HERRINGS. 245 



at the season when it approaches the shallows to 

 spawn, have given it its common name, Herring 

 being derived from the German lieer, an army. 

 The end of October is the ordinary period of the 

 commencement of the spawning season, but it 

 seems subject to local variation. For two or three 

 months before this, the fish is in the highest 

 condition, and is the object of eager pursuit all 

 around the coast. The principal places where the 

 Herring fishery is carried on may be thus enume- 

 rated : — Yarmouth, Lowestoffe, Hastings, Folke- 

 stone, Cardigan Bay, and Swansea, in England 

 and Wales ; the coasts of Caithness, Sutherland, 

 Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, and Ross, in Scotland ; 

 and Galway, the coast of Donegal, Mayo, the 

 mouth of the Shannon, Bantry Bay, and the coast 

 of Wicklow, in Ireland. 



The number of barrels of Herrings cured in the 

 British fisheries may be considered to average 

 four hundred thousand per annum; this is, of 

 course, exclusive of the vast quantities that are 

 eaten in a fresh state. The fisheries of Northern 

 Europe are also very extensive ; in those of Swe- 

 den and Norway, it is said that near four hun- 

 dred millions fish are taken yearly, and twenty 

 millions have been the produce of a single port. 



Yarmouth, whose smoked Herrings are well- 

 known by the term *^ bloaters," derives no small 

 portion of its prosperity from this fishery. A 

 hundred sail of vessels, averaging forty tons each, 

 hail from this place, and about seventy hail from 

 the neighbouring town of Lowestoft. This fieet 

 is augmented by fifty or sixty vessels that arrive 

 from the Yorkshire coast during the season. The 

 capital engaged at Yarmouth is estimated at 



