42 DUTCH PICTURES OF THE FISHERY. [CHAP. n. 



ting the gerring nets ; one or two busses are seen in the distance 

 busy at work. We are then shown, on the banks of one of 

 the numerous Dutch canals, a lot of quaint-looking coopers 

 engaged in preparing the barrels, while next in order comes a 

 representation of the preparing and victualing of the buss, 

 which is surrounded by small boats, and crowded with an 

 active population all engaged in getting the vessel ready for 

 sea barrels of provisions, breadths of netting, and various 

 necessaries, are being got on board. Then follow plates, of 

 which the foregoing is a specimen, showing us the equipment 

 of various other kinds of boats, which again are succeeded by 

 a view of the busses among the shoals of herring, the big mast 

 struck, most of the sails furled, and the men busy hauling in 

 the nets, which are of course, as is fitting in a picture, laden 

 with fish. Various other boats are also shown at work, as the 

 great hoy, a one-masted vessel, that is apparently furnished 

 with a seine-net, and the great double shore or sea-boar, which 

 is an open boat. Then we have the herring-buss coming gal- 

 lantly into the harbour, with its sails all set and its flags all 

 flying its hull deep in the water, which seems to frolic 

 lovingly round its prow as if glad at its safe return. Next, of 

 course, there is a scene on the shore, where the pompous-look- 

 ing curer and his servants are seen congratulating each other 

 amid the bustle of surrounding commerce and labour ; dealers, 

 too, are figured in these engravings, with their wheelbarrows 

 drawn by dogs of unmistakable Dutch build, and there are also 

 to be seen in the picture many other elements of that industry 

 peculiar to all fishing towns, whether ancient or modern. 



The next scene of this fishing panorama is the herring 

 banquet or feast, where the king, or mayhap the rich owner of 

 a fleet of busses, sits grandly at table, with his wife and daugh- 

 ter, attended by a butler and a black footman, partaking of 

 the first fruits of the fishery. After this follows a view of the 

 fishmarket, with portraits of the fishwives, and altogether 



