Fishes. 1711 



muddy part of the bay, but still no fish appeared till many hours after, 

 when they all rose to the surface simultaneously, and 1200 hogsheads 

 were afterwards taken up. The pilchard is very sensitive to atmos- 

 pheric changes ; if there should be cold bleak winds from the east, 

 north, or north-east they rarely rise or approach the shores. If it 

 should be a calm, or a good breeze from the south, south-west, or 

 west, they very rapidly associate ; and a day or two previous to a 

 storm they will frequently move with great rapidity. The shoals are- 

 supposed by the fishermen to be guided by what may be called a 

 king, or at any rate by the larger and stronger individuals. They al- 

 ways move with great precision, and all their evolutions are simulta- 

 neously effected. A shoal, when enclosed, will sometimes remain mo- 

 tionless, in regular order, with their heads all turned in one direction ; 

 if the boat be struck loudly, the whole will instantaneously turn to the 

 opposite point without the least confusion, like soldiers at a review. 



The number of drift-net boats engaged in the pilchard-fishery in 

 Mount's Bay is 180, each having seven men, and the quantities taken 

 by them are very great. Each hogshead contains from 2000 to 2500 

 fish. The quantity exported for the last ten years amounts to 

 176,168 hogsheads ; one-third more is used for home consumption, 

 and large quantities, from being suffocated in the seines, are yearly 

 used for manure. 



During the last season 33,959 hogsheads have been exported, 3052 

 of which were sent to Genoa, 8499 to Leghorn, 1368 to Civitta 

 Vecchia, 13,309 to Naples, 7731 to the Adriatic: of these 16,577 

 were exported from St. Ives, 7983 from Penzance, 3213 from Meva- 

 gissey, and the remainder from Falmouth, Looe, and Charlestown. 

 As it is not the object of these notes, already extended beyond their 

 intended limits, to refer to the fisheries any further than to illustrate 

 the habits of the fish, the account of them is designedly omitted. 



The Herring, Clupea harengus. Though there is no special fishery 

 for the herring on the Cornish shores, yet they rarely appear on our 

 northern coast in sufficient quantities to have a short period of drift-net 

 speculation devoted to them. On the southern parts of Cornwall, they 

 are so scarce and uncertain in their appearance, that they are only 

 taken by accident in small quantities ; and even then are not at all 

 desired. They are caught by such drift-nets as are fishing for the 

 early shoals of pilchards in July and August. At this time the pil- 

 chard is congregating, and the herrings are frequently mixed with 

 them. They are chiefly to be found in deep water, sometimes going' 

 east and at others west, in small shoals. They are more abundant 



