i 4 4 NATURAL HI S T OR Y of N R WA Y. 



lands they reckon above 150,000 people^ whofe fole livelihood is 

 the catching, pickling, and trafficking with Herrings. Here in 

 Norway alfo, and especially in the diocefe of Bergen., and manor 

 of Nordland, there are many thoufands of families that maintain 

 themfelves chiefly by Cod and Herring-fiiheries. The Herrings 

 alone bring in annually feveral thoufand pounds to Bergen,. Tron- 

 heim, Stavanger, and Lille-foffen, which is now called Chriftian- 

 fund. The Herring like the Salmon, is not to be taken by any 

 Food, kind of bait, nor is there ever found any food in its ftomach 

 on opening it. Hence it has been generally fnppofed that they 

 live upon wateralo ne * ; and we fee, that out of their element 

 they cannot live many minutes, fcarce any Fifli dies _fo quietly; 

 which is fuppofed to be owing to this, that their gills are very 

 large in proportion, and fo open, that the air immediately rufhes 

 in, and (rifles them. Their flefh is reckoned wholfomeft when 

 pickled, and, according to Nicol. Tulpius's Obferv. Medic, p. 

 135, it refreihes the ftomach, and promotes digeftionf. The 

 Herrings, like the Mackrel, affemble together, and follow one 

 another in vaft Ihoals ; and it is faid they have always a leader of 

 their own fpecies, which is eighteen inches long, and proportion- 

 ably broad. This is related by Martin, in his Defcription of the 

 Weftern Iflands of Scotland, p. 143. It is faid alfo, that the 

 fifhermen call this Fifli the King of the Herrings, and never touch 

 him, reckoning it little lefs than treafon to deftroy a Fifh that 

 has that title ; but this is rather a fuperftition, or a fear that 

 their fifhery will fuffer by it for the future, than a fpirit of loy- 

 alty ; for the common people here are full of thefe fuperftitions, 

 and obferve them a great deal more than the word of God. I 

 have juft obferved that the Herrings follow one another, and flock 

 together in great multitudes ; from whence fome are of opinion 

 that the German name Hering is derived ; but no body can form 

 any idea of the largenefs and extent of thefe prodigious fhoals, 

 but our Norvegian fifhermen ; and even what they fee is but a 

 fmall part of them §. 



* I begin to be in doubt of this matter, fince one of my correfpondents has obferved 

 that the fmall Autumn Herrings have bit at a bait on a hook fattened to a horfe-hair. 



+ The Emperor Charles the Vth, who was a great admirer of a pickled Herring, 

 when he came to Biervliet in the Netherlands, in the year 1556, paid a vifit to the tomb 

 of William Bukholds, to return him thanks for his difcovery and inftruftions in the 

 method of pickling Herrings, printed in the year 1386, Gottfr. Chronic. Part 6 p. 

 62 * This monarch's Spaniih fubjefts did not acquire fo. much wealth from the Ame- 

 rican Gold mines, as his Netherland fubjefts by the Herring fifhery. See London 

 Magazine for June 1752, p. 276. # _ . 



§ See Atlas Commercial. & Mantim. printed at London in -1728. 



if 



