38 ZUYDER ZEE HEEEING-FISHEET. 



would get bait. "Oh," he replied, "I can get thousands of 

 splendid lampreys." Only think of such fine fish being cut up 

 for bait ! Would it not pay better to send them to London ? 



The herring-fishery on the Zuyder Zee has no connection 

 whatever with the great fishery ; it is a miscellaneous fishery for 

 winter herrings and sprats, which are cured in difierent ways, also 

 for the universal flounder and the abounding eel ; whUst the 

 great fishery is for the herring only. Many of the fishermen stay 

 out at sea in their beautifully clean half-decked boats during the 

 week, and only come home to their families on Saturday night, 

 their cargo beiog taken from time to time, as it accumulates, to 

 the curer. The quaint races of fishermen who dwell on the curious 

 islands of Marken, Urk, and Shokland, leave their homes at mid- 

 night on Sunday, and, if they find fish, do not return till the fol- 

 lowing Saturday. There are about twelve hundred boats of all 

 kinds fishing on the Zuyder Zee, and numerous smokeries have 

 been erected for smoking the herrings. The people are now be- 

 coming very proficient in this branch of the fishery business, 

 which was inaugurated by the fishermen of Dieppe during the 

 twelfth century. The Dutch do not esteem the fresh herring 

 as we do in Britain — indeed the Zuyder Zee herrings are in a 

 measure despised — still the fresh herring fishery is of consider- 

 able value, and yields about £40,000 a year to Scheveningen, 

 Catwyk, and Noordwyk, not to speak of what it brings in to 

 Monniekendam, Enkhuizen, WoUenhove, and numerous other 

 little fishing towns or hamlets. I found it exceedingly difficult 

 to procure reliable statistics of the produce of the fisheries car- 

 ried on in the Zuyder Zee, but was told that the eels which are 

 annually caught may be valued at 85,000 florins, and that the 

 sprat fishery will produce four times that amount of money. 

 As to the fresh herring fishery, the figures, although they were 

 double the amount stated above, would, after all, be modest, 

 compared to those of the Scottish herring fishery. The Pries- 

 landers are mighty fishers ; two-thirds of their fishing craft are 

 on the Zuyder Zee, and their part of the country, as may be 

 seen from any map, is full of lakes, some of them of large size. 

 The Prisons derive wealth from the waters as weU as from 

 their peat grounds, and many of their lakes and fish-ponds 

 have been formed out of holes created by carrying away the 

 peat. The Prison people also carry on fishing industries on the 

 islands of Ter ScheUing and Ameland, which lie opposite their 

 coast, and which were once united as a part of the land. Then, 



