982 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
the Spanish Peninsula and France and off the south 
coast of England, in the same manner as the Herring 
further north. In the southern part of its range, north- 
wards along the coast of the Spanish Peninsula and in 
the Mediterranean, it is said to be met with near land 
all the year round. But where the deep water, bounded 
by the 100-fathoms line, lies farther from shore, be- 
tween the south of the Bay of Biscay and the British 
plateau, the influence of which on the Herring’s geogra- 
phical range has been noticed above, the Pilchard, a fish 
that rests and winters in the depths of the ocean, ap- 
proaches land in an order the reverse of that observed 
by the Herring. The Herring comes, as we have seen, 
from the north, and spreads round the coasts of Great 
Britain. The Pilchard appears earliest in the year off 
the south coast of France, and the fishery commences 
later and later to the north". In deep water, however, 
the Pilchard occurs all the year round off the coasts of 
Cornwall and Devon, being often found, according to 
Day, in the stomach of fish taken on long-lines in 
January; but the Pilchard-fishery with drift-nets does 
not begin until July, and with the seine not until 
August. 
The Pilchard’s habits are the same as the Herring’s. 
It is extremely timid and gregarious, but greedily feeds 
on minute animals or even on the spores of seaweed and 
on Diatomacece, its sound appetite gaining it the fatness 
for which it is famed. The most important Pilchard- 
fishery on the French coast depends on this voracity. 
Fish-roe is imported from Norway — principally Lofoden 
Cod-roe, which costs the French fisherman 80 — lOOfrancs 
or more a barrel — and this expensive, bait, sometimes 
mixed for the sake of economy with sand or chopped 
meat and pounded crustaceans, is strewn on one side 
of the net floating at the surface behind the boat, when 
the Pilchard is seen on the other side of the net. When 
the net is as full of Pilchards as the fisherman thinks 
proper — which he sees by the sinking of the cork-line — 
a fresh net is shot, so long as the store lasts, and the 
fishing goes well. The bait is costly, but justifies the 
outlay; and in good years the French fishermen take 
one or two milliards of Pilchards, worth fifteen to twenty 
million francs. Of the Cornish Pilchard-fishery Fox * 6 
states that the export of salted Pilchards from Penzance 
and Falmouth to Genoa, Leghorn, Naples and Venice 
amounted in 1879 to 11,938 hogsheads or about 35 — 
36 million fish; and according to Couch 0 the English 
export of these fumadoes has averaged for many years 
30,000 hogsheads, sometimes amounting to 60,000. 
In 1879 the purse-seine was first used in the 
French Pilchard-fishery, but it has not yet come into 
favour. In the Cornish fishery this engine has been 
employed longer, even previous to its introduction into 
the American Mackerel fishery. 
The Pilchard-fishery is subject to the same fluc- 
tuations as the Herring-fishery, being still more de- 
pendent on the temperature of the water, but naturally 
too on the supply of food. According to Dunn 16 it has 
more than once happened during very severe winters 
that- the English Channel proved too shallow to afford 
the Pilchard protection from the cold. On these occa- 
sions he saw “countless millions” of Pilchards perishing 
or floating dead at the surface. In quest of food the 
Pilchard army roves westwards from the Channel out 
into the Atlantic; but Dunn adduces instances to show 
that this fish sometimes stays off the Cornish coast, 
feeding on the multitudes of crustacean larvae in the 
Zoea-st-age. With the same object it also makes its 
way up the Irish Channel; but it seldom extends its 
wanderings to the North Sea. In the migrations of the 
Pilchard and its approach to the coast so-called semi- 
secular periods may be observed 0 , as in the case of 
the Herring-fishery. 
The spawning of the Pilchard is probably performed 
in the open sea. Late in May and in June Dunn met 
with great numbers of ripe Pilchards 25 — 30 miles 
south of the Lizard; but the species breeds', it is stated, 
in winter as well, and, according to Yarrell, as early 
as in October. “I have reason to suppose,” says Couch, 
“that the spawn is shed at the surface, and mingled 
with it a large quantity of tenacious mucus, in which 
it is kept floating while it is obtaining the vivifying 
influence of the light and warmth of the sun,” an 
assumption that has been corroborated by the obser- 
vations of Dunn and Cunningham 7 . According to Day 
the female Pilchard lays about 60,000 eggs; and it has 
“ See Vaillant and Henneguy, Rapp. Gen. snr la pgclie de la Sardine (Gerville-Reache), Paris 1888, p. 28. 
6 In Buckland, Nat. Hist. Brit. Fish., p. 165. 
c Fish. Brit. 1st., vol. IV, p. 93. 
(l Fish. Trades Gazette, No. 485 (3rd Sept., 1892), p. 9. 
e See Couch, 1. e., p. 85. 
f Mith. Sect. Kiist., Hochs. Fischer., Deutsch. Fisch. Ver., 1892, p. 4-5. 
