86 THE OCEAN. 
common Herring, the Pilchard, the Sprat, the Shad, 
&c., are the most important objects of our fisheries, 
and particularly the first-named two species. 
The fishery for the Pilchard is carried on almost 
exclusively in the counties of Cornwall and Devon; 
the Herring is more generally diffused, but the 
greatest numbers taken are on the shores of Scot- 
land and the adjacent islands. Some idea of the 
commercial importance of these two animals may be 
formed from the facts, that between three and four 
hundred thousand barrels of Herrings are sometimes 
cured in a single year in Great Britain alone, besides 
all that are sold while fresh; and that ten thousand 
hogsheads of Pilchards have been taken on shore 
in one port ina single day, “thus providing,” says 
Mr. Yarrell, “the enormous multitude of twenty-five 
millions of living creatures drawn at once from the 
ocean for human sustenance.” ‘The shoals of Herrings 
are occasionally known to approach the shore with so 
headlong an impetuosity as to be unable to regain 
deep water, and are stranded npon the beach in im- 
mense numbers. Mr. Mudie has described such an 
incident. “The rocky promontory at the east end 
of the county of Fife, off which there lies an exten- 
sive reef or rock, sometimes has that effect, and there 
have been seas [seasons ?] in which, when the difficul- 
ties of the place were augmented by a strong wind at 
south-east, that carried breakers upon the reef, and a 
heavy surf along the shore, the beach for many miles 
has been covered with a bank of Herrings several 
feet in depth, which, if taken and salted when first 
left by the tide, would have been worth many 
. 
