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CHAP Tila 2 xieex ay 
THE SARDINE. 
THE Sardine (Clupea Sardina) is the commercial name of the 
Pilchard ; a name which it derives from the Island of Sardinia, 
around whose shores it is taken in great abundance. ‘This little 
delicate fish has long been a favourite, even in times before the 
present mode of preserving it came into vogue. It is mentioned 
by the ancient mythologists, as forming one of the many dishes 
which graced the wedding breakfast of Hebe. It is an elegant fish, 
has a slender graceful body, generally three or four inches long. 
When in the sea, its back is a bright greenish blue ; but, when life 
has gone, the freshness of its colour fades; the lower part of its 
body is a silvery white, and as it darts through the clear, blue 
water in the sunlight, it forms a pretty object, its graceful motions, 
its clear colours, its glittering sides—covered as if with nacre—all 
combining to give it a place among the beauties of the world 
of the sea. 
The pilchards are found, not only in the Mediterranean, but in 
the North Atlantic and the Baltic. Like the herring, they traverse 
the seas in huge columns; but whence they come, or whither they 
go, no one can tell. They inhabit the deep seas, approaching the 
shores at the spawning season, yet, like the herring, the pilchard 
is to be found at every period of the year. On the coast of 
Cornwall, pilchard fishing is one of the staple industries. The 
whole line of coast is on the gue vzve from the appearance of the 
first shoal, which generally finds its way to the shore about the 
beginning of October. The Cornish villages employ a man as a 
look-out, or “ huer;” he is posted on a cliff, where he commands an 
extensive sea view. A shoal of pilchards in the distance appears 
like the shadow of a cloud upon the sea; as it approaches the 
shore, thousands of fish may be seen jumping from the water and 
spangling the surface with the tiny reflections from their silvery 
