262 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Occasional quantities of herrings. 



A company for the herring fishery was, in, 

 177O, formed at Berlin; in 1770, busses were 

 sent from Embden to the coast of Scotland ; 

 their number has been increased from year to 

 year, so that fifty busses annually left that port 

 before the present war. 



The trade in herring* is very great in England 

 and Scotland, and the value of those exported 

 from Glasgow alone, is computed at twenty 

 thousand pounds. 



In the year 177:], the herrings were in such 

 immense shoals on the Scotch coasts for two 

 months, that it appears from tolerably accurate 

 computations, no less than 1(550 bout-loads were 

 taken in Loch Terridon every night. These 

 would amount to nearly 20,000 barrels. 



The herrings likewise once swarmed so greatly 

 on the west side of the isle of Skye, that the num- 

 bers caught were more than could possibly be car- 

 ried away. After the boats were all loaded, and the 

 country round was served, the neighbouring far- 

 mers made them up into composts, and manured 

 their ground with them in the ensuing season. 

 This shoal continued to frequent the coast for 

 many years, but not always in numbers equal to 

 these. 



About forty years ago, the herrings came into 

 Loch Urn in such amazing quantities, that from 

 the narrows to the very head, about two miles, 

 it was quite full. So many of them were pushed 



