FISHERY. 
41(3 
they open the inner door of the parlour which leads to 
the fecond room, called the antichamber ; to drive them 
into this, they throw handfuls of fand upon them, which 
generally fcares them fufticiently to make them move for¬ 
ward ; if not, they let down a frightful figure covered 
with a fheep’s-fkin. When they are all got into the anti¬ 
chamber, they open the outer door again to admit a frefit 
company. Some tonnaros are compofed of a great many 
rooms, each of which has its particular name, as may be 
i'een in Cetti ; but the lad is always called the chamber 
■of death, and is compofed of nets and faftenings ftronger 
than the reft. When a fufiicient number of the tunnies 
are collected, they drive them through all the other 
rooms into the chamber of death, and then the fport be¬ 
gins ; which is often attended by perfons of diftinftion. 
Being armed with pikes or javelins, they proceed to im¬ 
pale thefe defencelefs animals ; and in which manner the 
largeft fifh are ufnally all killed. They are commonly 
from twelve to twenty or thirty inches in length, though 
fometimes they are found of a much greater fize. 
The tunny is to the people about the Mediterranean, 
what the herring is to the inhabitants of the north : it is 
laid that 400,000 of them quit the ocean and pafs the gut 
of Gibraltar ; what then muft be the number of them 
which fpend the winter in the Mediterranean, and enter 
by the ftraits of Conftantinople !—Within thefe twenty 
years the tunny-fiftiery is become very confiderable in 
Sardinia; as they take on an average at leaft forty-five 
thoufand of them annually, employing for that purpofe 
twelve of thofe immenfe engines we have fpoken of un¬ 
der the name of tonnaros. Porto Sens furnifhes the 
greateft quantity. 
This fifhery has had its revolutions as well as that of 
the herring. In the time of the Greeks and Romans, it 
was very confiderable at the Cape of Byzantium, as we 
learn from Ariftotle, Elian, Strabo, and Pliny. With the 
lofs of the arts and fciences, this trade declined alfo ; and 
the Spaniards, who formerly applied much to fifiteries, 
took to themfelves that of the tunny ; the coafts of 
Spain could reckon fixteen tonnaros, of which that near 
Conilo was the ntoft famous. But one day fufficed to 
deprive that kingdom of the tunny-fifhery, and to throw 
it into the hands of other nations : it was that famous but 
fatal day on which Lifbon was deftroyed. The tunny 
fpawns at the depth of about one hundred feet, and 
avoids thofe (bores where the fea has not that depth. By 
the earthquake, a large quantity of fand, See. was broken 
off from the African fhores, and driven on the coafts of 
Europe ; fo that the bottom of the Spanifli fea was con- 
fiderably raifed, at the fame time that the harbours of 
Tetuan and Salo in Barbary were cleared out and deepen¬ 
ed. Next fpring, the tunnies, in their paffage from the 
ocean into the Mediterranean, found the Spanifh coafts fo 
choked up with fand, that they kept at a confiderable 
diftance to caft their fpawn, fo that nets of an immenfe 
length indeed would have been requifite to catch them. 
At length the ftfnery fell to Sardinia and Naples ; and at 
Sardinia it is one of their chiefeft diverfions.—For the 
natural hiftory, and correct engravings, of the mackrel, 
tunny, &c. fee the article Scomber. 
Turbot Fishery. —Turbots are taken chiefly off the 
north coaft of England, as Scarborough in Yorkfhire, and 
off the Dutch coaft. Thefe fifh are moftly taken by the 
home and line ; for they lie in deep water. The method 
of taking them in weirs or flaked nets is more precarious. 
