary effects. They conclude their statement with the intelligence, that the character of the British fishery is rising both at home and abroad; for that, while the quantity of herrings cured gutted is annually increasing, the quantity cured ungutted is every year diminishing; that great as the amount of fishery had been in the course of that year, the demand had fully kept pace with it; and that, at the end of the season, few herrings remained unsold in the hands of the curers. They further report, that while the exportation to the continent of Europe had nearly Since the act of 48th Geo. III., appointing equalled that of the preceding year, and the excommissioners, separate and distinct from the cus-portation to the West Indies and Ireland had toms and excise, to superintend the distribution increased, a new market had opened in the East of bounties, and the stationing of officers versed Indies, to which different shipments of herrings in the trade of the herring fishery, persons who had been made, by way of experiment both from had experimentally and practically followed that Greenock and London: that, from the former of fishery as a trade, but who are excluded from all these places, upwards of 1300 firkins were exinterest or participation in the trade, the herring ported to Calcutta, all of which they understood fishery has become with us, as it was with the were purchased by Europeans there at 20s. to Dutch, an object of national concern; the good 25s. per firkin; and that it was the intention of effects of which are sensibly felt in every part of the exporter, in consequence of this encourage-. the coast, where it has regularly been established. ment, to ship a larger quantity next season; so By this act, an annual report by the commission- that the commissioners trust, that India will soon ers, of their proceedings, ending the 5th April, become a permanent and valuable market for the is required to be presented to parliament each consumption of British herrings. The report session containing the details of the fishery of concludes, it is impossible to state, within the the preceding year, together with such observa- compass of this report, the advantages resulting tions and suggestions as may have occurred, or to the community from the prosperity of the been communicated to the commissioners, in the herring fishery; but the commissioners think it interval between the reports. In their report of their duty briefly to mention that the effects 1816, they state that they have had their atten- thereof are felt in almost every part of the kingtion turned to different matters calculated to im- dom. The fishermen have, in many cases, been prove the cure of herrings, and to raise the enabled, by the produce of their industry, to recharacter of the British fishery in foreign parts; place the small boats formerly used, by new that a communication, made to them by a mer- boats of much larger dimensions, and to provide cantile house of respectability, on the subject of themselves with fishing materials of superior increasing the exportation of herrings to the value. The number of boats and of fishermen continent of Europe, had been printed, and has been greatly increased; while, by the distributed among the curers throughout the general introduction of the practice of gutting, kingdom; that regulations had been adopted a valuable source of employment has been for improving the construction of barrels intend- opened to thousands of poor people, who now ed for bounty; that the boats of the fishermen annually resort to the coast during the continuhad been properly fitted up for the reception of ance of the fishing season, and there earn a herrings; that bounty had been refused on all decent livelihood in the operations of gutting barrels not full of pickle; and that the strictest and packing. New dwelling-houses and buildorders had been given to the officers of the fish- ings, on a superior construction, for the curing ery, to apply the official brand in no case, unless and storing of the herrings, are erecting at both herrings and casks were in every respect almost every station along the coast; while the such as would do credit to the establishment. demand for home wood for the manufacture of In the year 1817 the commissioners point out barrels, affords a source of profit and employthe great increase that had taken place in the ment to numbers of people in the most inland exportation of British herrings to the continent parts of the country.' of Europe, in consequence of the communications made to and the regulations adopted by them, as contained in the preceding report; and, in the year 1818, they observe that they had received a memorial on the subject from Hamburgh, signed by a number of herring merchants of that port, bearing testimony to the improvement that had taken place in the quality of British herrings, and pointing out the means of raising their character still higher. This