THE YOUNG NATURALIST 



67 



is not so abundant in some of its haunts as formerly, when such an incessant 

 war is waged upon it. I have a mememorandum of one day when seven 

 boats landed here, each with 10 "last" of herrings or more. A "last" is 

 considered to be 10,000, but as six score (120) is given to 100, a "last" is 

 really 12,000 fish, and these seven boats must have had over a million fish 

 in them. There were forty to fifty other boats with fish the same day, whose 

 takes varied from a hundred to several last. I have a note also that in the 

 year 1859 no less than 4,514 lasts of Herring were taken at Boulogne, in 

 France. In the same year 278,000,000 of bloaters, and 50,000,000 of red 

 herrings were received at Billingsgate Fish Market. I have seen " sprats " 

 so abundant that a large dishful was sold for a penny, and at other times 

 have known them carted away for manure. In easterly gales they are fre- 

 quently driven ashore in large numbers, and high water mark for miles will 

 be heaped with them. I have sometimes found a few among the rock pools 

 at very low water, but I could never get them home alive. In these pools 

 they swim near the surface if not disturbed, but if any one approaches them 

 they dart off together to the middle of the pool, and swim nearer the bottom. 

 The little shoals will not readily separate, but keep together in spite of all 

 efforts to separate them. 



The term " sprat " is not applied to the very young fish. When three 

 inches long or less they are called Herring "Sile," an evident corruption of the 

 Scandinavian name Sill or Sild. The Latin Alec or Halic could not specially 

 apply to the Herring, for it is unknown in the Mediterranean, but Alec was a 

 name for any small marine fish, and is used for Herring in Doomsday Book, 

 where Dunwich was taxed to the extent of " Sexaginta millia Alectum"-~ 

 60,000 herrings. Many suggestions have been offered as to the deriva- 

 tion of the modern name Herring, but there can be little doubt it was derived 

 from the Anglo-Saxon Having, which is scarcely modified in the name of the 

 present day. 



The earliest reference to the Herring that I have met with occurs in a 

 Charter granted by the Bishop of London, Bishop Erkenwald, about the year 

 680, to the Monastry of Barking. Allusion is made in it to the salting and 

 even the smoking of Herrings, and those levied for the use of the Monks at 

 Easter are called "Silver Herring." Some twenty years later Bishop Edwin 

 founded a Monastry at Evesham in Worcestershire, and the Herring is 

 referred to in the rules for its management. Edward the Confessor gave 

 a saltmine in Cheshire to the Abbey of Fecamp, so that the Monks might be 

 able to cure their own Herring. These all show how important an article of 

 food it was even in these early days, and how the same modes of curing, 

 salting and smoking, that we use now, were adopted then. The first 



