GREA T BRIT A IN. 283 



five hundred herrings to the hospital of Beaugency. 

 Among the extensive charities of Saint Louis to monas- 

 teries and hospitals were sixty-eight thousand herrings. 

 In olden times the soldiers engaged in warfare observed 

 their Lent. Thus history informs us that while the 

 English were besieging Orleans in 1428, one of the convoy 

 of provisions destined for their camp was attacked by 

 the Duke de Bourbon. It consisted chiefly of salted 

 herrings, which gave rise to the conflict being called the 

 " Battle of the Herrings." 



A curious notice respecting the connection of herrings 

 'ith marriages appeared in the Times (November 28, 



571). In the return for the third quarter of the year, the 



jistrar of Fraserburgh stated that the herring fishery 

 very successful, and the value of the catch, including 



sks and curing, amounted to ; 130,000 sterling, and the 

 marriages were eighty per cent, above the average. 

 On the other hand, the registrar of Tarbert reported 

 a steady falling off in the fishing at that creek, and 

 consequently the quarter passed without an entry in 

 the parish register. The registrar of Lochgilphead 

 stated the herring fishery to have been a failure in the 

 loch, and this accounted for a blank in the marriage 

 column for the quarter. One registrar, in his return for 

 the quarter, reported marriages in his district " like angels' 

 visits, few and far between." At the fishing villages it 

 might be put more briefly no herring, no wedding. 



Diseases and causes of destruction. Whales, porpoises, 

 seals, members of the cod family, dog-fishes, in short all 

 predaceous fishes feed on herrings from the time of their 

 birth and throughout their entire existence, and in this 

 they are assisted by birds of various sorts. In the North 



