370 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



be untrue to say that Yarmouth does not to this day look upon 

 Lowestoft with a somewhat jealous eye. 



Gillingwater's* account of the Herring Fishery, with a few 

 alterations in details, and the description of the Herring curing, 

 are pretty well descriptive of what occurs to-day : — 



" The Herring season," he says, " begins on the Eastern 

 Coast of England about a fortnight before Michaelmas, and con- 

 tinues to Martinmas. The number of the boats annually em- 

 ployed at Lowestoft . . . from 1772 to 1781 was about 33, and 

 the quantity of Herrings caught in each of those years was 

 about 714 lasts, or 21 lasts to a boat, which makes the quantity 

 of Herrings caught by the Lowestoft boats during that period to 

 be 7140 lasts. These Herrings were sold, upon an average, at 

 about £12 10s. per last, which makes the whole produce arising 

 from the sale of the said fish to be £89,250." 



The number of boats employed in the Herring Fishery and 

 the value of the season's catches continually fluctuated. After 

 1781 the boats decreased to eight in number, owing to the war 

 with the Dutch and other countries. But more peaceful times 

 saw satisfactory developments, and Lowestoft to-day has become 

 a most formidable, albeit peaceful, rival to Yarmouth. In 1854 

 there were 32 fishing boats, in 1864 they had increased to 167. 

 The autumnal Herring voyage in that year (1864) amounted to 

 4675 lasts. 



Frank Buckland ('Fisheries Keport,' 1875), when making 

 special inquiries into the state of the East Coast fisheries, stated 

 that, on the authority of a well-known Lowestoft fish-merchant, 

 the spring Herring Fishery was then of great value to the 

 Lowestoft people, upwards of one thousand men and boys being 

 engaged in it, and a sum arising to £30,000 was put into 

 circulation. He gives a table of statistics that covers a period of 

 eight years, which is appended (p. 371) : — 



He further stated that from eighty to ninety boats went out 

 from Lowestoft and a number from Gorleston to catch these 

 spring Herrings, and that a great quantity of them were sold 

 to the Dutch and French fishermen as bait for their long lines 

 to catch Halibut and Plaice. To my mind, that was all they 

 were fit for, for the North Sea spring Herring is dry and taste- 



::: ' History of Lowestoft,' 1790. 



