The harvest of the sea, including sketches of fisheries & fisher folk

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ALBERT R. MANN
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NEW YorK STATE COLLEGES
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AGRICULTURE AND HomME ECONOMICS

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CORNELL UNIVERSITY

THE GIFT OF
WILLARD A. KIGGINS, JR.
in memory of his father

Cornell University Libra

The harvest of the sea, including sketch

Cornell University

Library

The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003243676

NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES.

THE

HARVEST OF THE SEA

INCLUDING

SKETCHES OF FISHERIES & FISHER FOLK

ae
BY JAMES 6 BERTRAM

Potonius.—Do you know me, my lord?
Hamvet.—Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
Shakespeare.

THIRD EDITION, WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1873

Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh.

PREFACE.

—>—

THE “ HARVEST OF THE SEA” has been a great success—not
because it has sold so well that a third edition is now called
for, or that the critics and reviewers have praised it highly,
but because it has led to a continuous discussion of fishery
economy ever since the volume was issued from Albemarle
Street, and has therefore, in the best sense, fulfilled its
“mission.” All fishery subjects are now discussed with
calmness as well as increased knowledge ; and the men who,
along with myself, ventured eight years ago to direct atten-
tion to what was wrong, will never again be tabooed or
written down as visionaries or enthusiasts. Common sense
has triumphed, and much in our fishery economy that was
wrong has been made right.

The present edition of the work has been thoroughly
revised. Much of the matter contained in the previous
issues has been excised as being out of date or otherwise
unnecessary, and a considerable amount of new, and, I hope,
interesting information, gathered at home and abroad since
its first publication, is included in the following pages.
Every chapter of the book has been carefully revised, and
those chapters thought to be too long have been divided,
especially in cases where the natural and economic history
of particular fishes admitted of that being done. Recent
official statistics of the Scotch and Irish fisheries are included
in this edition, and a new chapter on Aquariums and Fish-
ery Exhibitions has been interpolated, as well as new stories
of fisher life.

I have told over again in the following pages the story
of the herring-fishery—its blunders and mistakes ; and have
shown how our salmon-fisheries have gradually improved by

vi PREFACE,

means of the wise legislation lately entered upon, and pre-
figured in the first edition of this book. The year just
closing has been an extraordinary one, both as regards the
capture of salmon and herring; but, despite of the present
abundance of these fish, we must not run away with the
idea that such plenty will occur year by year as a matter of
course. Some persons may be satisfied with the herring
harvest of the present year, and it is undoubtedly large, but
I would ask regarding it this question—“Is the take of
these fish commensurate to the machinery employed in their
capture?” The large increase of salmon in the present
year [1873] we can understand ; it is, as I have said, the
fruit of wise legislation, and it is gratifying to think that
it is likely to continue. The same cannot, however, be
predicted of the herring, but we are entitled to ask what
there is to prevent our taking as many herrings every year as
we have caught during the season which has just expired.
In a matter of such vital importance to a country as the
gathering of its herring harvest, which not only contributes
largely to the food resources of the nation, but affords as
well a large outlet for capital, and the employment of the
population, we cannot afford to make a mistake. If there
are more herrings for us to capture than we have hitherto
been in the habit of taking, let us by all means capture
them, but if, on the other hand, we are over-fishing, let it be
known. We dare not by mal-economy lay waste an industry
so productive as the herring-fishery of Scotland.

It is fortunate that we can obtain reliable statistics of
the herring-fishery. To give us these statistics, and to watch
over the curing of the fish, is the business. of the Scottish
Fishery Board, which a few of our radical Members of
Parliament would abolish, if they could. It is to be hoped
they will never be able to do so: that Board ought not to
be abolished ; on the contrary, its life ought to be prolonged
and its jurisdiction extended ; it is one of the most valuable
Boards that the modern mania for centralisation has left to
Scotland. It is greatly to be regretted that the Fishery
Board cannot take cognisance and collect statistics of all
the fisheries of Scotland. We cannot obtain sufficient

PREFACE, Vil

information with regard to the annual progress of our had-
dock and cod fisheries, and in the face of the repeated
assertions which are annually published as to over-fishing,
it is only by collecting accurate statistics of the annual catch
that we can determine the truth of what is said. It is
quite certain that we have a problem set before us, by the
correct solution of which we shall find out whether our
fisheries are progressing, standing still, or declining. It is
not by means of one year’s great fishing that we can settle
whether or no we have broken upon our capital stock, or
are living on its produce.

