48 HISTOKY OF THE HEERING-riSHEEY. 



eels ; and as eoon as one lot enters, the rest, with a gheeplike 

 instinet, follow their leaders, 'and hundreds of thousands pass 

 annually from the sea to the waters of the lagoon, which can be 

 so regulated as in places to be either salt or fresh as required. 

 Various operations connected with the working of the fisheries 

 keep the people in employment from the tim"e the entrance- 

 sluices are closed, at the end of April, till the commencement 

 of the great harvest of eel-culture, which lasts from the begin- 

 ning of August tiU December. The engraving represents one 

 of the fishing-places of the lagoon. 



No country has, taking into accoimt size and population, been 

 more industrious on the seas than Scotland — the most productive 

 fishery of the country having been that for herring. There 

 is no consecutive historical account of the progress of the 

 herring-fisheiy. The first really authentic notice we have of a 

 trade in herrings is nine hundred years old, when it is recorded 

 that the Scots exported herrings to the Netherlands, and there 

 are indications that even then a considerable fishery for herrings 

 existed in Scotland ; and prior to that date Boethius alludes to 

 Inverlochy as an important seat of commerce, and persons of 

 • intelligence consider that town to have been a resort of the 

 French and Spaniards for the purchase of herring and other 

 fishes. The pickling and drying of herrings for commerce were 

 first carried on by the Flemings. This mode of curing fish is 

 said to have been discovered by William Benkelen of Biervlet, 

 near Sluys, who died in 1397, and whose memory was held in 

 such veneration for that service that the Emperor Charles V. 

 and the Queen of Hungary made a pilgrimage to his tomb. 

 Incidental notices of the herring-fishery are contained in the 

 records of the monastery of Evesham, so far back as the year 

 709, and the tax levied on the capture of herrings is noticed in 

 the annals of the monastery of Barking as herring-silver. The 

 great fishery for herrings at Yarmouth dates from the eaiiiest 

 Anglo-Saxon times, and at so early a period as the reign of 

 Henry I. it paid a tax of 10,000 fish to the Idng. We are told 

 that the most ancient records of the French herring-fishery are 

 not earlier than the year 1020, and we know that in 1088 the 

 Duke of Normandy allowed a fair to be held at Fecamp during 

 the time of this fishery, the right of holding it being granted to 

 the Abbey of the Holy Trinity. The Yarmouth fishery, even in 

 these early times, was a great success — as success was then 

 understood. Edward III. did all he could to encourage the 