memorial the commissioners likewise caused to be printed, and distributed among the curers, which they accompanied with such additional observations as they conceived to be necessary,. and which they state to have produced the most The progress of the herring-fishery will best be seen by a summary view of the quantities caught, cured for bounty, and exported, from 1815 to 1819. By the report of 1815, it appears that the quantity cured gutted was 105,3724 barrels. By that of 1816, it amounted to 135,981 barrels, being an increase in one year's fishery of 30,608% barrels. The quantity cured ungutted, in the former period, was 54,767 barrels; in the latter 26,670 barrels, being a decrease of 28,096 barrels. The total quantity brought under the view of the officers in 1815 was 160,1394 barrels. In 1816 it was 162,651 barrels, being an increase, on the whole, of 2512 barrels. The quantity FISHERIES, branded for bounty in 1815, was 83,376 barrels. In the year 1817 the total quantity caught was 192,3434 barrels, being an increase of 29,691 barrels. In the same year the quantity branded for bounty was, 140,018 barrels, being an increase of 23,5824 barrels. The quantity exported in 1817 was 138,628 barrels, being an increase of 30,940 barrels. In the year 1818 the total quantity caught was 227,691 barrels, whereof 204,270 were cured gutted, and 23,4203 ungutted; being an increase in the total quantity of 35,347 barrels, and of 48,4941 in the quantity gutted; while there was a decrease in the quantity cured ungutted of 13,146 barrels. In this year the quantity found entitled to bounty was 183,089 being an increase of 43,071 barrels. In the same rels, whereof 148,147 were gutted, and 14,192 year, the total quantity exported was 162,339) barungutted; being an increase in the total quantity of 23,711 barrels, and of 32,667 in the quantity gutted; while there was a decrease in the quantity ungutted of 8956 barrels. But the report of the year ending the 5th of the former ones, as will be seen from the followApril, 1819, is still more encouraging than any of ing accounts, which exhibit at one view the enstations in Great Britain. tire state of the herring fishery at the different TABLE I.-An Account of the Total Number of Barrels of White Herrings which have been branded for the Bounty of 4s. and of 3s. 6d. per Barrel, in the year ended 5th April, 1819. 4 TABLE II.-An Account of the Total Number of Barrels of White Herrings, which have been landed from the Fishery, or cured on Shore, in the Year ended 5th April 1819;-in so far as the same has come under the cognizance of the officers of the Fishery. TABLE III.-An Account of the Total Number of Barrels of White Herrings which have beer. Exported from GREAT BRITAIN, in the year ended 5th. of April, 1819;-in so far as the same have come under the cognizance of the Officers of the Fishery. SECT III.-OF THE PILCHARD AND ANCHOVY FISHERIES. The pilchard and the anchovy are, in fact, only a distinct species of the genus clupea. Some naturalists consider the former as a variety of the herring. It is, however, much less and thicker than the herring, the nose turns up, the under jaw is shorter than the upper, the dorsal fin is placed exactly in the centre of gravity-for if you take a pilchard by the back it will hang even, which a herring will not-and the scales are firm, and adhere very closely, while those of the herring come off with the least rubbing. The pilchard swims in large shoals which arrive on the coasts of Bretagne, Cornwall, and Devonshire, from June to September, although they are sometimes caught about Christmas. Men are set on the cliffs of the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall, whom they call huers, to watch their coming; the purple color of the water in the day, and its shining appearance in the night, giving certain indications of their approach. Then the huers, according to settled and regulated signs, direct the boats and vessels how to manage their seins, and, when their commands are properly given and obeyed, they have been known to take 100,000 pilchards at a draught. It is a common saying of the Cornish fishermen, when talking of the pilchard, that it is the least fish in size, most in number, and greatest in gain. In Scotland they sometimes appear among the herring shoals, but in the Frith of Forth there are no established fisheries for them. Anchovies are caught in May, June, and July, on the coasts of Catalonia, Provence, &c., when they constantly repair through the straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. See CLUPEA. Collins says, they are also found in plenty on the west coasts of England and Wales. The fishing is chiefly in the night, when, a light being put upon the stern of the fishing-vessels, the anchovies flock round, and are caught in the nets. But it is said to have been found by experience, that anchovies taken thus by fire, are neither so good, so firm, nor so proper for keeping as |