We ought then, as suggested above, to have consecutive
well-planned statistics, systematically gathered every season
noting the size of vessels and the extent of their fishing
gear, and these might be taken at all the chief ports. In
the course of a few years, were this done, we would possess
a complete index to the state of our fisheries, and should
then be able to know, with exactitude, whether our
fish supplies were capable of indefinite extension or not.
As regards all fish about which we can obtain statistics, it
can at once be seen that man ?s able to affect the supplies.
The salmon-fisheries in’ particular, gave us a wonderful note
of alarm, but the salmon being a proprietary fish of great
value, owners of fisheries were quick to scent the danger,
and prompt to obtain the necessary remedies; and now,
so well is the economy of our salmon rivers understood,
that the lower proprietors have actually begun to consider the
rights of, and to conciliate, the upper proprietors! What is
a salmon-river without those tributary streams which afford
a safe home to the fish at that period of its life when it is
most in need of it; and whether the venue be laid in Scotland
or England, it is absolutely necessary that the salmon sh ould
have breeding-ground.

We have still much to learn with regard to fishery
economy, although it is not easy to devise better modes of
fishing than those which now prevail. If we cast our nets
into the water, we must accept the fish they capture, whether
they be good for food or quite unfit for use. If we use
trawl nets we must endure the consequences, and when we

viil PREFACE.

cast our lines into the deep sea we cannot dictate to the cod
or haddocks as to their inclination to bite; in such circum-
stances we can take only those fish that offer. But we say
all the living fish which are improperly taken, from being too
small or in a spawning condition, ought to be again restored
to their watery home, and left to be captured at some future
date. And what is of still greater importance, in Britain
we ought to have a code of logically conceived fishery laws,
with proper officers to administer them. Jn England, at
present one department of government superintends the
oyster-fisheries, another rules over the herrings, and a third
takes charge of the salmon! In Scotland we have one
Board of Fisheries, and in Ireland there is another! but
one Board of Fisheries ought to be sufficient; and the
sooner we have a Fisheries Reform Bill, the better it will be
for those interested in the fishing industries of Great Britain
and Ireland.

805 St, Vincent STREET, GLAsGow,
October 31, 1878..

LIST OF AUTHORITIES.

—+—.

Havine been frequently asked by correspondents for a list of
the chief authorities on fish, I beg to subjoin the titles of a few
of the works I have had occasion to consult while preparing this
volume :—

A Review of the Domestic Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, by
Robert Fraser, Esq. Edinburgh, 1818.

A Short Narrative of the Proceedings of the Society appointed to manage
the British White Herring Fishery, etc., by Thos. Cole. London,
1750.

A Treatise on Food and Diet, by Jonathan Pereira, M.D., etc., 1843.
London : Longman and Co.

A Treatise on the Management of Fresh-Water Fish, by Gottlieb Boccius,
1841, London: Van Voorst.

An Account of the Fish-Pool, etc., by Sir Richard Steell. London, 1718,

An Account of Three New Specimens of British Fishes, by Richard
Parnell, 1837. Royal Society, Edinburgh.

An Essay towards the Natural: History of the Herring, by James Solas
Dodd, Surgeon. London, 1752.

Angler’s and Tourist’s Guide, by Andrew Young, Invershin, 1857. A.
and ©. Black, Edinburgh.

British Fish and Fisheries. Religious Tract Society,

Ceylon, Notes on, by James Steuart, Esq. of, Colpetty. Printed for
Private Circulation, 1862.

Couch’s Fishes of the British Islands, 1865. Groombridge.

Directions for Taking and Curing Herrings; and for Curing Cod, Ling,
Tusk, and Hake, by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart. Edinburgh,
1846.

Elements de Pisciculture, par M. Isidore L’Amy. Paris, 1855.

Evidence of the Royal Commission on the operation of the Acts relating to
Trawling for Herring on the Coasts of Scotland. Presented to both
Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty. 1863.

Experimental Observations on the Development and Growth of Salmon Fry,
etc., by John Shaw, 1840. Edinburgh: A. and C. Black.

