THE HERRING. 
THE HERRING AND ITS ALLIES. 
But why, good fisherman, 
Am I thought meat for you, that never yet 
Had angling rod cast towards me ? 
Middleton and Dekkar: Moll Cut Purse, 1611. 
Between dark hills on either side 
The salt sea-loch runs for a mile, 
And now, sun-charmed to a smile, 
Gleams bright its flowing frothing tide. 
But lo ! each wave to silver turns 
In dazzling fire the whole loch burns, 
Millions of Herring dart and splash 
Each one a living lightning flash. 
William Sharp: A Herring Shoal, 1884. 
^TpHE Herring family contributes more generously than any other group 
of aquatic animals to the support of man, and the Herring is beyond 
question the most important of food-fishes. Distributed throughout the 
whole of the North Atlantic, it affords occupation for immense fleets of 
fishing boats, and, according to Huxley, the number taken every year 
out of the North Sea and Atlantic is at least 3,000,000,000 with a weight 
of at least 1,500,000,000 pounds. According to Dambeck, the average 
yield in Norway from i860 to 1870 amounted to 1,452,000,000 pounds. 
Holdsworth placed the yield of Scotland in 1873 at 188,000,000 pounds, 
their capture requiring 15,095 boats with crews of 45,494 men. In the 
same period in the English fisheries he states that 15,321 boats were used. 
France, Ireland and Belgium have also Herring fisheries of considerable 
extent, and Germany in less degree. In 1874, according to compilations 
and estimates of Prof. Hind, 200,000,000 pounds of Herring were taken 
