FISHERY, 
"fiver Tweed, the Clyde, theTay, the Dee, 
the Don, the Spey, the Ness, the Bewly, &c. 
•hi most of which it is very common, about 
‘the height of summer, especially if the 
weather happens to be very hot, 'to catch 
tour or live score of salmon at a -draught. 
'! he chief rivers in England for salmon are, 
•the Tyne, the Trent, the Severn, and the 
i hames. The- fishing is performed with nets, 
and sometimes with a kind of locks or weirs 
•made on purpose, which in certain places 
•Jiave iron or wooden grates so disposed, in 
an angle, that being impelled by any force in 
a contrary direction to the course of the 
river, they may give way and open a little 
•at the point of contact, and immediately shut 
vgain, closing the angle. The salmon, there- 
fore, coining up into the rivers, are admitted 
•into these grates, which open, and suffer 
•them to pass through, but shut again and 
•prevent their return. The salmon is also 
•caught with a spear, which they dart into 
-him when they see him swimming near the 
surface of the water. It is customary like- 
wise to catch them with a candle and lan- 
"■thorn, or wisp of straw set on fire ; for the 
■fish naturally following the light, are struck 
with the spear, or taken in a net spread for 
-that purpose, and lifted with a sudden jerk 
from the bottom. 
“ The capture of salmon in the Tweed, 
about the month of July, (says Mr. Pennant) 
is prodigious. In a good fishery, often a boat- 
load, and sometimes near two, are taken in a 
tide : some few years ago there were above 
TOO fish taken at one haul, but from 50 to 
100 is very frequent. The coopers in Ber- 
wick then begin to salt the salmon thoroughly 
*in pipes and other large vessels, and after- 
wards barrel them to send abroad, having 
then far more than the London markets can 
•fake off their hands. 
“ Most of the salmon taken before April, 
or to the setting in of the warm weather, is 
sent fresh to London in baskets ; unless now 
and then the vessel is disappointed by con- 
trary winds of sailing immediately; in which 
case the fish is brought ashore again to the 
coopers’ offices, and boiled, pickled, and 
kitted, and sent to the London markets by 
the same ship, and fresh salmon put in the 
baskets in lieu of the stale ones. At the 
beginning of the season, when a ship is on 
the point of sailing, a fresh clean salmon will 
sell from a shilling to eighteen pence a 
pound ; and most of the time that this part 
of the trade is carried on, the prices are from 
five to nine shillings per stone; the value 
rising and falling according to the plenty of 
fish, or the prospect of a fair or foul 
wind. Some fish are sent in this manner to 
London the latter end of September, when 
the weather grows cool; but then the fish 
are full of large roes, grow very thin-bellied, 
and are not esteemed so palatable. 
“ The season for fishing in the Tweed be- 
j gins November 30th, but the fishermen work 
very little till after Christmas: it ends on 
• Michaelmas-day ; yet the corporation of Ber- 
wick (who are conservators of the river) in- 
dulge the fishermen with a fortnight past that 
time, on account of the change of the style. 
“ There are on the river 41 considerable 
fisheries, extending upwards, about 14 miles 
.from the mouth (the others above being of 
■no great value), which are rented for near j 
VOL. I. 
5400/. per annum : the expence attending 
the servants’ wages, nets, boats, &c. amounts 
to 3000/. more ; which together makes up the 
sum 10,400/. Now, in consequence, the 
produce must defray all, and no less than 20 
times that sum of fish will effect it; so that 
208,000 Salmon must be caught there one 
year wfith another. 
" Scotland possesses great numbers of fine 
fisheries on both sides of that kingdom. The 
Scotch in early times had most severe laws 
against the killing of this fish : for the third 
offence was made capital, by a law of James 
IV. Before that, the offender had power 
to redeem his life. They were thought in 
the time of Henry VI. a present worthy of a 
crowned head ; for in that reign the queen 
of Scotland sent to the duchess of Clarence 
10 casks of salted saimon, which Henry di- 
rected to pass duty-free. The salmon are 
cured in the same manner as at Berwick, and 
a great quantity is sent to London in the 
spring; but after that time, the adventurers 
begin tO ( barrel and export them to foreign 
countries; but we believe that commerce is 
far less lucrative than it was in former times, 
partly owing to the great inert ase of the 
Newfoundland fishery, and partly to the ge- 
neral relaxation of the discipline of absti- 
nence in the Romish church. 
“ Ireland (particularly the north) abounds 
with this fish ; the most considerable fishery 
is at Cranna, on the river Ban, about a mile 
and a half from Coleraine. When I made 
the tour of that hospitable kingdom in 1754, 
it was rented by a neighbouring gentleman 
for 620/. a year; who assured me, that the 
tenant, his predecessor, gave 1600/. per an- 
num, and was a much greater gainer by the 
bargain, for the reasons before-mentioned, 
and on account of the number of poachers 
who destroy the fish in the fence-months. 
