Various ohfervations on the Herring. 



X HAVE often reflected on the following circumftance attending 

 river fifli, namely, that where they have a plentiful fupply of food, 

 their inteftines are always covered with fat; and on the contrary I 

 have observed, that many fea fifh, fuch as Cod-filh, Haddocks, Plaice, 

 Flounders and the like, though they are plump and bulky, never have 

 any fat on their intellines: Herrings, however, do not come under 

 this defcription, for, not only their bowels are very fat, but their 

 whole bodies are fo much fo, that fometimes when they are cut, the 

 fat or oil follows the knife, efpecially at that time when the roes 

 begin to fwell, at which time they are called in this country Maat- 

 gens-Haringen. 



After much turning this matter in my thoughts, I had a fancy to 

 know what is the food of this fifli, and for that purpofe I enquired 

 of many men, ufed to that fiihery, what food they generally found in 

 the llomachs of Herrings when firfl: caught, but the conflant an- 

 fwer I got from them was, that they never found any. At length 

 I met with a merchant who fits out fliips for the Herring fifliery, 

 and from him I learned, that in a certain tract of fea near the coast 

 of Scotland, Herrings are caught, in the llomachs of which are found 

 fome kind of fmall fiflies, but that thofe Herrings will not keep 

 long. 



Not content with this, I determined to wait for the feafon, when 

 certain Herrings are brought to our town, which, as I have heard, 

 are caught in great numbers not far from Amfterdam, in that bay 

 or fea, which, among us, is called by the name of the Ziiydcr 

 Zee.* 



* The Ziiyder Zee or Zudder Zee, a fmall Mediterranean fea between North Hollanti and 

 Fricfland, whence probably its name of Zuyder, or Southern fea, being fo fituated in refpcft 

 of North Holland. It is very fliallow, and by Sir William Temple in his remarks on the 

 United Provinces, fuppofed to have been formed by fome great inundation in the middle age, 

 or about the ninth century. 



S 



