C L U 
t>uflres to entice the fifh into the nets, which are fome- 
times fo full, as to contain from ten to eleven hits each. 
The herring will all'o bite at a hook; and Low fays he 
has taken many thoufands with a trout-fly. The fifher- 
men alfo try this experiment to find where the herrings 
are : they throw out a line; if they draw up a herring, 
they judge that to be a good place to fpread their nets for 
a draught. 
This nth is prepared two different ways: the one is 
called white-herrings, the other red-herrings. The firft 
method is as follows : As loon as the fifh is out of the 
fea, the gutter, as he is called, rips up the belly, takes out 
the entrails, and puts them into a brine-tub, or pick- 
ling-pan, deep enough for the herring to float; in fifteen 
or eighteen hours they are taken out, and put into a ton, 
or cafk; for the great quantity they take makes it im- 
pofiible to barrel them up properly on-board the veflel. 
But, as this preparation is not fufiicient to keep them 
from fpoiling, as foon as they get on fltore, they put them 
in layers with fait between : they commonly allow five 
pounds of Spanifh fait to a ton, with fome frelh brine. 
In Holland, at leaft as formerly governed, this was done 
under the infpeftion of the rnagiftrates; for, according 
to the laws of that country, the good and bad are not to 
be barrelled up together, and the price of each fort was 
imprefled with a hot iron on the cafk. They are alfo 
cartful to make thele barrels of oak, and to join the'Haves 
well, left the brine fliould run out and the herrings fpoil. 
By the other mode, for curing red-herrings, they let them 
remain longer in the pickle, that is, at leall twenty-four 
hours; when taken out of this liquor, they run a thin 
itick through the heads of a quantity of them, and hang 
them in a kind of chimney formed on purpofe, under 
which they make a wood-fire, fo managed as to throw 
up the molt fmoke poffible, and the leaft flame : here they 
remain till they are fufliciently dried and fmoked, which 
is commonly twenty-four hours; and then they are put 
in calks, or into ftraw. They commonly chooie for this 
preparation the fatteft herrings; and the Dutch red-her¬ 
ring is generally preferred to all others. In Sweden and 
Norway they are prepared in a different manner: they 
ufe much lefs fait, and their calks are full of holes, or 
even quite open. The Irifh dry their herrings on the 
rocks, the Greenlanders in the air. “ Thefulted or pickled 
herring, (fays Bloch,) is not hurtful to health when eaten 
in moderation; it is good for thofe who are troubled 
with phlegm, or who have loft their appetite by weaknefs 
of ftomach ; but it is very bad for ulcerated lungs, on 
account of the ftrength of the fait, or for thofe who have 
any ulcers whatever, external or internal; and particu¬ 
larly for fcorbutic habits.” The herring may be bred in 
places where i.t is not natural, as has been luccefstuily 
tried in Sweden. They may alfo be hatched from the 
fpawn or eggs, as appears from tbe Travels of Peter 
Kalnis, from which the following paflage is extracted : 
“ Dr. Franklin related to me the following circumftance : 
In that part of New' England where his father lived, two 
ftreams dilcharge themlelves into the lea, in one of which 
a large quantity of herrings were caught, but none in the 
other, though the mouths of thele ftreams were very nigh 
together. He obferved, that in the lpring the herrings 
always came up the fame ftream to fpawn. Franklin, 
who lived between the two ftreams, determined to try if 
it were poflible to make the herrings go alfo into the 
other ftream; for this purpofe, he took the nets whereon 
thefe fifh had attached their ova, or fpawn, and threw 
them into the other ftream, where they hatched. The 
experiment l'ucceeded, and herrings were every year af¬ 
terwards taken in that ftream alfo.” This confirms what 
we before remarked, that thefe fifh are fond of returning 
to the places where they were born, or where they have 
once fpawned in fafety. 
The cavity of the belly is long in the herring ; the ova¬ 
ry, See. are double. In a middling-llzed herring the ovary 
weighed feven drachms, and contained 68,656 very fmall 
white eggs ; but, as Harmer counted only 10,000 in his 
Vol. IV, No. 230. 
