170 AMERICAN ANGLBR'S-BOOK. 



time in the brine, then arranging them on hurdles, and 

 placing them in ovens holding from ten to twelve thousand, 

 for the purpose of being dried and smoked. The invention 

 of pickling, as applied to Herring, has been ascribed to 

 Wilhelm Bdekelson, or Beukelson, a fisherman of Viervliet 

 in the province of Zealand (about 1440) : he, however, only 

 improved an art known before his time. The Emperor 

 Charles V. eat a herring over his grave, in thankful acknow- 

 ledgment of his worth, and erected a monument to his honor 

 in 1556. 



" Several species of Herring are caught in vast numbers on 

 the coast and in the Atlantic rivers of the United States. 

 The principal of these is the Clupea ehngata, the representa- 

 tive of C. harengus. Besides Ahsa sapidissima, or Shad, 

 already mentioned, Ahsa tyr annus and A. menhaden are of 

 economical value, the former as an article of food, the latter 

 for manure. Immense numbers are taken and spread on 

 poor lands, to which they impart a fertility not inferior to 

 that produced by guano." 



In the United States, Herrings are most abundant in the 

 rivers that flow into the Chesapeake. In Maryland and 

 Virginia they have even been used as manure, as the small 

 species known as " Manhaden" and " Mossbunkers" have been 

 farther north. In Virginia and North Carolina, the custom 

 of visiting the "fishing-shores" annually for a supply of 

 Herrings to salt down, still exists as an " institution," and 

 the inhabitants for many miles back from the rivers that 

 furnish these fish, come every spring and take away immense 

 numbers of them. 



One of the greatest hauls with a seine that I ever heard of, 

 was made by a fisherman on the Potomac near Dumfries, Va. 

 With one sweep of his long net he encompassed a school 

 which supplied all applicants. He sold them as long as they 



