360 



UNITED STATES. 



Herrings regularly appear on our coast the latter 

 end of March, and by the middle of April are caught 

 in immense quantities. The annual passage of this 

 useful and important fish is a curious subject in na- 

 tural history, but this is not the place for its investi- 

 gation or to detail it.* The Dutch have long been in 

 the practice of pickling and exporting many thou- 

 sands of barrels every year to every part of the globe, 

 and there is no reason why the same commerce 

 might not become equally extensive from the United 

 States. The peculiar method of preparation has 

 long since been detailed by that patriotic nobleman 

 lord Dundonald, and I had great pleasure in diffusing 

 the same knowledge among our own countrymen, in 

 a work already referred to in these pagesf. The 

 quality of our herring is excellent, but that it is more 

 owing to the mode of curing, than to the quality of 

 the fish that thq Dutch have acquired so much credit 

 in the article, appears from this fact, that the Eng- 

 lish, though the herrings are caught on their own 

 coast, have not been able to equal the Dutch in cur- 

 ing them : probably owing to the neglect of the pro- 

 cess pursued with so much care? by the latter in- 

 dustrious nation. 



Shad of a superior quality, pay a regular annual 



visit to our coast, a short time after the herrings. It is 



said, that the fur ther north they are caught, the higher 



flavoured they are. ...Perch, rock, trout, old wives, 



cat fish of an excellent flavour, with forked tails, and 



many others are caught in our rivers. Trout abound 



in our creeks having rocky or gravelly bottoms. 



* The reader is referred to the Amer, Phil. Trans, vol. 2d, for 

 some observations on the subject, 

 t Domestic Sncyclopsjdia. Herring.s. 



