146 NATURAL HISTORY of .VOT? WA T. 



they may be taken up by pails full, and people even pick them 

 up with their hands. 



A hill of Herrings (fo they call a large Ihoal of them) according 

 to all the fifhermens accounts, reaches from the bottom to the 

 furface of the water, which, in the moft places thereabouts, 

 is an hundred or two hundred fathoms deep. They extend alio 

 to a considerable circumference. Were they all to be caught, the 

 greateft part would be loft ; for it would be impoflible to get 

 hands, tubs, fait, and other neceffaries for the curing of them. 

 Several hundred fhip-loads are fent every year from Bergen alone, 

 to foreign parts, befide the great quantity that is confumed at 

 home by the peafants, who make them their daily provifion ; tho' 

 they do but half fait them : thefe are called four Herrings, 

 which juft fuit their palate # . To all this I may add, the incre- 

 dible number that is ufed by way of bait for other Fifh ; for Her- 

 rings are a bait that almoft all Fifh are fond of: half a Herring 

 is ufually hung to each hook at a time. 

 J/ r c ious h ^ ays I fhall now give fome account of the various ways of catching 

 Herrings in the feveral feafbns of the year, and the difference 

 obferved between thofe Herrings that are caught at thofe feveral 

 times. The firft and largeft, but not the fatteft, are thofe that 

 generally appear on the coaft of Norway, from Chriftmas to 

 Candlemas f. Thefe are called Stor-fild, i. e. large Herrings, and 

 by other names expreffing their excellence. Thefe- pitch upon 

 fome particular fhallows near the fhore, which are called Stiev, 



* Though the Herring- fifhery has this year, 1752, not been near fo great as ufual, 

 yet in thefe nine months, from January 1, to October 16, there have been exported 

 from Bergen eleven thoufand and thirteen lafts ; and by the end of the year there will 

 be a great many more. 



f A little after Twelfth- day the common people begin to look out for the Whale 

 from the high cliffs, which prognosticates the arrival of the Herrings. They calculate 

 the time by an old proverb : 



* Sidft i Torre og forft i Gio 

 Skal Sild og Hval vaere i fio. 



In Englifh : 



The latter end of Torre, or beginning of Gio, 

 The Whale and the Herring muft be in the fea. 



This period, according to the common opinion, depends upon the change of the 

 moon : for the firft new moon after Chriftmas is called Torre, and the next is called 

 Gio : therefore they generally obferve the Chriftmas moon. The Spring Whales make 

 their appearance firft, in great numbers, and are feen ten or fourteen, and fometimes 

 only three or four days before the great Whales, of which they are look'd upon as the 

 harbingers or fore-runners. Thefe Spring Whales range themfelves in a line, and run 

 over all the fifh-grouhds, as if they were intent upon driving away other fmall Fifties, 

 that the coaft may be clear_for the Herrings to difcharge their fpawn at the proper 

 feafon. 



where 



