52 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



year may be added to this for herrings landed at Gorleston 

 and other parts of Yarmouth harbour. 



In 1873 there were landed at Yarmouth and Lowestoft, 

 including the spring and autumnal fishing, 32,000 lasts of 

 herrings. There are in each last 13,200 individual fish. 

 The total number, therefore, caught in 1873 amounted 

 to 422,400,000, or nearly four hundred and t%venty-three 

 millions of herrings. Take these fish at a halfpenny each 

 when cured and sold in the retail market, and we shall 

 find the value of the herrings caught in one year by fishing 

 vessels sailing out of Yarmouth and Lowestoft to be over 

 ^^875, 000. 



Mr. J. G. Nail, in 1866, estimated the entire capital 

 embarked in the Yarmouth fisheries, including trawling 

 vessels, to be about ;£^6oo,ooo ; this has since much in- 

 creased. The value of the capital embarked in the Lowes- 

 toft fisheries is also very large. 



The herring fisheries in Yarmouth and Lowestoft may 

 therefore be truly said to be of national importance ; the 

 herrings alone caught would give about 14 meals in the 

 year to every man, woman, and child in the United 

 Kingdom, allowing one fish to a meal. 



It appears that there are no herrings caught in January. 

 Towards the end of February the fishermen begin to catch 

 spring herrings, and the fishery lasts during March, April, 

 and May. In June and July the midsummer herring 

 fishery is carried on, more or less. In August little is 

 done in herrings ; the " harvest of the sea " begins in 

 September and lasts until about Christmas. This is called 

 the " autumn or home fishing." 



The spring herrings are described as being nothing but 

 skin and bone ; there is no fat whatever about them. They 

 are not good ; indeed, hardly fit for human food. The mid- 



