C L U P E A. 
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lias been for many ages fo abundant on the coafts of Hol¬ 
land, beoaufe the fifh are fond of returningto thofe places 
where they have before fpawned without interruption, or 
to thole where they were born. This fifhery was for¬ 
merly much more coniiderable in Norway than it is at 
prefent. It has alfo declined much in Sweden ; and in 
Pruffia, where it uled to be confiderable, it is almoft en¬ 
tirely done away. But the interruption of the fifhery 
is not the only caufe why thofe fifh no longer appear in 
a certain country: there are always enough who efcape 
the nets fufficient to preferve the fpecies, unlefs indeed 
the fiihermen, from greedinefs, make the mefhes of their 
nets fo fmall as to fifh up the young fry with the old ones, 
as is the pradlice with the Swedifh fifhermen. This me¬ 
thod has done much hurt; and perhaps the filhery has 
failed in Pruffia from the fame reafons. The Danifh com¬ 
pany at Altona, and the PrufTian company at Embden, 
fend as many as fifty buffes each to the coaft of Scotland 
to fifh for herrings. 
Mr. Gilpin fays, that the herring of America is rather 
fmslier, lefs round, and not fo fat, as that of Europe. 
There are great numbers in that part of the world : in 
January they appear on the coafts of Georgia and Caro¬ 
lina; in February in Virgina; then in New England, 
where they fpawn in the creeks and rivers till the end of 
April, when they return to the fea; in May they are feen 
at Newfoundland ; after which they difappear till next 
year. Yet their arrival depends on the weather; for in 
warm feafons they appear fooner, which is obfervable alfo 
in frefh-water fifh. Bloch fays that Gilpin is deceived 
in fuppofing that thefe herrings make long journeys: lie 
is of opinion that they only rife from the bottom of the 
fea, and approach the fhores to call their fpawn. 
A work appeared in Sweden in 1784, entitled 'Trangums- 
aEien , treating of the importance of herring-oil as an ar¬ 
ticle of commerce. The author afierts, that from the 
year 1760 to 1764, there were made 216,150 tons of her¬ 
ring-oil, amounting in value to 2,035,350 imperial crowns, 
or 122 tons of gold. To prove the importance of this 
fifhery at Gottenburg, it appears from the fame treatife, 
that in 1781 that city exported 107,309 tons of pickled 
herrings, and fold 29,250 tons in the country; 14,540 
tons of herring-oil exported, and 535 ufed in the country. 
The herrings fpawn at different feafons, which lubjeft 
gives rife to the following oblervations : Some days, be¬ 
fore they appear in fhoals, the males are feen fcattered 
about, and more males than females appear’in the fame 
flioal. When the fifh is ready to fpawn, (he rubs her belly 
againfl the Hones, throws lierfelf from fide to fide, draws in 
the water open-mouthed, and throws it out immediately, 
and moves her fin very quick ; as they commonly come in 
large fhoals, the water is darkened with the valt quantity 
of humid feed which they fpread ; and a difagreeable odour 
may be fmelt for fome diftance 5 by rubbing themfelves 
alfo they lofe part of their fcales, which may then be feen 
floating. Thefe are indications whereby the fiihermen 
know where to fpread their nets. 
The ftromling, or fpring herring of the Baltic, fpawns 
when the ice begins to melt, and continues till the end of 
June.' Next comes the Largefl kind, or fummerherring; 
and, laftly, the autumn herring, which fpawns from Bar- 
tholomew-tide till September. Thefe fpecies do not fpawn 
all at once, but by degrees. After fpawning, they return 
in fhoals to the open fea, making a rullling noife like the 
fall of rain. The fummer herring remains farther from 
fhores, and fpawns more in the bottom of the fea; the 
nets and cordage are often covered with their fpawn as 
if barked over. It is hardly neceflary to add, that the 
fhoals of herrings preferve a certain order, as obferved in 
molt other fifh that go in fhoals: the fame may be obferved 
of birds of paffage, and even of field-mice. 
