THE GREATEST FISHERS IN THE WORLD. 35 



modern Billingsgate. Next comes a picture of the various 

 buyers of the commodity on their way home, of course by the 

 side of a canal, with their purchases of deep-sea, shore, state, 

 and red herrings. The next scene of the series is a smoking- 

 house, partially obscured by wreaths of smoke, where the herrings 

 are being red-ed j and the series is appropriately wound up with 

 a tableau representing the important process of repairing the 

 damaged nets — the whole conYeying a really graphic, although 

 not very artistic, deliaeation of what was once a highly charac- 

 teristic Dutch industry. A few plates Ulustrative of the whale- 

 fisheries of Holland are appended to the series I have been describ- 

 ing — ^for whale-flshing was at one time one of the industries of 

 the hard-working Dutch. 



The old saying of Amsterdam being buUt on herring bones 

 was frequently used to symbolise the fishing power of Holland. 

 It is thought that the attention of the Dutch people was first 

 drawn to the value of the sea fisheries by the settlement of some 

 Scottish fishermen in their country. I cannot vouch for the 

 truth of this statement as to the Scottish emigration, but I 

 believe it was a Fleming who first discovered the virtues of 

 pickled herrings, and it is also known that the capture of the 

 herring was a chief industry on the sea-board of aU the Low 

 Countries : it is likewise instructive to learn that at a time 

 when our British fisheries were very much undeveloped the 

 Dutch people found our seas to be a gold mine, so productive 

 were they in fish, and so famous did the Dutch cure of herrings 

 become. We are not wiUing, however, to credit all the stories 

 of miraculous draughts, and store of wealth garnered up, by the 

 plodding Hollanders. We must bear in miad that when the 

 Dutch began to fish, the seas, as a field of industry were nearly 

 virgin, and that that people at one time kept this great source 

 of wealth all to themselves. At that particular period there was 

 no limit to the supply, fishermen having only to dip their nets 

 in the water to have them filled. No wonder, therefore, 

 that the fisheries of Holland became a promiaent industry, and 

 in time the one absorbing hobby of the nation. Busses in large 

 fleets were fitted out and manned, tiU in time the Dutch came 

 to be reputed the greatest fishers in the world. But great as 

 was the fishing industry of those days in Holland, and industri- 

 ous as the Dutch undoubtedly were, there has been a consider- 

 able amount of exaggeration as to the results, more especially 

 in regard to the enormous quantities of fish said to have 



