36 BENEFITS DERIVED FROM A GOOD ITSHERT. 



been captured and cured. But whatever this total might be 

 was not of great consequence, for the mere quantity of fish 

 caught is perhaps, although a considerable one, the smallest of 

 the many benefits conferred on a nation by an energetic pursuit 

 of its fisheries. The fishermen must have boats, and these must 

 be fitted with sails, rigging, etc. ; and, moreover, the boats must 

 be manned by an eflScient crew ; then the curing and sale of the 

 fish give employment to a large number of people as well ; 

 whilst the articles of cure — as salt, barrels, etc. — ^must of 

 necessity be largely provided, and are all of them the result of 

 some kfaid of trained industry : and these varied circumstances 

 of demand combine to feed the particular industrial pursuit I 

 am describing. Besides, the fisheries provide a grand nursery 

 for 1 seamen, which is, perhaps, in a country like ours, having a 

 powerful navy, the greatest benefit of all. 



I have taken the pains to collate as many of the figures of 

 the ancient Dutch fishery as I could collect during an industrious 

 search ; and I find that, in the zenith of its prosperity, after the 

 proclamation of the independence of the States of HoUand, three 

 thousand boats were employed in her own bays, while sixteen 

 hundred herring busses fished industriously in British waters, 

 and eight hundred larger vessels prosecuted the cod and whale 

 fisheries at remote distances. In the year 1603 we are informed 

 that the Dutch sold herrings to the amount of £4,759,000, be- 

 sides what they themselves consumed. We are also told that 

 in 1618 they had twelve thousand vessels engaged in this branch 

 of the fishery, and that these ships employed about two hundred 

 thousand men. It must have been a splendid sight, on every 

 24th of June, to witness the departure of the great fleet from 

 the Texel ; and as most of the Dutch people were more or less 

 interested in the prosperity of the fishery, either as labourers or 

 employers of labour, there would be no lack of spectators on 

 these occasions. The Wick herring drave of a thousand boats 

 is an industrial sight of no common kind ; but it must give way 

 before the picturesque fleet of Holland, as it sailed from the 

 Texel about three hundred years ago. 



It is interesting to see the Holland of to-day, and to compare 

 its fishing fleets with those of other nations. Plat fish are the 

 spieialiU of the Dutch sea fisheries, eels ranking next, vast 

 numbers being taken in the canals of South HoUand, while large 

 quantities are obtained fi:om the numerous lakes of Friesland. 

 An active fishery of a miscellaneous description is likewise car- 



