FISHERIES. 



to await the appearance of what is technically 

 called the bloom, a whitish substance which comes 

 out on the fish. This completes the business. In 

 Yorkshire, the curers improve on this plan by 

 placing the fish on wooden erections made of 

 cross-bars, which admits of their drying much 

 sooner, keeps them cleaner, and obviates numer- 

 ous accidents which occur to those dried on the 

 ground. 



Statistics of the cod, hake, and ling fisheries are 

 regularly taken in Scotland, but the figures are 

 not trustworthy as giving any idea whatever of the 

 total quantities of these fish taken in the seas of 

 the United Kingdom. The cod-fish has of late 

 years become in great esteem as a luxury of the 

 table, and a guinea has often been paid in London 

 about Christmas-time for a cod-fish of ten pound- 

 weight. At certain times, excellent cod-fish can 

 be obtained at threepence per pound. Although 

 the cod-fisheries can never be expected to be so 

 productive, or to give employment to so many 

 men, as the herring-fisheries, they are highly valu- 

 able : the fishery already continues during seven 

 months of the year, and, by a study of localities, 

 might be prolonged for other two months. 



Small as our supplies of cod-fish are thought to 

 be, it has been calculated that from our home 

 fisheries alone we annually obtain seven millions of 

 these fish ! The cod-fish is likewise found in very 

 large quantities in the Irish bays ; and the coasts 

 of Norway, we are told, absolutely swarm with 

 members of the cod family, as we know that profit- 

 able fisheries are carried on in the various fiords. 

 This fish is usually referred to as one of the most 

 remarkable instances of animal fertility the eggs 

 in one female were found to amount to the incred- 

 ible number of 9,384,000. All fishes are very 

 fecund, and they would require to be so, as vast 

 numbers of their eggs never come to maturity, and 

 thousands of the fish that may come to light are 

 devoured by enemies. It is questionable if thirty 

 per cent, of the eggs of any sea-fish ever come to 

 life, or if five of the eggs of each thirty that do 

 fructify come to market as fish fit for the table. 

 Cuvier says that ' the flesh of these fishes, which is 

 white, firm, and of most excellent flavour, renders 

 them exceedingly valuable to us. It is capable of 

 being preserved in a state fit for eating much 

 longer than that of other species of this class. Its 

 consumption is consequently extended through the 

 four quarters of the globe.' 



There is a large commerce carried on in other 

 members of the cod family, chiefly, however, in 

 whitings and haddocks, which are much esteemed 

 when fresh, as also when dried and brought to 

 market, as the well-known Finnans. The haddock 

 is now becoming rather scarce, but is still found 

 in large numbers in the British seas, and is taken, 

 like the cod, chiefly by baited lines ; considerable 

 quantities are also got by the use of trawl-nets in 

 the deep-sea fisheries. It is supposed that the 

 very finest are to be found in the inlets and 

 bays of the sister-island. The fish used at one 

 time to be smoked or cured in a very simple way 

 by most of the inhabitants of our fishing-villages. 

 After being split up, the intestines were taken out, 

 and the fish was then hung up in the chimney- 

 corner to be smoked, generally by means of a 

 peat-fire; as many as two hundred being made 

 ready in a batch at a fire-side of ordinary size. 

 Finnans are now 'manufactured' more syste- 



matically, being smoked in houses built for 

 the purpose. The commerce in this description 

 of fish has greatly increased in Scotland, many 

 having embarked in it on a large scale, pur- 

 chasing haddocks from numerous captors, who 

 confine themselves almost solely to this depart- 

 ment of fishing. The whole process takes only 

 a few hours ; so that fish caught in the afternoon 

 may be in a market many miles distant on the 

 morning of the following day. Real Finnans 

 are generally small, and of a pleasant pale-yellow 

 colour ; but larger fish (young cod-fish sometimes) 

 , are cured at great commercial stations, and in 

 a way intended to admit of their being sent to 

 a longer distance, and keeping for a longer time. 

 The Scottish markets used to have large supplies 

 of the haddock ; the quantity taken was sometimes 

 immense ; and hundreds of people found a liveli- 

 hood in hawking that fine fish about the streets. 

 It is now sold at much higher prices than formerly. 

 In 1884, there were taken in the Scottish seas, 

 464,049 cwts. of haddock, valued at ^300,712. 



II. THE HERRING-FISHERY. 



The herring-fishery is not only important, in 

 the sense of being a large industry forming a 

 good outlet for capital, and a great field for 

 individual and co-operative energy, but it is at 

 the same time picturesque and suggestive, giving 

 scope to the naturalist for speculation, and tax- 

 ing the brain of the economist in ever- recurring 

 calculations as to the best modes of conducting 

 the fishery, managing the cure, and carrying on 

 the necessary commerce. This fishery has for 

 a long period been a source of wealth to Great 

 Britain, and particularly to Scotland. Of this 

 fact there is abundant evidence in ancient acts of 

 parliament, and in various other historical docu- 

 ments ; whilst, in the carefully compiled statistics 

 of the Board of Fisheries, we yearly obtain a 

 tolerably correct notion whether the supply is 

 keeping pace with the ever-increasing machinery 

 of capture, or whether, as has been suggested, 

 the economy of some of the great shoals is so 

 deranged by miraculous annual draughts, as to 

 induce the conclusion that the herring is becoming 

 less plentiful than the public believe. 



The most important British herring-fisheries are 

 carried on in Scotland at Dunbar, Anstruther, 

 Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and notably at \\ 

 which may be styled the herring capital of Scot- 

 land ; indeed, that town owes its existence to 

 the herring-fishery; in fact, the popular saying 

 of being founded on herring-bones is as appli- 

 cable to Wick, as to Amsterdam. It possesses a 

 large population, all engaged more or less in fish- 

 ing; and the capital represented by boats and 

 nets amounts to a very large sum of money. 

 During some seasons, as many as one thousand 

 boats meet at this port, and as each boat requires 

 four or five persons to conduct its operations, the 

 resident population is largely augmented ; an. 

 on one or two mornings of the season, each of 

 the thousand boats will bring ashore a large 

 quantity of fish, the town wakens into immense 

 activity, not lasting, but intense for the time being. 

 The greater part of the fish taken at Wick are 

 cured for exportation a trade requiring a large 

 amount of tonnage, and upwards of 1000 men t< 

 carry it on. The gutting and packing, also, give 



