MR. J. T. HOTBLACK ON THE HERRING. 
17 
way he spent his time with the jovial naturalist, lie added, “ But 
there was one thing about which we could not agree. I was quite 
sure that Sprats were young Herring, and Buckland was quite sure 
that they were not.” Perhaps some of you will think that 
Buckland was for once right. 
To return to the Herring of Herrings, the Herring itself. Yarrell 
says that the word Herring is from the German “ Herr” — an army 
— and truly it is as many armies that they periodically visit our 
shores. 
I shall not be tempted to go into the antiquarian side of the 
question. Every one has heard of the Herrings and Herring pies, 
which had to be sent to the king and other great people, by such 
towns as Yarmouth and Norwich ; and of the quantity of this fish 
that must have been caught and cured in medieval times, as witness 
the convoy which gave name to the Battle of Herrings. 
But I should like to say a word or two here about tlie name of 
the, at present, most popular form of curing in England. Day 
says that Bloater is from bloat, to dry by smoke. I have always 
thought, and I find myself not alone in thinking, that it is from 
bloated, blown out, and I believe the term is only properly applied 
to such as are hung up but just long enough to blow out, and that 
such as have been smoked longer, and have ceased to be blown out, 
are not bloaters. May not the word bloat, to dry by smoke, have 
got into the dictionary through these bloater-smoked fish of oui's ? 
Some years since, when in search of a holiday, I took steamer at 
Yarmouth, and after visiting most of the fishing stations along the 
east coast of England and Scotland, found myself at last in 
Stornoway, the chief town in the Island of Lewis, one of the 
Western Hebrides, which, as you know, lies some way out into the 
Atlantic, on the extreme north-west of Scotland, and I do not think 
that I can commence what I have to say about the Herring and its 
migrations anywhere better than at Stornoway, for it is there that 
the annual fishing practically begins. By law, I believe, the 
season opens on the 20th May ; but the year I was there the fisher- 
men had held a public meeting, and decided not to commence till 
some days later, as, I suppose, because they thought the fish were 
not quite fit. Two or three boats thought differentl}", and started 
on the legal days ; but it was no use, law or no law, their whole 
catch was promptly pitched overboard as soon as they came into port. 
VOL VI. 
C 
