146 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 

 account of the small size of their vessels. Herring causrht 



o o 



in bum-boats was summarily salted, or strewn with salt, on 

 board, and carried home in baskets to be smoked in the 

 coast villages, and sold as " bucking." The salting process 

 destined to preserve such herring until brought to the 

 smokeries was, and is now, called steuren ; whence smoke- 

 herring is generally styled steurharing. 



" Bucking," although an article of extensive home con- 

 sumption, never fetched anything like the prices of cured 

 herring ; but smoke-herring fishermen found a compensa- 

 tion for this inferiority in the nearly complete liberty of 

 their business. They were at liberty to carry their fish 

 abroad, and it appears from an entry in v. d. Lely's Recueil 

 (p. 1 3) that they used, " from early times downward," to 

 sell " fresh "' herring at Yarmouth. As their produce never 

 was held to be of a particularly fine quality, they were of 

 course not subject to any of the laws on packing and 

 branding. They were, indeed, subject to the St. John's 

 rule ; for by the Placard of 1607, quoted in Chapter I.,* it 

 was prohibited, in the most general terms, to wet any nets 

 fit to catch herring before St. John's in midsummer, and 

 the only exception to the rule was in favour of the cod- 

 fishers, who were allowed at any time to catch unripe 

 herring as bait for their hooks. Fishing steersmen from 

 the coast were moreover obliged annually to take out a 

 licence from the College of the Grand Fishery, which was 

 only delivered upon their taking oath not to use foreign 

 nets or buy herring from others at sea. As this obligation 

 is first mentioned in the Herring Act of 1656,! it is probable 

 that they sailed without a licence before, and were not 

 brought under the College's rule till the said year. But 



* Gr. Plb., i. p. 733- 



f Ibid. viii. p. 1242, art. 3. 



