106 HERRING. 



pounds in a week for a considerable time has thus been 

 paid by one individual: a circumstance of no small importance 

 to those adventurous fishermen who have come thither even 

 from the extreme west of Cornwall to reap this harvest of 

 the sea in the north. 



It would require a very extended notice if we were to 

 enter into a minute account of the proceedings of this fishery 

 at its different stations in the United Kingdom, and the methods 

 of preparing the fish for the home and foreign market; but 

 we the rather forbear because the whole of what might be 

 advanced is to be found in Dodd's "Essay towards a Natural 

 History of the Herring," Brabazon on the "Fisheries of 

 Ireland," and Mitchell's work already referred to; together 

 with a paper by Dr. Mac Culloch in the "Journal of the 

 Royal Institution" for 1824. This fishery has also been the 

 subject of much (and not very wise) legislation; but we 

 content ourselves with saying that at present it is with us 

 in a condition of much prosperity, since from Scotland alone 

 there is exported annually, on an average, five hundred 

 thousand barrels, of which each one holds four hundred and 

 eighty fish; and in Galway almost thirty thousand hogsheads 

 have been cured in bulk in a single year: a remarkable 

 contrast to the time when, as we glean from some ancient 

 documents, a portion of those which were consumed in Britain 

 were imported from foreign countries. 



When we consider the never-ceasing war that is carried on 

 against this race of fishes, it may be suj^posed that few of them 

 can be so fortunate as to reach the full size of which they are 

 capable. But there was an individual which chanced to obtain 

 the length of about seventeen inches, while our more moderate 

 sized example measured only twelve inches to the fork of the 

 tail, with a depth of two inches and a half. The lower jaw 

 protrudes beyond the upper: teeth minute, and a few in front 

 of the palate; gape expansive; mystache broad, curved, reaching 

 opposite the middle of the eye; the upper jaw, with the mystache, 

 lifts upwards on a hinge. Nostrils nearer the snout; eye 

 moderate, inclined to oval; head on the top less flat than in 

 the Pilchard; gill-covers in several divisions, without diverging 

 rays on the hindmost. Scales rather large, easily removed. 

 Body less plump than in the Pilchard, and with much less fat 



