3o6 The Herring 



said before, there can be scarcely any question but 

 that the vulgar Sprat is of much better flavour, 

 although it must be admitted that the Sprat is a 

 trifle rich for delicate stomachs to deal with. There 

 is little doubt but that other young fry are frequently 

 brought to market and sold as Whitebait, or that 

 they are just as good, no one but an expert ichthyo- 

 logist being able to tell the difference between them 

 and the Whitebait. So that the substitution may be 

 quite innocent, and in any case does not matter. 



The Sardine, while a veritable herring, is a very 

 well-marked variety, having distinct qualities of its 

 own, and keeping rigidly away from the shores of 

 Britain. It is caught at various places along the 

 coasts of Franca westward from the bay in which 

 are the Channel Islands, but the chief fishing port 

 is L'Orient on the northern shore of the Bay of Biscay 

 in Brittany. 



But of late the Sardine fishery has fallen upon evil 

 days. The natural enemies of the little fish, such 

 as whales and porpoises, have increased so greatly 

 that the shoals no longer come near enough to shore 

 to be caught ; indeed, there do not seem to be any 

 shoals of Sardines at all, and the poor Breton fishermen 

 are in such dire straits that public help has been asked 

 and obtained for them. And a paternal government 

 has, at the request of the fishermen, granted the use 

 of torpedo boats to hunt and destroy the porpoises, 

 in the hope that thus will the drain upon the supply 

 of Sardines be stopped. 



But it seems very doubtful indeed whether such 

 measures are of the slightest use. Except for some 

 terrible submarine calamity, such as a sudden lowering 

 of the sea temperature, or a volcano suddenly becoming 

 active, the numbers of such a fish as the Sardine would 



