it?;] 



1890 ii(>;irly t'4.i,000 (t.';5,4.")7 tVoiii Liiiii Fjord"). Nor- 

 w;iv"s iiicdinc t'nuii tiiis soiirc-c'' in 1X91 was £360,600'. 

 Tlie results of the Hei-ring- fisheries of Oreat Britain 

 and Ireland were in 18S7 and 1888"': 



The Herring-tisherj' of Holland yielded in 1 880 * about 

 •227,000,000 Herrings and in 1881 about 197,500,000, 

 witli a market value of iietwcen three and four million 

 guldens (£2.M),000— £.383,000). The French fishermen 

 of the North Sea and the Channel took in 1881'' 39,000,000 

 kilo, of Herrings, valued at about 9,000,000 francs 

 (£360,000). The Iceland Herring-fishery of 1882' 

 yielded .iO,000 barrels of a total valne of £72,000. 



On the European side ot the Atlantic the annual 

 take of Herrings thus amounts to between .')00,000,000 

 and 600,000,000 kilo., and commands a market price 

 of about £2,700,000. On the east coast of North Ame- 

 rica, according to Hind'', Herrings were taken in 1874 

 to a weight of about 91,000,000 kilo. No gi-eat accu- 

 racy can be expected of all these calculations and esti- 

 mates, but they give at least a notion of the value 

 represented by the Herring, for all its cheapness. The 

 welfare of nations has dej)ended on the Herring-fishery; 

 and none need be surprised that this fishery has always 

 been an apple of discord. 



Manv are the eulinar\' forms in which the Heri'ing 

 appears. In order to fit this cheap article of food for 

 transportation from the ])lace of its catch to the world's 

 enipoi'ia, it has been the custum from time immemorial 



to dry, smoke, and salt the Herring; and the kitrhcn 

 has taken measures accordingly. The ib^rring-fishery 

 beca-me an El Dorado to the Dutch when they learnt 

 to gut the fish' — to remove tiie gill-arches and in- 

 testine — before salting. lUit tiie Herring, lik(! otliei- 

 fishes, is best and cheajjcst when fresh; and with the 

 speedy means of transit and improved methods of })re- 

 servation — l)()rate or, .still better, ice — now available, 

 it may be conveyed to a considerable distance, and 

 kej)t fresh for at least a fortnight or three weeks. In 

 this condition it is excellent either boiled or fried. The 

 English whitebait, the principal coui'se at the fashionable 

 dinners at Greenwich or Blackwall on the Thames, has 

 a world-wide reputation. Whitebait consist chiefly of 

 Herring-fry about two or three inches long, but also 

 of Sprats, Sticklebacks, Gobies, and other small fishes. 

 They are taken at flood-tide in spring and summer 

 with a special kind of net, which is dipped a few feet 

 below the surface from a boat anchored in 30 — 40 feet 

 of water. Thev sliould, al)ove all, be procured (juite 

 fresh and fried as soon as possible. Thej' answer to 

 the fiskakaqa (fish-cake) of Scania and Halland, only 

 that the latter is made into a cake by the addition of 

 a greater quantitv of butter or lard. In France White- 

 bait are kno\\n as liJanclies (hlaguets) or menis {me- 

 nitsses). 



Herrings and Herring-fry are also much used as 

 bait for other fishes. 



The numerous names by which the Herring is 

 known in trade, and the details of the numerous me- 

 thods employed in curing it for the market, cannot 

 be given here. The reader who is interested in these 

 questions will find an able treatment of them in 

 L.TUNGilAN. 1. c. 



■' Drechsel, accordiiifr to the -Dansk Fiskeriforeniiigs Meillcinsblafl" 1892, pp. 74 and 75. 



' For tlic Norwegian Herring-fisheries and their fluctuations see H. B.^.ars, Die Fischereiindustrie Xorwegens, Bergen 1873, p. 36. 



The Central Bureau of Statistics at Christiania, according to the "Dansk Fiskeriforenings Medlemsblad" 1892, p. 490. 

 ■' Fish Trades Gazette 1889, .Jan. 12th and 26th. 



' .\ccording to an official statement, in the Catal. Gt. Intern. Fisli. Exliib. London 1883, 1st cd., p. 422. 

 / ibid., p. 384. 

 » ibid., p. 382. 



* I!r.-Goode, Fisher., Fislier. Industr. U. S., sect. I, p. 549. 

 ' The discovery is ascribed by tradition to Willem Beukelzoon, a skipper from liicrvlict in Flanders, d. 1387. 



