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fishery is, proceed towards the north of Ireland, where being interrupted they make a second divi

and manured their ground with them in the ensuing season. Somewhat more than thirty years ago the Herrings came into Loch-Earn in such amazing quantities that, from the narrows to the very head, about two miles, it was quite full. So many of them were pushed on shore that the beach for four miles round the head was covered with them, from six to eighteen inches deep; and the ground under water, so far as could be seen when the tide was out, was équally so. So thick and forcible was the shoal as to carry before it every other kind of fish, even ground fish; Skate, Flounders, &c. were driven on the shore with the first of the Herrings, and perished there.

When the Fishermen on the Scotch coast have plenty of salt, Herrings sell for about six shillings a barrel, as their salt is expended the price falls to five, four, three, two and one shilling, and even to Sixpence or Eightpence per barrel; below which prices they will seldom shoot their nets, as less will not indemnify them for the trouble of catching them; but it sometimes happens that a barrel of fine fresh Herrings may be purchased for a single chew of Tobacco.

The Nets are never stretched to catch Herrings but during the night; when dark, and the surface of the water considerably ruffled by the wind, the fishermen always assure themselves of the greatest success. The Nets in the day time are supposed to frighten the fish away. The way in which they are set is by means of buoys fixed to them at proper distances; the weight of the net makes the side sink where there are no buoys, so that it hangs in a perpendicular position, like a screen, and the Herrings, when endeavouring to pass through, are entangled in its meshes, where they remain till the net is hauled in, and they are shaken or picked out. After the nets are hauled, the fish are thrown upon the ves sel's deck, and each of the Crew has a certain task assigned to him: one part is employed in opening and gutting them; another in salting; and a third in packing them in the barrels in layers of Salt. The red Herrings lie twenty-four hours in the brine; they are then taken out, strung by the head on little-wooden spits, and

sion; that to the Western side is scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic;

hung in a chimney formed to receive them: after which a fire of brush-wood, which yields much smoke but no flame, is kindled under them, and they remain there till sufficiently smoked and dried, when they are put into barrels for carriage.

Herrings die almost the moment they are taken out of the Water, and also become very soon tainted: in Summer they are sensibly worse after being taken a few hours from the Sea; and if exposed some minutes to the rays of the Sun they are perfectly useless for barrelling, as they will not take the Salt.

Of the practical part of the Herring fishery on the Coast of SCOTLAND, the following is added to what has been before mentioned, from most respectable Authority.

"When the Busses are at the fishery they are constantly searching for the Herrings from Loch to Loch; when they appear on the Coast the Busses anchor in the nearest harbours to the fishing ground, from whence they send their boats to fish. Each boat requires four men, and are in number proportionate to the Tonnage of the Buss, on board of which a man or two are left to take care of her. In a scarce fishing, each boat has two Trains of Nets, 288 yards long, and from eleven to twelve yards deep; when Herrings are plenty, half this quantity is sufficient. The Nets are set beginning with the first end to Windward, and stretching the Train right to Leeward. If in deep water, (which, until the Herrings set into the Locks, it generally is,) both Trains are tied together by the back rope and Sole or Skonke, which will stretch 576 yards in length; and in this case the boat is tied to the leeward end of the Train, and allowed to drive with the nets to the leeward, the fishermen every half hour, or oftener, trying if there are any Herrings in the Nets. This they do by warping along the back rope, and here and there raising a piece of the Netting. By this means they not only find when they are upon good fishing ground, but they see whether the Herrings swim high or low, and their Nets are raised or sunk accordingly, by shortening or lengthening the ropes that are fastened to the Buoys which sustain the nets.

"Should the night not be very dark, they fix a large buoy to

whilst the other, which passes into the Irish sea, rejoices and feeds the Inhabitants of most of the Coasts that border upon it.

the leeward end of the Train, and go with their boat to some distance from their Nets, trying as they go along if there be any Herrings in those of their neighbours. Whenever they find Herrings more numerously in other nets than in their own, they immediately return to and raise their Train; and after shaking out what Herrings there may be into their boat, they set their Train as near the place where they found the Herrings as possible.

