266 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Pilchard ftshery. 



instance. The utmost range of the pilchards 

 seems to be the Isle of Wight in the British, and 

 Ilfracomh in the Bristol Channel. Forty-five years 

 back, Christmas was the time of their departure, 

 which alteration in time is a very singular fact, 

 authenticated by Dr. Maton. 



Dr. Borlase's account of this fishery is as fol- 

 lows: " It employs a great number of men on 

 the sea, training them thereby to naval affairs ; 

 employs men, women, and children, at land, in. 

 salting, pressing, washing, and cleaning ; in 

 making boats, nets, ropes, casks ; and in all the 

 trades depending on their construction and sale. 

 The poor are fed with the offals of fhe captures, 

 the land with the refuse of the fish and salt, the 

 merchant finds the gains of commission and ho- 

 nest commerce, the fisherman the gains of the 

 fish. Ships are often freighted hither with salt, 

 and into foreign countries with the fish, carrying 

 off, at the same time, part of our tin. The usual 

 pj-oduce of the number of hogsheads exported 

 each year, for ten years, from 1747 to 1756 in- 

 clusive, from the four ports of Fowey, Falmouth, 

 Penzance, and St. Ives, it appears that Fowey 

 has exported yearly 1732 hogsheads ; Falmouth, 

 14,631 hogsheads and two thirds; Penzance and 

 Mounts-bay, 12,149 hogsheads and one third; 

 St. Ives, 1,282 hogsheads; in all amounting to 

 29,795 hogsheads. Every hogshead, for ten 

 years last, together with the bounty allowed for 

 each hogshead exported, and the oil made oil t 



