MIGRATIONS. 115 



place at three different times. The first when 

 the ice begins to melt, which continues to the 

 end of June ; then succeeds that of the summer, 

 followed by the autumnal one, which lasts till 

 the middle of September. They seek places 

 for spawning, where stones and marine plants 

 abound, against which they rub themselves 

 alternately on each side, all the while moving 

 their fins with great rapidity. According to 

 Lacepede, William Deukelzoon, a fisherman of 

 Biervliet, in Dutch Flanders, was the first person 

 who salted herrings, this was before the end of 

 the fourteenth century ; others attribute this in- 

 vention to William Benckels or Benkelings of 

 Bierulin. To shew his sense of the importance 

 of this invention, the Emperor Charles V. is 

 stated to have visited his tomb, and to have 

 eaten a herring upon his grave. The smoking of 

 this valuable fish, we are told, was first practised 

 by the inhabitants of Dieppe in Normandy. 



Next to the herring, the pilchard 1 is valuable 

 to our own country, especially to the inhabitants 

 of Cornwall and Devonshire, to whom this fish 

 is as important as the herring to other parts of 

 the kingdom ; they frequent the southern coasts 

 from the middle of summer to the end of autumn, 

 and many thousand barrels are annually cured. 

 Lacepede says that, in one year, a milliard 2 of 

 these fishes has been taken. 



1 Clupanodon Pilcardus. 2 One thousand million. 



