290 SEA FISHERIES 



of sardines to which a superabundance of individuals is 

 a perpetual danger. Nothing is more harmful to any 

 given district than the practice of a unique industry. 

 The Breton fishermen are in somewhat the same position 

 as the wine-growers of the Midi. 



May the day soon come when, selection having pre- 

 served the fittest among the sardine fishers, the motor- 

 boat and seine when the fish are rare, or the motor-boat 

 and the baited net when the fish are abundant, will return 

 to port every morning with its catch of sardines ; when 

 the division of labour shall have relieved the congestion 

 of the coast by the introduction of tunny, crayfish, and 

 bottom-fish fisheries, and the exportation of sardines both 

 in the fresh and preserved state. Then the embittered 

 crises of to-day will disappear, and with them poverty. 



IV 



Although the herring is a close relation of the sardine, 

 the herring fishery is a peaceable industry. To be frank, 

 it has grown peaceable with age ; for its annals are 

 flecked with human blood. The reader must remember 

 that all during the Middle Ages the herring trade was of 

 the utmost importance, for the armies of those days 

 were largely fed on herrings. For centuries this trade 

 was the direct cause of sullen conflicts between the 

 English, Dutch, German and Danish merchants. In 

 1348, the Danes having imposed a customs duty upon 

 all foreign herrings, the Hanseatic cities immediately 

 declared war upon them. . . . But I will pass in silence 

 over the innumerable wrangles for which the herring is 

 responsible. There is no " herring question " to-day ; it 

 is enough for me briefly to describe the herring fishery. 



Fecamp and Boulogne produce an annual harvest 

 of 700,000 quintals of herring ; about one-tenth of the 