Among other deltroyers, the w'hale is a great enemy to 
the herrings; particularly that fpecies of whale called 
nord-caper ; he devours them by thoufands; he makes a 
circular motion with fuch rapidity, that he not only caufes 
a great quantity of herrings to fwim down his throat, as 
into a vail gulf, but if there are any fmall boats near, they 
feel the motion of the water: the Icelanders having caught 
one of thefe w'hales that was purfuing lome cod, and°in 
liis purfuit was left dry upon the fhore, they opened his 
ftomach, in which they found 600 live cod, belides a great 
quantity of fprats, and fome water-fowl. 
In old time, not only private lioufes depended on a 
fupply of fifh, but armies formerly could not be other- 
wile marched or fuhfilled. There is an order in Rymer, 
from Edward II. to provide three thoufand dried falmon 
for this purpofe. A convoy of falted herrings was fent 
to the army befieging Orleans in 1423, which occafioned 
the battle called “ the battle of herrings." There is like- 
wife a very lingular provilion, by an Irifli flatute of Eli¬ 
zabeth, that fwine which feed on the ft rand where the 
tide ebbs and flows are forfeited, “ as they eat the fpawn 
of falmon and herrings.” 
No fifh in the ocean is, in any proportion, fo numerous 
ns . t ^ 1 ?. herring. For many ages, not lefs than a million 
of millions are deftroyed by man ; voracious fifh, fea- 
fowl, &c. deflroy a vaft quantity ; yet their numbers feein 
not to diminifh. To give qne inftance : in the Angle pa- 
rifli of Suanoe in Norway, in one creek they took as many 
herrings at leall as 9,600,000, as appeared by the quantity 
of boats and barrels which were filled with them; for 
they could not be counted ; and as, according to Ponto- 
pidan, at lead an equal number were flifled on account 
of their being fo crowded in that little creek, we may 
reckon that the place contained at leaft nineteen mil¬ 
lions. We could give other inftances from authors lefs 
famed, perhaps, for reporting the marvellous than Pon- 
topidan, and which would confirm his recital. As the 
herring is a principal article of food in Norway, the people 
of that country call it the king of fifh. Every year fome 
hundred of fhiploads are fent from Bergen only; and, in 
1752, not a very plentiful year, there were exported from 
that place 132,156 tons from January to October, without 
reckoning thofe which were exported towards the end of 
the year. If we make a calculation of the quantities ex¬ 
ported from all the other towns, and what are confumed 
in the country as food and as a bait for other fifh, we may 
reafonably conclude, that one year with another they take 
annually in that country 396,468 tons, each ton contain¬ 
ing 1200 herrings : in all 415,739,600 fifh. 
The Dutch employ annually from a thoufand to twelve 
hundred buffes for the herring-fifhery: they commonly 
reckon twenty-five lafls to a bufs, and fome of them are 
twice filled when they have an opportunity of landing 
their cargo quickly. On the loweft calculation, we reckon 
that the Dutch do not catch lei’s than 300,000,000 annu¬ 
ally. We have fpoken before of the vail quantities taken 
in England, Scotland, and Ireland. The French fait every 
year about 60,000 tons; and, in the mouth of the Chefa- 
peak, the floods throw every feafon fuch quantities on the 
Ihore, that the putrefadlion often caufes a contagious dif- 
order. In the neighbourhood of Gottenburg in Sweden, 
not lefs than 720,000,000 of thefe fifh are annually caught. 
The herring is alfo found in Lapland. According to Yl- 
brand and Krafchenninnikovv, they mull aifo be very 
plentiful in Kamtichatka, as fometimes four tons are 
taken with one drag of the net. We mull not forget to 
reckon thofe caught in the Baltic. The inhabitants of 
Holflein, Mecklenburg, and Swedifh Pomerania, take 
great numbers every year; fome of which are falted, 
others fmoked and exported ; and vail quantities are 
confumed in Livonia and other countries bordering on 
that fea. 
The Dutch blacken their nets with frnoke, that the 
brightnefs of their colours may not icare away the fifh. 
Above, they are faftened to cafks; and the other end is 
funk to the bottom by llones faftened to them. They are 
fpread out in the evening, becaufe all fifhery is moll fuc- 
cefsful in the night. The herrings alfo, like moll other 
fid), follow the light; therefore they hang lanterns to the 
bufles 
