186 ON THE ECONOMICAL USES OF FISHES. 



about at the rate of two a penny, though this is far 

 from being the usual price. 



In North America, especially off the coasts of 

 Labrador and Newfoundland, mackarel of different 

 species, however, occur periodically in prodigious 

 shoals, and their arrival is eagerly looked for. 



A fish nearly allied to the preceding, the tunny, 

 Thynnius vulgaris^ was well known and highly 

 prized by the ancients, having constituted from the 

 earliest ages, according to Dr. Neale, a great source 

 of riches and commerce to the nations inhabiting 

 the shores of the Mediterranean, and, in fact, being 

 the principal food of the people of Bithynia. We 

 shall have occasion to speak of it at greater length 

 hereafter. 



We may noAv pass on to the consideration of the 

 herring fishery, and there is perhaps no one fishery 

 in any country which has come so much under the 

 attention of the legislature, or given rise to so much 

 speculation. Fishing villages were built, and com- 

 panies were formed, which w^re all eventually un- 

 successful in their objects. Then, soon after the 

 commencement of the present century, a fishery 

 board was established by Government, and a bounty 

 was given, not merely on the tonnage of the vessels 

 employed in the fishery, but also on the number of 

 barrels produced, which bounty on the latter, for 

 eleven years, was equal to half the value of the her- 

 rings as sold by the fishermen. This bounty of four 



