SPINOUS FISHES. 



655 



are least fond of pursuing; and these are cho- 

 sen by the herrings as an asylum from great 

 dangers. Thus, along the coasts of Norway, 

 the German shores, and the northern shores 

 of France, these animals are found punctual 

 in their visitations. In these different places 

 they produce their young; which, when come 

 to some degree of maturity, attend the gene- 

 ral motions. After the destruction of such 

 numbers, the quantity that attempts to return 

 is but small; and Anderson doubts whether 

 they ever return. 



Such is the account given of the migration 

 of these fishes, by one who, of all others, was 

 best acquainted with their history; and yet 

 many doubts arise, in every part of the mi- 

 gration. The most obvious which has been 

 made is, that though such numbers perish in 

 their descent from the north, yet, in compari- 

 son to those that survive, (he account is tri- 

 fling: and it is supposed, that of those taken 

 by man, the proportion is not one to a million. 

 Their regularly leaving the shore also at a 

 stated lime, would imply that they are not 

 in these visits under the impulse of necessity. 

 In fact, there seems one circumstance that 

 shows these animals are governed by a choice 

 with respect to the shores they pitch upon; 

 and not blindly drove from one shore to ano- 

 ther. What I mean is, their fixing upon some 

 shores for several seasons, or, indeed, for se- 

 veral ages together; and, after having regu- 

 larly visited them every year, then caprici- 

 ously forsaking them, never more to return. 

 The first great bank for herrings was along 

 the shores of Norway. Before the year 1584, 

 the number of ships from all parts of Europe 

 tiiat resorted to that shore, exceeded some 

 thousands. The quantity of herrings that 

 wen? then assembled there, was such, that a 

 man who should put a spear in the water, as 

 Olaus Magnus ass-erts. would see it stand on 

 end, being prevented from falling. But soon 

 after that period, these animals were seen to 

 desert the Norway shores, and took up along 

 the German coast, where the Hanse-Towns 

 drove a very great trade by their capture and 

 sale; but for above a century, the herrings 

 have, in a great measure, forsaken them ; and 

 their greatest colonies are seen in the British 

 Channel, and upon the Irish shores. It is not 

 easy to assign a cause for this seemingly ca- 



pricious desertion: whether the number of 

 their finny enemies, increasing along the 

 northern coasts, may have terrified the her- 

 ring tribe from their former places of resort; 

 or, whether the quantity of food being greater 

 in the British Channel, may not allure them 

 thither; is not easy to determine. 



The pilchard, which is a fish differing little 

 from the herring, makes the coast of Corn- 

 wall its place of principal resort. Their ar- 

 rival on that coast is soon proclaimed by their 

 attendants the birds, and the larger fishes; 

 and the whole country prepare to take the 

 advantage of this treasure, providentially 

 thrown before them. The natives sometimes 

 enclose a bay of several miles extent with 

 their nets called saines. To direct them in 

 their operations, there were some years ago 

 (but I believe they are discontinued) several 

 men placed on eminences near the shore, call- 

 ed huers, who, with brooms in their hands, 

 gave signals where the nets were to be ex- 

 lended, and where the shoals of fishes lay: 

 this they perceived by the colour of the w a- 

 ter, which assumed a tincture from the shoals 

 beneath. By these means, they sometimes 

 take twelve or fifteen hundred barrels of pil- 

 chards at a draught; and they place them in 

 heaps on the shore. It often happens, that 

 the quantity caught exceeds the salt or the 

 utensils for curing them ; and they then are 

 carried off to serve for the purposes of ma- 

 nure. This fishery employs not only great 

 numbers of men at sea, training them to naval 

 affairs, but also numbers of women and chil- 

 dren at land, in salting and curing the fish ; 

 in making boats, nets, ropes, aiid casks, lor 

 the purposes of taking or fitting them tor sale. 

 The poor are fed with the superfluity of the 

 capture; the land is manured with theoflids; 

 the merchant finds the gain of commission, 

 and honest commerce; the fisherman a com- 

 fortable subsistence from his toil. "Ships," 

 says Dr. Borlase, "are often freighted hither 

 with salt, and into foreign countries with the 

 fish, carrying off at the same time a part of 

 our tin. The usual produce of the number 

 of hogsheads exported for ten years, from 

 1747 to 1756 inclusive, amounted to near 

 thirty thousand hogsheads each year; every 

 hogshead has amounted, upon an average, to 

 the price of one pound thirteen shillings and 