PEA. 
herring, it is probable that the fifh he examined was taken 
in fpawning-time, and had already excluded part of the 
eggs. The air-bladder is Angle, and pointed at both 
ends. The ftomach is a thin fkin ; the inteftinal canal 
is ftrait, fliort, and furrounded with twelve appendices. 
There are thirty-five ribs on each lide, and the vertebras 
are fifty-fix in number. 
To make this article as complete as poflible, we (hall 
add fomething more on the fubjeft of the herring-trade. 
It was carried on by the ancients. Madox relates, that, 
in 1195, the little town of Dunwich was obliged to pay- 
24,000 herrings to the crown. In the thirteenth century, 
the Zealanders already carried on a great trade in her¬ 
rings ; and, for this purpofe, in 1282, they attained, of 
the king of England, for themlelves and the Hollanders, 
a patent for liberty to fiflt on the coafts of Yarmouth ; it 
appears alfo by a grant from Eric VL king of Denmark, 
that the herring-trade was carried on in the Baltic during 
the thirteenth century: this grant, or diploma, gave to 
the people of Hamburgh a place in the ille of Schonen, 
where they might remain during the herring-fifhery, ar.d 
have (hops at the fairs. The pickling of herrings may 
likewife be traced back to the lame period ; it was cer¬ 
tainly that mode by which what we call red-herrings are 
prepared. In the fourteenth century a herring-fair wa$ 
eftablifhed at Yarmouth; and Edward III. ordained, in 
1357, that herrings Ihould be fold in that town only. The 
Hollanders, who hitherto had bought their herrings on. 
the coafts from the Scottifh fifhermen, and then fold them, 
to other nations, now found themlelves obliged to fend 
boats to fifh on thole very coafts; for, as thole fifhermen 
were forced to carry their herrings to market before they 
were falted, thefe fifh became loft and unfit to be con¬ 
veyed into other countries. According to Mazieres, the 
herring-trade was alio very confiderable about this time 
on the coaft of Norway : he fays, that more than 3000 
men were employed in thofe parts during the months of 
September and Oflober in the herring-fifhery; and this 
commerce ftill forms one of the principal branches of 
their national indultry, and brings fome tons of gold an¬ 
nually into that kingdom. The fir-wood, of which they 
make their barrels, gives the herrings a tafte not gene¬ 
rally liked, yet the Polanders efteem them highly on that 
very account. Some years ago the Danilh government 
ordered oak to be ufed for the herring-calks; but the 
fale foon diminifhed, at leaft in Poland; they no longer 
found the tafte they had fo much admired, and it was de¬ 
termined to relume the fir-cafks. With the Dutch (now 
the Batavian republic) this branch of commerce is ftill 
more confiderable; and Mr. Carlel’on calls the herring-, 
fifliery “a mine of gold for the Hollanders;” for this 
people draws more profit from that trade than Spain fiom 
her mines of gold and filver. At firft they bought their 
herrings of the Scottifh fifhermen, as we have remarked 
above; but their indultry and wife regulations .foon made 
their herrings preferable to thofe of Scotland, and even 
to the Flemish herrings, which had hitherto been fo fa¬ 
mous. Yet their commerce now is not fo extenfive as 
formerly. In 1416, the firft large net was made at Hoorn ; 
and, fmee that time, the large veflels, called bujfes, have 
been in ufe by the Dutch. In 1552, the town of Enk- 
huyfen only lent 140 veflels to the herring-fifhery; and, 
in i6ox, no lefs than fifteen hundred bufles were employ¬ 
ed by the republic of Holland for the fame fifhery : if fir 
Walter Raleigh may be credited, they lent out fome fea- 
fons 3000 veflels and 450,000 men ; this is probably ex¬ 
aggerated, or the fifliery muft have greatly declined fines 
it has .excited the jealoufy or emulation of other coun¬ 
tries; for, in 1736, there were reckoned only 219 bufles; 
even this number has fince diminifhed ; for, in 1747, the 
Dutch employed but 200 veflels, and in 1773 only 1693 
and it would probably have declined ltill more, if, in 
1775, the ftates had not offered a bounty of 500 florins 
for every herring-bufs. In fpite of this diminution, the 
herring-filhery is ftill confiderable, as they reckon that 
20,000 men now get their bread in this trade. The French 
S N fit 
