34 PICTURES or THE DUTCH FISHEEIES. 



countries. The paxticulax fish coveted by the Dutch people was 

 the herring. A set of engravings which I procured in Amster- 

 dam convey a graphic idea of the great importance that was 

 attached by the Dutch themselves to their herring-fishery. This 

 series of sixteen peculiarly Dutch plates begins at the beginning 

 of the fishery, as is indeed proper it should, by showing us a 

 party, busy at a searside cottage knitting the gerring nets ; one 

 or two busses are seen in the distance busy at work. We are 

 then shown, on the banks of one of the numerous Dutch canals, 

 a congregation of quaint-looking coopers engaged in preparing 

 the barrels, while next in order comes a representation of the 

 preparing and victualling of the buss, which is surrounded by 

 small boats, and crowded with an active population engaged in 

 getting the vessel ready for sea — barrels of provisions, breadths 

 of netting, and various necessaries, are being got on board. 

 Then follow plates, of which the foregoing is a specimen, show- 

 ing us the equipment of various other kinds of boats, which 

 again are succeeded by a view of the busses among the shoals of 

 herring, the, big mast struck, most of the saUs furled, and the men 

 busy hauling the nets, which of course, as is' fitting in a picture, 

 are laden with fish. Various other boats are also shown at work, 

 as the great hoy, a one-masted vessel, that is apparently furnished 

 with a seine-net, and the great double shore or sea-boar, which 

 is an open boat. Then we have the herring-buss coming gal- 

 lantly into the harbour, with its sails all set and its flags aU 

 flying — its huU deep in the water, which seems to frolic lovingly 

 round its prow, as if glad at its safe return. Next, of course, 

 there is a scene on the shore, where the pompous-looking curer 

 and his servants are seen congratulating each other amid the 

 bustle of surrounding commerce and labour ; dealers, too, are 

 figured in these engravings, with their wheelbarrows drawn by 

 dogs of unmistakable Dutch build, and there are also to be seen 

 in the picture many other elements of that industry peculiar to 

 all fishing to'wns, whether ancient or modem. 



The next scene of this fishing panorama is the herring 

 banquet or feast, where the king, or mayhap the rich owner of 

 a fleet of busses sits grandly at table, with his wife and. daughter, 

 attended by a butler and a black footman, partaking of the first 

 fruits of the fishery. After this follows a view of the fishmarket, 

 with portraits of the fishwives, altogether thoroughly indica- 

 tive of their peculiar way of doing business, which is always 

 the same, whether the scene be laid in ancient Holland or 



