ABDOMINAL MALACOPTERYGII. 151 



prosperity of that industrious nation has been attri- 

 buted to its fisheries. Their value in our own 

 country has been so highly estimated, as to give rise 

 to many legal provisions for their promotion and 

 government; and large, and we might say, even 

 enormous bounties, have been by an ill-judged policy 

 paid to those engaged in them. These have now 

 however ceased, and the legitimate demand is al- 

 lowed to regulate the supply. Still, so large is the 

 quantity taken, that, in the year 1818-9, 340,660 

 barrels were cured in Great Britain, and in 1829-30, 

 329,557 barrels, of which more than half was ex- 

 ported. By far the greater portion of this vast quan- 

 tity was taken on the northern coast of Scotland. 



The Pilchard ( C. Pilchardus) is very rarely seen to 

 the eastward of Start Point in Devonshire; but Mr. 

 Yarrell records, that, in August 1834, a shoal of Pil- 

 chards was observed in Poole Harbour, and so many 

 fish were taken, that they were sold in the market 

 at a penny a dozen. 



We cannot enter into any details of the Sprat 

 (C. Sprattus), though an important article of food; 

 nor of the little White-bait, (C. Alba,} notorious as 

 a luxury worthy of an annual visit, even of her 

 Majesty's ministers, to Blackwall, for the purpose of 

 enjoying it; nor of the Shad, (C. Alosa,) which as- 

 cends rivers, and attains a length of more than three 

 feet. We must also pass by many foreign genera 

 of this family, noticing only, for a moment, the En- 

 graulis the Anchovy. 