"Thus are they employed when Herrings are scarce-traversing from place to place some nights not less than twenty miles, and setting their nets in ten or twelve different spots-in the morning they repair to their respective Busses.

"When Herrings are in plenty, they are generally in the Lochs, and in the Shallow Water: the Night toil is here at an end, by setting their nets in the Evening with a stone or small anchor to the end of their Train, and which are not hawled till the next morning. In this case they set their Train separately, and near to the Busses, on board of which they pass the night.

"The Crews of the Busses are for the most part engaged by the Month; their Wages upon an average are twenty-seven shillings per month each, besides two barrels of Herrings to each man, by way of Portage, if a full Cargo is obtained, and in that proportion for a less prosperous capture. There are not above one or two thoroughbred Seamen in each Buss, the rest, amounting to fivesixths, are green men, and who seldom continue at the fishing longer than two or three years, and then go on board Ships in the foreign Trade.

"The materials for fishing, as well as the Busses, are much better adapted than formerly. The manner of setting the nets is nearly the same, but the present practice of curing the Herrings differs in many respects from what was formerly followed, nearly double the quantity of Salt being now expended, it being found absolutely needful for the preservation of the fish, especially to the West-India market, where their character is now established.

In general, the most inhabited shores are the places where the larger animals of the deep are least fond of pursuing, and these are chosen by the Herring as an Asylum from greater dangers; thus along the coasts of Norway, to the German shores, and the northern ones of France, they are punctual in their visitations; and although such numbers perish in the descent from the North, yet, in comparison with those that survive, the amount is trifling; and it is supposed, that of those taken by Man, the proportion is not one to a Million: nor by all its Destroyers is this kind of fish visibly diminished. In this point of view the Herring's fate is similar to that of the Israelites, of whom it is observed, that not only in Egypt formerly, but in every part of the world at the present time, though crushed and oppressed to the utmost, they do but increase and multiply the more. The regularity of the Herring leaving the Shore also at a stated time, would imply

"The increase of this fishery has opened a grand nursery for Seamen, insomuch that almost all the ships in Clyde, and many in the ports of Whitehaven, Bristol, and Liverpool, receive great supplies of Seamen from this Source; and it is believed that nearly one half of the Scots Seamen employed in his Majesty's Navy have received their education in that school. These improvements, the extensive scale upon which this fishery is now carried on, and the high degree of credit to which it has arrived, circumstances of the first national importance, can only be attributed to the BOUNTIES. In pursuits of this sort they cannot be too much augmented, and can never be misapplied by a Maritime Nation; here they have been the happy means of thousands of industrious poor being employed in all the various branches of this fishery, and of transforming an indolent people, formerly unaccustomed to any sort of labour, into active, hardy, useful members of Society."

that they are not, in their visits, under the impulse of Necessity; in fact, one circumstance shews they are governed by a choice with respect to the Shores they approach, and are not blindly driven from one to another: what is meant is, their regularly visiting some Shores for several Seasons, and indeed for Ages together, and then through seeming Caprice forsaking them, never more to return. The first great bank for Herrings was along the coast of Norway; prior to the year 1584, the number of European ships that resorted thither exceeded some Thousands, the quantities of Herrings that were there assembled were such that OLAUS MAGNUS asserts, if a spear was put into the Water it would stand perpendicularly, being prevented by the Myriads of surrounding fish from falling: but ever after that period the Norway were deserted in favour of the German shores, when the Hanse-towns drove a very great trade by the capture and sale of the Herring; but for above a Century they have in a great measure forsaken them, and their largest Colonies are seen in the British Channel and upon the Irish Coasts. Nor is it easy to assign a reason for this apparently capricious desertion: were we inclined to consider this partial migration of the Herring in a Moral light, we might with awe and veneration reflect on the mighty Power which originally impressed on this useful body of his creatures the Instinct that directs the Course that blesses and enriches these Islands; which causes them at certain times to quit the vast Polar deeps, and offer themselves to our expecting fleets. That benevolent Be

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