54 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



luggers and dandies, lo men and boys ; total, 2600. Small 

 boats, 2 men ; total, 240. This gives a total of 458 vessels 

 of all classes, and 3464 men and boys. 



This is the total of registered vessels and their crews, 

 but it does not include the shore men, who are employed 

 in the markets as packers, curers, etc. Nor does it include 

 the West country or Scotch boats which use the port 

 during the herring season. These may be safely reckoned 

 as 120 vessels, with 1000 men and boys. 



On the Cornish coast 200 boats from Newlyn and 

 Mousehole are engaged in the herring fishery, and employ 

 at least 1000 persons. Each boat of modern build costs 

 about ;^25o, and carries nets which cost on the average 

 froni £\ to £\ \os. per net. 



The quantity of herrings caught off Ireland in 1876 was 

 180,318 mease,* which was about 2000 meases below the 

 take of the previous year. At the average of 25J. ^d. pc- 

 mease, this gives a total value of ;£'226,8o3. 



The Dutch Herring Fishery. — Before the sixteenth 

 century, when nearly all the countries of Europe were 

 debarred the use of animal food during. Lent, the con- 

 sumption of herrings all over the continent was im- 

 mense, and brought prodigious wealth to Holland. De 

 Witt, the great Dutch statesman, mentions that about 

 2000 busses were employed by the Dutch in the herring 

 fishery at home. Each buss had a complement of about 

 25 men, thus rearing about 50,000 seamen, besides giving 

 bread and employment to several hundred thousand people 

 on shore, in building busses and making nets, casks, etc. ; 

 and it was an old proverb in Holland, " that the foundation 

 of Amsterdam was laid on herring-bones." The Dutch 

 fishery, besides employing so many thousand men in catch- 

 * A fish-measuie of 500 herrings, sometimes spelt " mace "or " maize." 



