SPRAT. 263 



The sides are compressed, and the belly is sharp be- 

 neath. The scales are large and thin, and fall off with 

 the slightest touch. If taken up by the dorsal fin, the 

 Herring remains exactly balanced. The colour of the 

 back and sides is green, varied with blue; and the belly 

 is silvery. 



Pilchard. These fish are migratory, and likewise 

 approach our shores in immense shoals. They are more 

 numerous in the counties of Cornwall and Devon than 

 in any other parts of England. To the inhabitants of 

 these counties, and of Cornwall in particular, they 

 afford, during the summer-season, an abundant source of 

 profit, and employment for industry. The Pilchards 

 generally begin to appear about the middle of July, 

 and continue almost until the winter. It will afford the 

 reader some idea of the great multitudes of this fish, to 

 be informed, that on the 5th of October, 1767, there 

 were, in St. Ive's Bay, Cornwall, as many as 7000 hogs- 

 heads, containing, in the whole, more than two hundred 

 and forty millions of fish. They are caught by means of 

 nets, which are so large as to be sometimes two hundred 

 fathoms in circumference, and about eighteen fathoms 

 deep. In almost all their habits they are nearly allied to 

 the herrings. 



They are, however, in general, not quite so large. Their 

 body also is more round and thick. The nose is some- 

 what turned up at the end. The scales adhere firmly to 

 the skin, whilst those of the herring easily drop off. If 

 the Pilchard be taken up by the dorsal fin, the front part 



found the heaviest. 



Sprat. To the poorer part of the inhabitants of 

 [London, the Sprat, small as it is, affords a cheap, pala- 



