HERRINGS. 



253 





float upon the surface by means of buoys of cork. The meshes are just large enough 

 to receive the head of a herring as far as the gills, but not to allow the pectoral fins to 

 pass. The fish, in endeavouring to overcome the obstacle that this great vertical net 

 opposes to its passage, is thus meshed, and not being able to advance or to recede, 

 owing to the gills and the fins, he remains a prisoner until the fishermen draw the net 

 on board. This is termed a gill-net. The number of herrings taken in this way is 

 sometimes so great that the net bursts under their weight. Generally, this fishery is 

 carried on at some distance from the shore, and the herrings are salted on board. 



The Sardine (Clupea Sardina] is a small species of herring, celebrated for the 

 delicacy of its. flesh. It inhabits the Baltic, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean. 

 During the winter it keeps in the depths of the sea, but about the month of June it 

 draws near the shore in immense shoals. As many as forty or even fifty thousand 

 have been taken at a single cast of the net. Sardines are caught in the same way as 

 herrings, but the meshes of the net are smaller, and the fishermen, to attract the fish, 

 throw into the sea a peculiar bait, formed from cod-fish eggs. From the mouth of 

 the Loire to the extremity ot Brittany, sardines abound every summer, and give rise to 

 productive fisheries. Along the coast there are a great number of establishments for 

 the preparation and preservation of these delicate luxuries. 



The Pilchard, the Sprat, the Whitebait, and the Shad, are all 

 of them species of herrings. 



The Anchovies, too (Engranlis\ belong to this family ; but 

 they differ from the herrings in the mouth, which is cleft to far 

 behind the eyes, in their gills, which are more open, and in some 

 other characters. 



The Common Anchovy is found in the Mediterranean as well as on the 

 western coasts of France and Spain. At a certain time of the year, which varies in 

 different localities, it leaves the high seas and approaches the coast to spawn, when it 



