148 NATURAL HISTORY of NO RTF AT. 



When the Summer is pretty far advanced, or towards the 

 Autumn, another fort, called Summer Herrings, are chafed to 

 the fhore by the Sturgeons and fmall Whales. Thefe again differ, 

 and are divided into two forts, one of which is called Bonde- 

 Gods, or peafants goods; the others, which are large and fat, 

 we reckon merchants goods, and are cur'd for exportation. 

 When thefe laffc are directly pickled down, (and not kept a whole 

 day firft, which fometimes happens on account of the great 

 numbers that are taken, and then put up in oaken barrels^ for fir 

 gives them a tafte,) they are as good in every refpetT; as the 

 Dutch, which are fold by the name of Flemifh Herrings ; for 

 thefe, notwithflanding the name, are caught on the coaft of 

 Scotland, juft oppofite to us, and are, without doubt, the fame 

 breed. In the manor of Nordland they catch thefe fat Summer 

 Herrings at Michaelmas, and, after the Dutch manner, in the 

 night, with a kind of drag-net, which they carry betwixt two 

 boats, and row gently along, about the openings into the fea, 

 and in the water that runs between the out iflands and cliffs. 

 Many hundred boats are employed there; and when the Herrings 

 they take there are inftantly pickled fo foon as they are taken 

 out of the net, they are inferior to none for fat and flavour *. 

 If we were to ufe thofe drag-nets here in the diocefe of Bergen 

 (which fome people feem inclinable to do) it would, without 

 doubt, be very advantageous: we fhould get a great number 

 of Herrings that otherwife go away, particularly in thofe years 

 when the Summer Herrings only fwim about the coaft:, and are 

 too fhy to come near it. This happened the very laft; Summer, 

 when great fhoals were feen, and went away unmolefted. Our 

 fifhermen think it more advifeable to flay till the Fifh go into 

 fome narrow creek, where they can but barely turn ; they watch 

 this opportunity, and then (hut up a whole fhoal, or at leaft a 

 great part of it, in this creek, and there keep them prifoners 

 till they can take them by degrees, and fo pickle them down ; 

 but the laft that are taken are generally emaciated and fpoiled. 

 It is the beft way to keep fchefe Herrings fhut up in the creek for 

 a day or two before they are caught, that the Roe-Aat, a fmall 

 and red worm, (that has been mentioned in the chapter of Infects) 

 which is found in their bellies at this time of the year, and 

 makes them rot very foon, fhould be digefted and carried off. 

 But they are often, on account of their vaft numbers, kept thus 

 (hut up a fortnight or three weeks together ; and, by this confine- 



* Thefe Nordland Herrings are often fo fat, that when they are put into warm fauce, 

 they will diflblve away like an Anchovy, and leave nothing but the bones. 



menr, 