“ The mouth of this river faces the north; 
and is finely situated to receive the fish that 
roam along the coast in search of an inlet 
into some fresh water, as they do all along 
that, end of the kingdom which opposes itself 
to the northern ocean. We have seen near 
Ballicastle, nets placed in the sea at the foot 
of the promontories that jut into it, which 
the salmon strike into as they are wandering 
close to shore ; and numbers are taken by 
that method. 
“ In tin: Ban they fish w ith nets 18 score 
yards long, and are continually drawing 
night and day the whole season, which we 
think lasts about four months, two sets of 
1 6 men each alternately relieving -one ano- 
ther. The best drawing is when the tide is 
coming in ; we were told, that in a single 
draught there were once 840 .fish taken. 
“ A few miles higher up the river is a weir, 
where a considerable number of fish that es- 
cape the nets are taken. \\ e were lately 
informed, that in the year 1760, about 320 
tons were taken in the Cranna fishery.” 
With regard to the manner of curing sal- 
mon when the fish are taken, they are open- 
ed along the back, the guts and gills, and 
the greatest part of the bones removed, so as 
to make the inside as smooth as possible. 
! hey then salt the fish in large tubs for the 
purpose, where they lie a considerable time 
soaking in brine ; and about October, they 
[>ack them close up in barrels, and send them 
to London or up the Mediterranean. They 
737 
have also in S/tot land a great deal of salmon 
salted in the common way, which after soak- 
ing in brine' a competent time is well pressed, 
and then dried in smoke: this is called kip- 
per, and is chiefly made for home consump- 
tion; and if properly cured and prepared, is 
reckoned very delicious. 
Sturgeon- Fisher//. See Accipenser. The 
greatest sturgeon-fishery is in the mouth of 
the Volga, on the Caspian sea; where the 
Muscovites employ a great: number of hands, 
and catch tlibm in a kind of inclosure formed 
by huge stakes representing the letter Z re- 
peated Several times. These fisheries are 
open on the side next the sea, and close on 
the other, by which means the fish ascending 
in its season up the river, is embarrassed in 
these narrow angular retreats, and is easily 
killed with a harping-iron. Sturgeons, when 
fresh, eat deliciously ; and in order to make 
them keep, they are salted or pickled in 
large pieces, and put in t ags of from 30 to 50 
pounds. But the great object of this fishery 
is the roe, of which the Muscovites are ex- 
tremely fond, and of which is made the ca-> 
vear, or kavia, so much esteemed by the 
Italians. See Cay e ar. 
Tunny- Fishery. The -tunny (a species of 
Scomber, which see) was a fish well-known 
to the antients, and made a great article of 
commerce : and there are stiH very consi- 
derable tunny-fisheries on the coasts, of Sicily, 
as well as several other parts of the Medi- 
terranean. The nets are spread over a large 
space of sea by means of cables fastened to 
anchors, and are divided into several com- 
partments. The entrance is always directed, 
according to the season, towards that part of 
the sea from which the fish are known to 
come. A man placed upon the summit of a 
rock high above the water, gives the signal 
of the fish being arrived ; for he can discern 
from that elevation what passes under the wa- 
ters infinitely better than* , any person nearer 
the surface. As soon as notice is given that 
the shoal of fish has penetrated as far as the 
inner compartment, or the chamber of death, 
the passage is drawn close, and the slaughter 
begins. The undertakers of these fisheries 
pay an acknowledgment to the king, or the 
lord upon whose land they fix the main stay 
or foot of the tonnara ; they make the best 
bargain they can ; and till success has crown- 
ed their endeavours, obtain this leave for a 
small consideration ; but the rent is after- 
wards raised in proportion to their capture. 
The tunny enters the Mediterranean about 
the vernal equinox, travelling in a triangular 
phalanx, so as to cut the waters with its 
point, and to present an extensive base for 
the tides and currents to act against and im- 
pel forwards. These fish repair to the warm 
seas of Greece to spawn, steering their 
course thither along the European shores, 
but as they return, approach the African 
coast ; the young fry is placed in the van 
of the -squadron as they travel. They come 
back from the east in May, and abound on 
the coast of Sicily and Calabria about that 
time. In autumn they steer . northward, and 
frequent the neighbourhood of Am a Hi and 
Naples; but during tire whole season strag- 
glers are occasionally caught. When taken 
in May, the usual time of their appearance 
in the Calabrian bays, they are full of spawn, 
and their flesh is then esteemed unwhole- 
some, apt to occasion head-achs and flatu:c«~ 
