106 
HEKRING. 
pounds in a week for a considerable time bas thus been 
paid by one individual: a circumstance of no small importance 
to those adventurous fishermen who have come thither even 
from the extreme west of Cornwall to reap this harvest of 
the sea in the north. 
It would require a yery extended notice if we were to 
enter into a minute account of the proceedings of this fishery 
at its different stations in the United Kingdom, and the methods 
of preparing the fish for the home and foreign market; but 
we the rather forbear because the whole of what might be 
advanced is to be found in Dodd’s “Essay towards a Natural 
History of the Herring,” Brabazon on the “Fisheries of 
Ireland,” and Mitchell’s work already referred to; together 
with a paper by Dr. Mac Culloch in the “Journal of the 
Royal Institution” for 1824. This fishery has also been the 
subject of much (and not very wise) legislation; but we 
content ourselves with saying that at present it is with us 
in a condition of much prosperity, since from Scotland alone 
there is exported annually, on an average, five hundred 
thousand barrels, of which each one holds four hundred and 
eighty fish; and in Galway almost thirty thousand hogsheads 
have been cured in bulk in a single year: a remarkable 
contrast to the time when, as we glean from some ancient 
documents, a portion of those which were consumed in Britain 
were imported from foreign countries. 
When we consider the never-ceasing war that is carried on 
against this race of fishes, it may be supposed that few of them 
can be so fortunate as to reach the full size of which they are 
capable. But there was an individual which chanced to obtain 
the length of about seventeen inches, while our more moderate 
sized example measured only twelve inches to the fork of the 
tail, with a depth of two inches and a half. The lower jaw 
protrudes beyond the upper: teeth minute, and a few in front 
jf the palate ; gape expansive ; mystache broad, curved, reaching 
opposite the middle of the eye; the upper jaw, with the mystache, 
lifts upwards ^ on a hinge. Nostrils nearer the snout; eye 
moderate, inclined to oval; head on the top less flat than in 
the Pilchard; gill-covers in several divisions, without diverging 
rays on the hindmost. Scales rather large, easily removed. 
Body less plump than in the Pilchard, and with much less fat 
