448 



THE PILCHARD. 



THE PILCHARD. 



About the middle of July, the Pilchards, which are a smaller species 

 of Herring, appear in vast shoals off the coasts of Cornwall. The?? 



shoals remain till the latter end of October, when it is probable thej 

 retire to some undisturbed deep, at a little distance, for the winter. 

 It has been supposed, but improperly, that, like the Herring, they 

 migrate into the arctic regions. If Pilchards performed any migration 

 northward, we should have heard of their being occasionally seen and 

 caught on their passage ; but of this we have no authenticated instance. 

 The utmost range of the Pilchards seems to be the Isle of Wight in 

 the British, and Ilfracomb in the Bristol Channel. Forty years back, 

 Christmas was the time of their departure : this alteration in time is a 

 very singular fact. 



We have the following account of the Pilchard-fishery from Dr 

 Borlase :— " Tt employs (he says) a great number of men on the sea, 

 training them thereby to naval affairs; employs men, women, and 

 children, at land, in salting, pressing, washing, and cleaning; ia 

 making boats, nets, ropes, and casks. The poor are fed with the refus 

 of the captures, the land with the offals of the fish and salt; tht» 

 merchant finds the gains of commission and honest commerce, the 

 fishermen the gains of the fish. Ships are often freighted hither 

 with salt, and into foreign countries with the fish, carrying off, at the 

 same time, part of our tin. From a statement, the number of 

 hogsheads exported from Great Britain, each year, for ten years, 

 amounted to twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and ninety-live 

 bogsheads yearly. Every hogshead, for ten years last past, together 

 with the bounty allowed for exportation, and the oil made out of it, 

 has amounted, one year with another, at an average, to the price of 

 one pound thirteen shillings and three-pence; so that the cash paid 

 for Pilchards exported has, at a medium, annually amounted to the 

 sum of forty-nine thousand five hundred and thirty-two pounds and 

 ten shillings." 



When Dr. Maton made his tour of the western counties, he and a 

 friend hired a boat to go out and see the Pilchard-fishing at Fowy. 

 He says that the fishing-boats, which are numerous, are usually 



