OSSEOUS FISHES. 579 



this inexhaustible mine of wealth. That vast field it has worked with 

 persevering ardour. Struggling for an existence, it has conquered. 

 Every year numerous vessels leave the coast of Holland for this pre- 

 cious marine harvest. The herring fishery is, for the Dutch people, 

 the most important of maritime expeditions. It is with them known 

 as the " great fishery." Whaling is known as the " small fishery." 

 The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland ; it is, besides, a very 

 ancient occupation with ourselves. We find it flourishing in the 

 twelfth century ; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of 

 Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king 

 with twenty-four thousand herrings. We also find mention made of % 

 the herring fishery in a chronicle of the Monastery of Evesham in the 

 year 709. 



Towards the year 1030 the French sent vessels into the North Sea 

 from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch made 

 the attempt ; but as early as the thirteenth century that enterprising 

 people employed two thousand boats in this industry. The Danes, 

 Swedes, and Norwegians also threw themselves into this trade at an 

 early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish at the present 

 time only sufficient for home consumption. The monopoly of foreign 

 trade belongs to the English, Dutch, and Norwegians. " The 

 quantity of herrings gathered every year by our neighbours beyond 

 the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly enormous. In Yar- 

 mouth alone four hundred ships, of from forty to sixty tons, are 

 equipped, the largest being manned by twelve men. The revenue 

 derived from this fleet is about seven hundred thousand pounds. In 

 1857 three of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors, 

 carried home three millions seven hundred and sixty-two thousand 

 fishes." 



Since the beginning of this century the Scottish fishermen have 

 emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the 

 British Association in 1854, Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great atten- 

 tion to the subject, states " that there are nine hundred and twenty 

 Wick boats engaged in the fishing, and that the produce was ninety- 

 five thousand six hundred and eighty barrels " in one week alone, this 

 being, however, a falling off of sixty-one thousand barrels from the 

 previous year. The cause of this immense falling off was ascribed to 

 a storm which had swept along the coast at the height of the 



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