68 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



allusion to " Bed Herring " that I have heard of is in the reign of Henry III, 

 but it is clear that they were smoked several centuries before, by whatever 

 name they were called. At the time of the conquest, Salt Pans existed all 

 along the coast, wherever there were Herring fisheries. Even at this date 

 Yarmouth was the great rendezvous for Herring fishers, and both Flemish 

 and French boats, as well as English and Scotch, used to congregate there. 

 There was even a close season fixed then, as if the lawgivers of that date 

 understood better than those of more modern times how to keep the fishing 

 good. It was of course regulated by Saint's Days, and between the feast of 

 St. Martin (4th July), and the feast of St. Michael (29th September) no fishing 

 was allowed on the Norfolk coast. Whether this close season extended 

 elsewhere I have not been able to learn. In 1128, Henry I. appointed a 

 Mayor of Yarmouth, who had to pay to the king a royalty of 10,000 

 Herrings annually. Dunwich, which was then an important walled town, 

 was more heavily taxed, for it had to render annually 12,000 Herrings to the 

 Monks of Ely, and an equal number to the Monks of Eye. Owing to the 

 rapid encroachments of the sea, Dunwich fell into decay, and in considera- 

 tion thereof King John remitted both these imposts. The same 

 Monarch granted a Charter to Yarmouth, one of the conditions of which was 

 that the town should send through the Sheriff of Norwich, twenty-four 

 herring pies annually. I have mentioned the reference to Red Herrings in 

 the Reign of Henry III. In the next reign (Edward I.) they were sold at 

 the rate of twenty for a penny. Edward II. wrote letters in his own hand 

 to Haco VI. of Norway, complaining that certain English merchants trading 

 to Norway with Herrings had been arrested and imprisoned, and demanded 

 redress. Thus year by year the various enactments, or other dealings with 

 the Herring might be traced, but it is unnecessary. 



We have yet a great deal to learn about this fish, especially as to its 

 habits between the spawning seasons. It is generally supposed that it does 

 not congregate in these vast shoals except at spawning time, but the habits of 

 the " Sile " and " Sprat " of keeping together in large numbers, seems to be 

 evidence of their being gregarious all their lives. In places that have been 

 over-fished, and especially where the young have been largely destroyed, the 

 fish for many years afterwards are few in number, and scarcely worth the 

 cost of capture, but were the young in all cases allowed to mature, there 

 scarcely seems any possibility of seriously diminishing the numbers of the 

 full-grown fish. "V ery little too is known about its food. It is never taken 

 with bait, but only by nets which are hung down near the surface of the 

 water, and entangle the fish as it swims. It probably feeds on the smaller 

 Crustacea and other minute creatures that abound everywhere, but it evidently 



