272 NATURAL HISTORY 
me very rare, I have given an icon of it Plate xxvi. fig. vm. ad- 
justed to the general Scale from a drawing of Mr. Jago. 
sect. X. It mu ft not be imagined that the catalogue of fifh given nere in 
Profit of ^ this chapter contains all the fifh which are caught on the coaft 
fifhing. of Cornwallj but mt her the moil ufeful, molt rare, and of remark- 
able properties, which have reached the knowledge of the author ; 
it would be a very difficult talk to make out an exad lift ; “ Immenfa 
et fiwnme admirabilis Dei potentia clique fiolertia in rebus ccelejiibus y 
iifique quce in aere et terra fiunt.y maxime vero in man , in quo ta?n 
varice et jlupendce rerum fiormce confpiciutitur ut qu&rendi cf con- 
templa?idi nullus unquam futurus fit finis z ”. Of the before-menti- 
oned river-fifh, the falmon, trout, and eel have the prefer- 
ence ; of the flat fea-fiffi, the turbot, foie, and doree ; of the long, 
the launces, and the conger ; of the round, the cod ; to which the 
whiting-pollack, whiting and ling are next, tho’ in tafte and firmnefs 
inferior: the mackrel, mullet, and gurnard are well known, but for 
profit to the common-wealth of this county, the pilchard is deiciv- 
edly efteemed above all. This fifh comes from the nortn Seas in 
immenfe Shoals, and in the Summer months, about the middle oi 
July, reaches the illands of Scilly, and the Land s End of Corn- 
wall ; not driven by fifh of the cetaceous kind ( as fome have 
thought), but Shifting their Situation as the feaion prompts, and 
their food allures them ; thus by a tour to the warm foutherly 
coafts of Britain, they Strengthen and prepare themfelves and their 
young ones to return to the great northern deeps, for the fake of 
fpawning and fecuring themfelves during the ftormy feafon. The 
pilchard continues off and on in the fouth chanel, principally 10111 
Fawy harbour weftward, and is taken fonietimes in gieac numbers 
at Mevagiffy, in the creeks of Falmouth and Helford harbours, in 
the creeks of St. Kevran, and in Mount’s Bay ; fome pilchards are 
alfo taken in St. Ives Bay in the north chanel. With the taking 
this fifh by feyne-nets and drift-nets, the curing them with fait, 
preffing them, (fuming them being for many years laid ahde) and 
exporting them to foreign markets, the world is fo well acquainted , 
that I need only fuggeft in a fummary manner the advantage wnich 
this fifh is of to the county of Cornwall : It employs a great num- 
ber of men on the lea, training them thereby to naval affairs; 
employs men, women, and children, at land, in faking, preffing, 
wafhing, and cleaning, in making boats, nets, ropes, calks, and 
all the trades depending on their conftru£lion and fde ; the poor is 
fed with the offals of the captures, the land with the refufe of the 
* See Carew’s Survey, page 33, &c. 
fiffi 
z Rondeletius, part 11. chap. xrv. 
