690 C L U 
fit out annually, from Calais, Dieppe, &c. about' 100 vef- 
fe's for this fiihery : their veffels are not fo large as tliofe 
of the Dutch ; they are only from twenty to twenty-five 
tons ; they fifli either on the Enghfh coaft, or in the 
channel. The fiihery is alfo carried on upon the coafts of 
Normandy and Picardy in autumn ; but, as the fifhermen 
of thefe parts are not in the habit of carrying provifions 
or fait out with them, they are obliged to return before 
they have a cargo 5 and often, before they can get back, 
the fogs fo favourable to that fiihery are difperfed, and 
their belt time is loft. The Swedes, who formerly pur- 
chafed their herrings of other nations, are become, within 
the iali fifty years, more attentive to the fifhing trade. In 
1745, a company was instituted in that kingdom to pro¬ 
mote the herring-fifhery; this was encouraged by the 
government, and their herrings are now much efteemed, 
especially thofe of Gottenburgh ; in 1764, twenty veffels 
laden with herrings from that place arrived at Hamburgh, 
and the filh were found to be as good as the Dutch her¬ 
rings : there were exported from that place in 1771, 
47,959 tons of herrings; in 1772, 73,330; in 1781 and 
1782, 200,000, and 20,000 or 30,000 tons of oil: they 
bring into that country by land-carriage a quantity of 
red-herrings from Sweciiffi Pomerania. The Danes lend 
the herrings they catch on the northern coafts of Jutland, 
and the }fle of Ferro, not only into Holland, but even to 
Scotland. In 1767, they effablifhed a herring company 
at Altona. From Holftein, alfo, a great quantity of dried 
herrings are fent to Hamburgh and its neighbourhood ; 
thofe called k'ider-buchl.nge are more particularly efteemed. 
In 1770, a fociety was eftabiifhed in Prufiia for this fifli- 
ery; and, in 17:6, they fent from Embden fix buffes to fifli 
on the coafts of Scotland, and they returned with thirty 
lads of herrings; fince that time the number of veffels has 
increafed every year. 
The herring-oil is a great article of trade in Sweden ; at 
firft they only prepared it from the bread: and inteftines; 
and, this oil having a great (ale, the merchants of that 
country have eftabiifhed manufactures for burning the 
oil in molt places where the herring-fifhery is carried on. 
The procefs is by means of large caldrons, four of which 
are fixed to one furnace, which is open in front, and 
leaves a leparate opening for each caldron; and the four 
openings communicate within with the large furnace; to 
fpare copper, they have found a method of ffrengthening 
thefe caldrons with hoops of pine, i'ecured by ftrorig iron 
rings. The caldrons are fo fixed, that the fire reaches 
only half the fide, and the wall goes within an ell of the 
tapper edge of the hoops, where boards are placed, on 
which Hand the workmen who ftir the matter about with 
copper (hovels. Nine or ten tons of herrings may be thus 
prepared in one caldron, which will require from feven to 
nine tons of water, which is conveyed by pumps. While 
the herrings are boiling, they are dined continually till 
quite riiffolved ; then cold water is pumped in, which 
caufes the oil to float; this is fkimmed off with copper 
ladles, and put into leathern bottles; after remaining 
fome time, and being cleared from its impurities and 
from the water, it pafles through a drainer into a large 
upright tub which has a hole within a yard of the bot¬ 
tom ; here it is alfo left fome time for the impurities to 
fink, and then drained once more, and put into oak cades 
for exportation. The oil fhould be thoroughly cleared 
from water and impurities, otherwife it will acquire a bad 
fmell in warm'weather. The herrings are commonly 
boiled five or fix hours, and it takes twoor three hours to 
cool before the oil can be extrafted. The frefher and 
fatter the herring, the thicker the oil, and the better in 
quality, and the heavier; when made of dale herrings, it 
loon (links. At the commencement of the fiihery, as the 
herrings are much fatter they produce 011 an average 
twice the quantity of oil that can be drawn from them 
towards the conclufion of it, i. e. in December, when they 
are very lean and thin. The longer the oil boils, the 
darker its colour ; and, when boiled in caldrons entirely 
«f copper, it is browner than when wood is ufed. Pine- 
P E A. 