When the fifhermen go out to-fifh, each perfon is pro¬ 
vided with three lines, which are coiled on a flat oblong 
piece of ..wicker-work; the hooks being baited, and 
placed regularly in the centre of the coil. Each line is 
furnifhed with fourteen fcore of hooks, at the diftance of 
fix feet two incites from each other. The hooks are faf- 
tened 10 the lines upon fneads of twifted horfe-hair 
twenty-feven inches in length. When fifhing, there are 
always three men in eacli coble, and confequently nine of 
thefe lines are faftened together, and ufed as one line, ex¬ 
tending in length near three, miles, and furnifhed with 
2520 hooks. An anchor and a buoy are fixed at the ftrft 
end of the line, and one more of each at the end of each 
man’s lines ; in all four anchors, ufnally perforated ftones, 
and four buoys made of leather or cork. The line is 
always laid acrofs the current. The tides of flood and 
ebb continue an equal time upon pur coaft, and, when 
undifturbed by winds, run each way about (ix hours ; 
they are fo rapid, that the fifliermen can only (boot arid 
haul their lines at the turn of tide, and therefore the 
lines always remain upon the ground about fix hours; 
during which time the viyxine glutinefa of Linnaeus, or 
Gastrobranchxis in this work, will frequently pene¬ 
trate the filh that are on the hooks, and entirely devour 
them, leaving only the fkin and bones. The fame rapidity 
of tides prevents their ufing hand-lines-, and therefore 
two of the people commonly wrap themfelves in the fail, 
and deep while the other keeps a ftrieft look-out, for fear 
of being run down by fliips, and to obferve the weather : 
for ftorrns often rife fo fuddenly, that it is with extreme 
difficulty they can fometimes efcape to the (bore, leaving 
their lines behind. 
Befides the coble, the fifliermen have alfo a five-men 
boat, which is forty feet long and fifteen broad, and 
twenty-five tons burthen ; it is fo called, though navi¬ 
gated by fix men and a boy, becaufe one of the men is 
commonly hired to cook, &c. and does not (hare in the pro¬ 
fits with the other five. This boat is decked at each end, 
but open in the middle, and has two large lug-fails. All 
our able fifliermen go in thefe boats to the herring-fifliery 
at Yarmouth in the latter end of September, and return 
about the middle of November. The boats are then 
laid up till the beginning of Lent, at which time they go 
oft' in them to the edge of the Dogger, and other places, 
to fifti for turbot, cod, ling, fkate, See. They always take 
two cobles on-board ; and when they come upon their 
ground, anchor the boat, throw out the cobles, and fifti 
in the fame manner as thofe do who go from the ftiore in 
a coble; with this difference only, that here each man is 
provided with double the quantity of lines, and, inftead 
of waiting the return of the tide in the coble, return to 
their boat and bait their other lines ; thus bawling one 
fet and (hooting another every turn of tide. They com¬ 
monly run into harbour twice a-w'eek to deliver their fiffi. 
The beft bait is freffi herring cut in pieces of a proper 
fize ; the five-men boats are always furnifhed with nets 
for taking them. Next to herrings are the leffer lampreys 
which are frequently carried from Tadcafter to Scar¬ 
borough, by land, at a great expence, to be ufed as bait in 
the turbot-fifliery. The next bait inefteem is fmall had¬ 
dock cut in pieces; alfo fand-worms, and limpets; and 
when none of thefe can be had, they ufe bullock’s liver. 
The hooks are two inches and a half long in the (hank, 
and near an inch wide between the (hank and the point. 
The line is made of fmall cording, and is always tanned 
before it is ufed. Turbots are extremely delicate in their 
choice of bait ; for if a piece of herring or haddock has 
been twelve hours out of the fea, and then ufed as bait, 
they will not touch it.—For the natural hiftory, and en¬ 
gravings of different fpecies of this fifti, fee the generic 
term Pleuronectes. 
Sturgeon Fishery.' —.We muft firft refer the reader 
to our article Accipenser, vol. i. p. 56. and then pro¬ 
ceed to obferve, that the fturgeon-fiftieries on the lower 
branches of the Volga, and the inlets of the Cafpian Sea, 
alone yield, on a moderate computation, 1,760,405 roubles 
yearly. It may hence be concluded, in what incalculable 
numbers thefe large fifh, fo rich in caviare, are conti¬ 
nually propagated in the depths of the Cafpian. They 
proceed in flioals to the mouths, and a confiderable way 
up the currents of the rivers, without tlie leaft apparent 
diminution of their numbers. This fuperabundance may 
be more clearly conceived from the account of eye-wit- 
nefles, refpeifting the fifhery of Sallian in Perfia. As the 
Perfians eat no fturgeon, the before-mentioned fpeculators 
1 in 
