FOOD PKODUCTS OF THE SEA— FISHES. 301 



Minnows. — The Staffordshire people, so late as the time 

 of Walton, and even o£ Pennant, reaped a harvest of 

 minnows from the meres for which their shire was 

 famous. The silvery shoals of tiny fish were surprised 

 in the shallows, and caught, in sheets and sail-cloth 

 instead of nets, in incredible quantities, then cooked and 

 compressed into a sort of fish-cake, flavoured with herbs. 

 Tinder the name of minnow -tansies, a locai phrase that 

 still lingers. The dwellers beside Windermere and 

 Ullswater used to capture, at certain seasons, enormous 

 numbers of a small bluish fish popularly known as the 

 skilly, or fresh-water herring. 