wood and coal are the fuel employed In this operation, 
A manufactory of four caldrons employs from twenty- 
eight to thirty-two men. It is only when the fifliery is 
plentiful, and the price of herrings is low, that they 
make oil; when the fifli are dear, the procefs is not fuf- 
ficiently lucrative. This oil is ufed for lamps; but not 
for drefling of leather, on account of its fluidity. The re¬ 
mains of the herrings, after the oil is extracted, make 
excellent manure, and the lands where it is ufed pro¬ 
duce more corn and grafs than with any other manure 
whatever. Thofe farmers indeed whole lands lie near 
the coafts make life of it; but a mafs of lome hundred 
thou lands of tons, to which it annually amounts, can¬ 
not hll be ufed for this purpofe : therefore the greated 
part is thrown into the fea. Hence has arifen a queftion, 
whether this immenfe quantity of bones, feales, fins, &c. 
thus thrown back into the fea, may not in procefs of time 
hurt the herring fiihery. This queftion has been dilcuf- 
fed in the Trangrums-aClen, a work we have have had 
occafion to mention before ; and the author maintains 
the negative. We are of the fame opinion ; for the her¬ 
ring, being a rapacious fifli, we Ihould fuppofe would ra¬ 
ther be invited than difgufted by l'uch a feaft. 
2. Clupea fprattus, the fprat : the under jaw advanced 
and bending upwards, and the nineteen rays in the 
anal fin, are the marks that dillinguifh the fprat from 
other fpecies of the herring. There are eight rays in the 
membrane of the gills; fixteen in the peCtoral fin, fix in, 
the ventral, eighteen in the tail, and ieventeen in the 
dorfiil. The head is (harp, and pretty large in proportion 
to the body; the forehead is blackifh ; the coverings of 
the gills are radiated and filvery. The eyes are larg-e, 
pupil black, iris yellow mixed with white. The back is 
blueifh ; the fides filvery. This fifli, which is leldom 
more than four or five inches long, and one broad, is 
covered with large thin feales, which ealily Vub off. It 
is flattened at the fides ; and the belly is (harp and bent. 
The fins are fliort, tender, and of a grey colour. The 
tail is forked. 
This fifh. like the common herring, is not only an in¬ 
habitant of the Northern and Baltic Seas, but alfo of mod 
of the ports in the Mediterranean and Eaftern Seas. It 
haunts deep places ; and is found abundantly in au¬ 
tumn, on the thores and linooth places, where it goes to 
fpawn. They are alfo caught pretty plentifully near Re¬ 
vel, where they fait and then export them in cafks of 
about twenty pounds weight each. They come in fiich 
flioals, that at one draught of the net they catch fometimes 
forty tons. When we coniider what a number of thefe 
fifli is requifite to fill a ton ; and what quantities are 
caught in Norway, Sweden, Holftein, Holland, and Eng¬ 
land ; and confider what a fum is annually gained on the 
coafts of Brittany from this little fifli: it will feem doubt¬ 
ful whether the fprats are furpaffed in numbers even by 
the common herring. They fometimes catch quantities 
of them in Prufiia and Pomerania. This fifli, like the her¬ 
ring, is eaten either frefh, falted, or dried. Thefe fiflr 
come into the river Thames in the beginning o.f Novem¬ 
ber, and continue there till March ; a feafon when the 
the herring have long retired into the North Sea. Dur¬ 
ing the whole of the winter feaibn, they conftitute a por¬ 
tion of the food of the citizens of London. At Gravefend 
and Yarmouth, they are cured like the red herring, and. 
fometimes pickled like anchovies ; from which they dif¬ 
fer but little in their flavour. Aldrovandus firft (peaks 
of this fifh in 1613, Schonevelt in 1624, and Charleton in 
1668. Willoughby deferibed it more exaftly in 1686; 
but he calls it a young herring : it may therefore be pro¬ 
per to remark thofe charafters wherein thefe two fpecies 
differ : 1. The young herring is thicker and ftraiter than 
the fprat. 2. The number of rays in the fins is different. 
3. The fprat appears in autunm only ; the herring in 
fpring and fummer alfo. 4. The herring has fifty-fix 
vertebrae, the fprat only forty-eight; the cavity of the 
belly is much (hotter in the latter, which alfo has not 
half the number of ribs that the herring has. j. In the 
