180 THE CORNISH FISHER-FOLK. 



We don't know we can say much more about the pil- 

 chards. They lie in " bulk," or in store, as we should say, 

 about four weeks, during which time they give up all the 

 best of their oil. Then they are washed, and packed in 

 hogsheads, and pressed again, so as to get rid of all the 

 remaining oil and pickle. After which they are finally 

 coopered up, and shipped to Italy or Spain. They are 

 not smoked, though the Italians call them fumadoes ; but, 

 after all these processes, they are dry enough to be mis- 

 taken for smoked fish, and they taste not unlike the dried 

 sprats which the Dutch send over to our markets. 



We might say much about the pilchard-fishermen, for 

 the Cornish population has characteristics of its own, re- 

 minding the traveller of the Celtic folk who inhabit the 

 wild shores of the lochs and bays of Argyllshire. The 

 dark eye, the thick eyebrow, the look of energy and de- 

 termination, the lithe muscular frame, the rapid animated 

 speech, all are contrasts to the leading traits of the slow- 

 moving peasants of Devonshire or Dorsetshire. They 

 are very hospitable, these Cornishmen ; frank in their 

 speech, respectful and yet independent in their manners ; 

 and animated, most of them, by a strong religious feeling, 

 which their fathers and grandfathers derived from the 

 old and fervid Wesleyanism. The men, as a rule, are 

 sober, and the women chaste ; and the Cornish villages 

 are seldom disturbed by riotous outbreaks. 



We have already endeavoured to make the reader as 

 wise as ourselves in reference to the true character of the 

 SPRAT, which we must persist in considering a distinct 

 species of the Clupeidse, and not the young of the herring. 

 Sprats, which are really a nutritious and fine-flavoured 



