FISHES. 535 



The pilchard, which is a £sh differing little from the herrini?, 

 makes the coast of Cornwall its place of principal resort. Theii: 

 arrival on that coast is soon proclaimed by their attendants the 

 birds and the larger fishes ; and the whole country prepare to 



niented by a strong wind at south-east, that carried breakers upon the reel 

 and a heavy siirf along the shore, the beach for many miles has been covered 

 with a bank of herrings several feet in deptli, which, if taken and salted 

 when first left by tlie tide, would have been worth many thousiinds of 

 pounds ; but which, as there was not a sufficient supply of salt in the neigh- 

 bourhood, ^vere allowed to remain putrefying upon the beach, until tlic 

 farmers found leisure to cart them away as manure. The herring is a re- 

 markably delicate fish, and dies almost the instant that it is out of the 

 water, or gets the slightest injury in it; and these circumstances, while 

 tliey render the stranded shoals a mucli more frequent, abundant, and easy 

 prey, than if they were more tenacious of life, cause tliem to putrefy much 

 sooner. One of tliose strandings took place in and around the harbour of 

 the small town of Crail only a few years ago, but before th new regula- 

 tions were pa-ssed with regard to salt. The water appeared at first so full 

 of herrings, that half-a-dozen could be taken by one dip of a basket. Niun- 

 bers of people thronged to the water's edge and fished with great success ; 

 and the public crier was sent through the town, to proclaim that " callar 

 herrin'" — that is, herrings fresh out of the soa — might be had at the rate of 

 forty a penny. As the water rose the fish accumulated, till numbers were 

 stunned, and the rising tide was bordered with fisli, with which baskets 

 cotild be filled in an instant. The crier was upon tliis instructed to alter his 

 note, and the people were invited to repair ti> the shore and get herrings at 

 one sliilling a cart load. But every successive wave of the flood added to 

 the mass of fish, and brouglit it nearer to the land, «!iii-h caused a fri-?h in 

 vitation to wlioever might be inclined to come and take what herrings they 

 chose gratis. The fish still continued to accumulate till the height of the 

 flood ; and when the water began to ebb, they remained on the beach. It 

 was rather early in the season, so that warm weather might be expected ; 

 an<l the effluvia of so many putrid fish might occasion disease ; therefore the 

 corporation offered a reward of one shilling to every one who would remove 

 a full cart load of herrings from that p.art of the shore which was under their 

 jurisdiction : — the fish being immediately from the deeji water, were in the 

 highest condition, and barely dead. All the salt from the town and neigh- 

 bourhood vviis instantly put in requisition ; but it did not suffice for the 

 thousandth part of the mass — a great proportion of which, notwithstanding 

 some not very successful attempts to carry off a few sloop loads in bulk, wa£. 

 lost. Ill the bays or " lochs," on the west coast of Scotland, where the 

 shoals of herrings are very abundant, and apt to be driven ashore and 

 Ptraiided liy heavy gales from the iiiirtli-west, these casualties often ocinr. 

 But tlxmgh these occurrences are a great and obvious loss, they do not ap- 

 pe.ir to have any effect upon the supply of herrings, whose numbers do not 

 sei'm capable of apparent diminution, eitlier by the ciusnaltics of nature or 

 the schemes of art. The habits of this most abundant, and, perhaps, all 

 tlnngs considered, most valuable fish, are but imperfectly known; and they 

 have been » i{ood deal misrepresented. 'I'licir apparently capricious visiti 



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