186 VALUE OF THE EAELY EISH. 



our fishing towns look as if they were, so to speak, stereotyped. 

 It is a woeful time for the fisher-folk when the herrings fail 

 them ; for this great harvest of the sea, which needs no tillage 

 of the husbandman, the fruits of which are reaped without 

 either sowing seed or paying rent, is the chief industry that the 

 bulk of the coast population depend upon for a good sum of 

 money. The fishing is the bank, in which they hare opened, 

 and perhaps exhausted, a cash^credit ; for often enough the 

 balance is on the wrong side of the ledger, even after the 

 fishing season has come and gone. In other words, new boats 

 have to be paid for out of the fishing ; new clothes, new houses, 

 additional nets, and even weddings, are all dependent on the 

 herring-fishery. It is notable that after a favourable season 

 the weddings among the fishing populations are very nuiaerous. 

 The anxiety for a good season may be noted aU along th« British 

 coasts, from Newhaven to Yarmouth, or from Crail to Wick. 



The highest prices are paid for the early fish, contracts for 

 these in a cured state being sometimes fixed as high as forty-five 

 shillings per barrel. These are at once despatched to Oermany, 

 in the inland towns. of which a prime salt herring of the early cure 

 is considered a great luxury, fetching sometimes the handsome 

 price of one shilling ! Great quantities of cured herrings are 

 sent to Stettin or other German ports, and so eager are some of 

 the merchants for an early supply that in the beginning of the 

 season they purchase quantities unbranded, through; the agency 

 of thfe telegraph. On those parts of the coast where the com- 

 munication with large towns is easy, considerable quantities of 

 herring are purchased fresh, for transmission to Birmingham, 

 Manchester, and other inland cities. Buyers attend for that 

 purpose, and send them off frequently in an open truck, with 

 only a slight covering to protect them from the sun. It is 

 needless to say that a fresh herring is looked upon as a luxury 

 in such places, and a demand exists that would exhaust any 

 supply that could be sent. 



Having explained the relation of the curers to the trade, I 

 must now speak of the cure — -the greater number of the herrings 

 caught on the coast of Scotland being pickled in salt ; a result 

 originally, no doubt, of the want of speedy modes of transit to 

 large seats of population, where herrings would be largely con- 

 sumed if they could arrive hi a sufSciently fresh state to be 

 palatable. At stations about Wick the quantity of herrings 

 disposed of fresh is comparatively small, so that by far the larger 



