250 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



supposed to be the young of the Shad, but has now had its 

 claims established by Mr. Yarrell to rank as a distinct species 

 (Clupea alba). The Sprat (Clupea sprattus), another member 

 of the same family, is valued, not so much for its delicacy as 

 for its extreme abundance. It is taken during the winter 

 months; the coasts of Kent, Essex, and Suffolk being those 

 which are most productive. It is not used only as an article 

 of food: after that demand has been fully supplied, the num- 

 bers are so great that the fish is used as manure. Many 

 thousand tons are in some seasons sold to farmers, at sixpence 

 to eightpence per bushel, for this purpose; forty bushels of 

 Sprats being spread over an acre of land.* 



The Pilchard (Clupea pilchardus), another of the family, is 

 even more important. The number of persons to whom this 

 fishery gives employment on the Coast of Cornwall has been 

 estimated at 10,521: and the capital invested in boats, nets, 

 and cellars for curing, at 441,215. The quantity taken is 

 sometimes incredibly large, " An instance," says Mr. Yarrell, 

 * ' has been known where ten thousand hogsheads have been 

 taken on one shore, in one port, in a single day ; thus providing 

 the enormous multitude of twenty -five millions of living crea- 

 tures drawn at once from the ocean for human sustenance, "f 

 The vast multitudes in which they occasionally appear realise 

 the description of the poet: 



" Forthwith the sounds and seas, each creek and bay, 

 With fry innumerable swarm, and shoals 

 Of fish that with their fins, and shining scales, 

 Glide under the green wave, in sculls that oft 

 Bank the mid sea." MILTON. 



Ranking still higher as an object of national importance is 

 the Herring fishery, which gives occupation to thousands 

 around the British coasts, and supplies to hundreds of thou- 

 sands a cheap and favourite article of diet. The space to 



* Yarrell. 



f This calculation is made on the supposition that each hogshead con- 

 tains 2,500 fish, which is about the average quantity. It is stated by K. 

 Q. Couch, Esq. in a paper read by him before the Penzance Natural History 

 and Antiquarian Society, that the number of hogsheads exported for the 

 last ten years amounts to 176,168, and upwards of a third more is used 

 for home consumption. During the present year, 33,959 hhds. have been 

 exported 3,052 of which were sent to Genoa; 8,499 to Leghorn; 1,368 

 to Civita Vecchia; 13,309 to Naples; and 7,731 to the Adriatic Pen- 

 zance Gazette, IQth Feb. 1847. 



