592 THE OCEAN WORLD. 



as the "great fishery;" whaling is known as the "small fishery." 

 The great fishery is a golden mine to Holland. It is, besides, a very 

 ancient occupation with ourselves ; we find it flourishing in the 

 twelfth century; for, in 1195, according to the historians, the city of 

 Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, was obliged to furnish the king 

 with 24,000 herrings. We also find mention made of the herring 

 fishery in a chronicle of the monastery of Kvesham in the year 709. 



Towards the year 1030, the French sent vessels into the North 

 Sea from Dieppe for this fishing, nearly a century before the Dutch 

 made the attempt ; but as early as the thirteenth century the latter en- 

 terprising people employed 2,000 boats in this industry. The Danes, 

 Swedes, and Norwegians also occupied themselves with tliis trade 

 at an early period. The French, Danes, and Swedes furnish them- 

 selves at the present time wth only sufficient for home consumption. 

 The monopoly of the foreign trade belongs to the English, Dutch, 

 and Norwegians. " The quantity of herrings gathered every year by 

 our neighbours beyond the Channel," says Moquin-Tandon, "is truly 

 enormous. In Yarmouth alone 400 ships, of from forty to sixty tons, 

 are equipped ; the largest being manned by t\velve men. The 

 revenue derived from this fleet is about ;^7oo,ooo. In 1857, three 

 of these fishing-boats, belonging to the same proprietors, carried 

 home 3,762.000 fishes." 



Since the beginning of this century, the Scottish fishermen have 

 emulated the zeal of the English. In a paper communicated to the 

 British Association in 1854. Mr. Cleghorn, who has paid great atten- 

 tion to the subject, states "that there are 920 Wick boats engaged in 

 the fishing, and that the produce was 95,680 barrels" in one week 

 alone; this being, however, a falling ofl" of 61,000 barrels from the 

 previous year. The cause of this immense falling ofi"was ascribed 

 to a storm wliich had swept along the coast at the height of the 

 season ; but Mr. Cleghorn was inclined to ascribe it mainly to 

 over-fishing, which had gradually diminished the number of herrings 

 captured. 



The boats employed by the French and Dutch in the herring 

 fishery are about sixty tons burden. They generally depart for the 

 Orkney and Shetland Isles. They afterwards betake themselves to 

 the German Ocean, and fish the Channel in November and De- 

 cember. These boats carry up to sixteen hands, according to 

 their size. Arrived at their fishing-ground, they cast their nets, as 

 seen in Plate XXVI. , 



The lines of the Dutch fishermen are 500 feet in length, composed 

 of fifty or sixty difterent nets. The upper parts of these nets are 



