106 



that tliis is not the case. The profit of the men depends on 

 the share of the fish, which is divided into eight parts, of 

 which the boat has one-eighth part, the nets three, and the 

 men four : a boy that accompanies them is rewarded with the 

 fish that may fall into the sea as the nets are drawn, to 

 secure which he is furnished with a bag-net at the end of a 

 rod, termed a keep-net. 



The quantity of Pilchards taken is sometimes incredibly 

 large. A fisherman now alive was present once at the 

 taking of two thousand two hundred hogsheads of Pilchards 

 in one scan ; but the greatest number heard of as taken at 

 one time is stated by Borlase at three thousand hogsheads ; 

 in reference to which Pennant has made an astounding error, 

 in reckoning by mistake thirty-five thousand fish to a hogs- 

 head, instead of three thousand five hundred. The number 

 since allowed has been three thousand, and is now two 

 thousand five hundred fine fish ; but it is scarcely necessary 

 to say that they are not counted. An instance has been 

 known where ten thousand hogsheads have been taken on 

 shore in one port in a single day, thus providing the enor- 

 mous multitude of twenty-five millions of living creatures 

 drawn at once from the ocean for human sustenance. 



The different modes of curing the fresh fish are detailed 

 elsewhere. The various ports on the northern shore of the 

 Mediterranean are the principal places to which the preserved 

 fish are exported. 



Our term Pilchard is said to be derived from Peltzer, 

 a name by which this fish was known to some early North- 

 ern Continental authors. A few Pilchards make their ap- 

 pearance occasionally in the Forth about October, generally 

 preceding the Herrings ; but the great shoals appear to 

 belong almost exclusively to our south-western shores. They 

 are seldom seen east of Bigbury Bay ; but in August 1834 



