1 6 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



used for salting herring than either "salt sodden from 

 salt " (meaning refined) or " moor-salt." * Lisboa salt was 

 excluded a fact the more remarkable as no other than 

 Spanish or Portuguese salt was allowed to be used in later 

 years. No salt was allowed to be taken on board a herring 

 ship unless covered by a certificate as to its quality ; and 

 skippers were to be sworn in against breach of this rule, 

 which was considered extremely important. Four barrels 

 of moor-salt, or five and half of " salt from salt " were to be 

 used for one last of herring ; whence it is evident that the 

 curing qualities of the former (styled either " moer-zont or 

 zout van zelle ") were even stronger than those of refined 

 salt. 



The quality of the herring and its packing are next 

 regulated to some extent in the law of 1519. Herring 

 caught before St. James's Day (July 25) is prescribed to be 

 packed in separate barrels, on which a peculiar brand 

 representing a " St. James's shell " {St. Jacob's schelpe) is to 

 be apposed. Skippers are ordered to observe peculiar 

 " diligence " in the packing of all sorts of herring, and to 

 have the fish carefully disposed in layers, and on no 

 account poured out of the basket into the barrel in heaps. 



* Zout van goeden graauwen zelle. These words refer to a peculiar 

 industry now extinct since centuries. In the alluvial grounds of some 

 of the Dutch river mouths, which are covered by sea-water at every 

 tide, a kind of briny moor or turf (darincK) was formerly found in 

 great quantities. This substance was burnt, and its ashes, when 

 moistened with sea-water, yielded a peculiarly fine gray salt. This 

 moor-salt-making industry (zelle-neeringhe) was of course exercised 

 only about the mouths of the rivers, especially at Zierikzee. Boxhorn 

 (augmented edition of Reijgersbergeti's Chronijk van Zeelandf) 

 describes the whole process on page 1 14, and adds : " No other salt 

 than this was in times of yore used throughout the Netherlands." An 

 engraving representing the digging and burning of " darinck " is to be 

 found in Wagenaar, Vad. Historic, vol. iv. 



