582 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



The Yarmouth boats are decked vessels of from fifty to eighty tons, 

 with attendant boats, costing about one thousand pounds, and having 

 stowage for about fifty lasts ; nominally, ten thousand, but, counted 

 fisherwise, thirteen thousand, herrings, besides provision for a five or 

 six days' voyage. Leaving a hand or two in charge of the vessel, the 

 majority of the crew are out in the smaller boats, fishing. 



The Dutch herring fishery is usually pursued during the night. 

 When the nets are in the water the boat is left, as we have seen in 

 Dr. Bertram's excursion, to drift in the meantime. Each boat is 

 furnished with a lantern, which serves the double purpose of attract- 

 ing the shoals of fish, and preventing collisions with other boats. 

 The herring fishery is extremely capricious in its results ; one or two 

 boats have been known to carry into port the whole takings of a night. 

 Valenciennes witnessed the capture of a hundred and ten thousand 

 herrings in less than two hours. The nets are hauled in when 

 moderately charged with fish by the crew ; but it is often necessary to 

 have recourse to the capstan in the process. Some of the hands are 

 stationed to detach the fish from the nets ; others detach the nets 

 from the buoys ; while others again fold up and stow away the nets 

 for future use. 



On the coast of Norway the electric telegraph is applied to the 

 herring fishery, being employed to announce to the inhabitants of the 

 fishing towns the approach of the shoals of fish. In the fiords of 

 Norway, where the produce of the herring fishery is the principal 

 means of existence to nearly the entire population, it often happened 

 that the fish made its appearance at the most unexpected times, and on 

 some parts of the coast the shoals could only be met by one or two 

 boats. Before the boats from the bays and fiords could take part in 

 the fishery, the herrings had deposited their spawn and returned to the 

 open sea. 



To prevent these disappointments, often repeated with great loss 

 to the fishermen, the Norwegian government established, in 1857, a 

 submarine electric cable, along the coast frequented by the herrings, 

 of a hundred miles, with stations on shore at intervals conveniently 

 placed for communicating with the villages inhabited by the fishermen. 

 As soon as a shoal of herrings is known to be in the ofiing and they 

 can always be perceived at a considerable distance by the wave they 

 raise a telegram is despatched along the coast, which makes known 



