220 Of the Herring FisUenj.' 



works. And in France, the merchants that cure salt fish 

 get salt at a moderate price, that they may be enabled to 

 sell their fish at nearly the same price that the Dutch do. 

 For similar reasons regulations have been made concerning 

 the time that the herring fishery should cease. 



The heriuigs come from the north of England into the . 

 Channel ; they are certainlv poorer there than they were in 

 the North, or even on what is called the Yarniouth coast. 

 However, they are still very good, either fresh or salted ; 

 and, as we have said elgcwhcre, the fattest herrings are not 

 the best for salting. The fishing for herrings has therefore 

 been always allowed, from the time that they come into the 

 Channel until the latter end of December; but from that 

 time it has been prohibited by several orders of government. 

 We shall now mention the reasons of this prohibition. 



It is certain that a great quantity of herrings spawn in 

 the Channel, and especially towards the mouth of the Seine, 

 in the end of the season, whereby they lose much of their 

 good quality, particularly for salting. About that period 

 there are some shotten ones taken that are very good fresh ; 

 but wh-en they have not had time to recover from the 

 spawi:iing sickness, they dry up in the salt, and become 

 what they call hornv ; whereas in October and November 

 numbers of them are full and very good, either fresh or 

 salted. This, however, niust be understood of what usu- 

 ally happens ; for there are some late seasons in which the 

 abundance of shotten herrings docs not come on until Ja- 

 nuary, or even (February. As salt shotten herrings were 

 known to be inferior to the full ones, it was prohibited, by 

 a decree- of March '24, 1687, to continue this fishery after 

 the month of December, or to purchase herrings from fo- 

 reign vessels after that time j and in confirniation of this 

 pvohibitiou another decree was issued in 175f), wherein is 

 added an ord'er not to bj'ing any such herrings to market \ 

 which has been since confirmed by several regulations. 



The motives of these prohibitions were, that the herrings 

 salted.in that season were bad, and that thereby all those of 

 the Channel were brought into disrepute j that they were 

 iniwholesome and caused diseases; and that the fishing for 

 hemngs in that season was destructive of the species. 



There were some representations made against these de- 

 crees, and the iishermen of several ports alleged that her- 

 rings do not spawn on the coast of Normandy. But this 

 plea could not stand, as it was manifestly false. 



They added, that the Irish do not prohibit this fishery 



on 

 4 



