Memoir on the Nature of fat Substances. 29 



I do solemnly declare this to be the true method of curing 

 Dutch herrings, as practised by me and my men in curing the 

 samples now exhibited by me. 



H. E. SlEVERS. 



*^* On a minute examination of the samples of herrings pro- 

 duced to the committee, it appeared that those caught in the 

 deep sea of the coast of Shetland were fatter and fuller of milts 

 and roes than those caught on the coast of Yarmouth. Mr« 

 Sievers stated, that herrings are generally known under three 

 denominations, viz. the St. Michael's herring, the Highland 

 herring, and the long shotten herring. That the deep sea fish- 

 ing is carried on in sloops, each carrying ten or twelve hands, 

 that they go to Shetland to clear out according to act of parlia- 

 ment about 16th June, and have then to return to commence 

 the fishery at Buchaness off Peterhead on the 24th of June ; that 

 by being thus at present obliged to go first to Sheerness to clear 

 out, thev suffer great disadvanges by delays from wind and 

 weather, in a voyage of 300 miles before they can commence 

 the fishery at Buchaness ; and that the Dutch have an advantage 

 from not being obliged to go to Shetland ; that the herrings 

 caught in the deep sea off Buchaness are large, fat, and full- 

 bellied ; thev are also richer in flavour, and more esteemed for 

 home consumption and the continent, but do not keep so well 

 as the lanker herrings, caught near Yarmouth, which last are 

 better calculated for the West India markets ; that the Yar- 

 mouth fishery is carried on in September and October, as the 

 herrings come down the German ocean. 



XI. Memoir on the Nature of fat Suhtavces. By Henry 

 Braconnot, Professor of Natural History, and Director of 

 the Garden of Plants at Nanci *. 



tiiTHERTO chemists have considered the fat of organized bodies 

 as being formed of one substance, having the same essential pro- 

 perties, and differijig only by its firmer or weaker consistence: 

 hence the various denominations of suet, lard, fat, marrow, &c. 

 admitted by the ancients. This consistence of fat varies m fact 

 in a manner truly remarkable : thus it is hard in the ruminating 

 quadrupeds, softer in man than in the animals which live upon 

 vegetables only, almost liquid in the amphibious mammiferac, 

 the cetacei, as well as in all the carnivorous animals, whether 

 birds, reptiles, fishes, or insects. Not only does the consistence 

 of the fat vary in the various kinds of animals, but also accord- 



♦ Annates de Chimie, tome xciii, p. 235- 



ing 



