_ Fisheries. Yarmouth northward. It has been often mentioned, 
ayy 
ERIES. - 363. 
are carried to different places, and laid in beds, or pits. Fisheries: 
of salt water, in order to feed and fatten. A green co- ‘ 
, lour is often artificially given to themin the salt marshes;. 
but we do not consider it as any improvement, as we 
think white oysters both look, and taste, better than 
those that are green. The sea star (Asterias glacialis) 
is a most destructive wine pt pps Ruan because 
it its around the till it. 
pr sonal out. The fishing he comteke per- 
mitted from the first of September to the last day of 
April inclusive ; or oysters are in season, according to. 
observation, in all those months which have the 
letter r in their name. See our article Concnoxocy, 
Vol. VII. p. 98, genus Osrrea; and our article Enc« 
LAND, Vol. IX, p. 14. 
Sect. VI. On the Pilchard Fishery. 
who insist that it is only a variety of the herring; how- 
ever, we have various reasons for thinking fe seedy 
It is less and thicker than the herring, the nose turns up, 
the under jaw is shorter than the upper, the dorsal fin is 
exactly in the centre of gravity, for if you take a 
pilchard by the back it will hang even, which a herri 
‘will not do ; the scales are firm, and adhere very closely, ~ 
whereas those of the herring come off with the smallest. 
touch. 
The pilchard isa fish of passage, swims in shoals, and 
its arrival on the coasts of Bretagne, Cornwall, and De« 
vonshire, is indicated by similar signs with the ap- 
proach of the herring towards Shetland. _The season of 
this fishery is from June to September, although they 
are sometimes caught about Christmas. 
On the jutting cliffs, upon the coasts of Devonshire: 
and Cornwall, men are set, whom they call iuers, to 
watch the coming of the pilchards ; the. purple colour 
of the water in the day, and its shining appearance in 
the night, give certain indication of their approach. 
Then the a: according to settled and 
signs, direct the boats and vessels how to man 
their seins, and when their commands are Saoperty 
iven and obeyed, they have been known to take, in 
their nets, 100,000 pilchards at a draught. It is a com- 
mon saying of the ish fishermen, when talking of 
the plenard that it is the least fish in size, most in 
a , and greatest in gain, of any they take out of 
e sea. 
In Scotland there are no established fisheries for pil- 
chards; they sometimes appear among the herring 
shoals, ially in the Frith of Forth, where they are 
accounted a very insipid fish. See our article ENGLAND, 
Vol. TX. p. 138. 
Sect. VII. On the Salmon Fishery. 
Tue pilchard forms a distinct species in the genus 
(G pllelaedne) There art severs] natutiste: Cos™ 
\ Iv order to-understand our account of this fishery, it’ ¢,) 
will be requisite to have w slight knowledge of the na~ fisheye 
bees gras of the salmon, (Salmo salar,) but as we 
have already given this in our article ANGLING, we 
shall not resume this subject eR rise 
- It is scarcely in the power of human skill to reduce 
the numbers, or extinguish the race of such fish as make 
the sea their only element. But this is not the case 
with fresh water, or rather fluviatile fishes, which being 
» con in narrow limits, are consequently within the 
easy reach of the avaricious contrivances of men, and 