Fish and Fishing in the Lone Glens of Scotland, by Dr. Knox, 1854.
Routledge and Co.

Fish-Hatching, by Frank T. Buckland, 1868. Tinsley Brothers.

Fisheries, The, considered as a National Resource, etc., 1856. Milliken,
Dublin,

CONTENTS.

—_>—

CHAPTER I.

FISH LIFE AND GROWTH.
PAGE

- Classification of Fish—Their Form and Colour—Mode and Means of
Life—Curiously-shaped Fish—Senses of Smell and Hearing in
Fish—Fish nearly Insensible to Pain—The Fecundity of Fish—
Sexual Instinct of Fish—-External Impregnation of the Ova—
Ripening of a Salmon Egg—Birth of a Herring—The Rich versus the
Poor Man’s Fish—Curious Stories about the Growth of the Eel—
All that is known about the Mackerel—Whitebait—Mysterious
Fish : the Vendace and the Powan—-Where are the Haddocks ?—
The Food of Fish—Fish as a rule not Migratory—The Growth of
Fish Shoals—When Fish are good for Food—The ae Power
of Nature . : . . 7 F ‘ 1

CHAPTER IL
FISH COMMERCE.

Early Fish Commerce—Sale of Fresh-water Fish—Cured Fish—Influ-
ence of Rapid Transit on the Fisheries—Fish-ponds—The Logan
Pond—aAncient Fishing Industries—The Dutch Herring Fishing
—Zuyder Zee Herring Fishery—The Fishers of Friesland—The
Herring in Holland—The Dutch Cure—Dutch Salmon—Salmon
Fishing in Holland—Law of the Fishing - S . 7 28

CHAPTER III.
ITALIAN, SCOTTISH, AND FRENCH FISHERIES,

Comacchio—The Art of breeding Hels—A well-designed Eel Farm—
Profits of Hel-breeding in the 16th century—Progress of Fishing
in Scotland—A Scottish Bus— Newfoundland Fisheries — The
Greenland Whale Fishing—Specialty of different Fishing Towns—
The General Sea Fisheries of France—French Fish Commerce—
French Sea Fisheries—The Basin of Arcachon—French Sardine
Fishery —Sardine Curing— Want of Statistics of the British

Fisheries . °. < - i . . f 45

xiv . CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV.

FISH CULTURE.
PAGE

Antiquity of Pisciculture—Italian Fish-Culture—Sergius Orata—Re-
discovery of the Art—Shaw versus Gehin and Remy—Jacobi—
Shaw of Drumlanrig—The Ettrick Shepherd—Scientific and Com-
mercial Pisciculture—A Trip to, Huningue—Bale and its Fish-
market—Huningue described—The Water Supply—Modus Oper-
andi at Huningue—Packing Fish-Bggs—An important Question—
| Artificial Spawning—Danube Salmon—Plan of a Suite of Ponds—
M. de Galbert’s Establishment—Practical Nature of Pisciculture
—Turtle-Culture—Best Kinds of Fish to rear—Pisciculture in
Germany—Stormontfield Salmon-Breeding Ponds—Design for a
Suite of Salmon-Ponds—Statisties of Skerashayeeld Reelin

tion of Fish—The Australian Experiment . .

CHAPTER V.
ANGLERS’ FISHES.

Fresh- Water Fish not of much value—The Angler and his Equipment
—Pleasures of the Country in May—Anglers’ Fishes—Trout,
Pike, Perch, and Carp—Gipsy Anglers—Angling Localities—Gold '
Fish—The River Scenery of England—The Thames—Thames
Anglers—Sea Angling—Various Kinds of Sea-Fish—Proper Kinds
of Bait—The Tackle Aaa Island of aise a
Goatfell, etc. ‘ i a 93

CHAPTER VI.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON.

The Salmon our best-known Fish—Controversies and Anomalies—

- Food of .Salmon—The Parr Controversy — Experiments by
Shaw, Young, and Hogg—Grilse : its Rate of Growth—Do Salmon
make Two Voyages to the Sea in oe Year ?—The Best es of
Marking Young Salmon iy. So Beas Edy 124

CHAPTER VIL.
THE ECONOMY OF A SALMON RIVER.

The Salmon as an article of Commerce—Fecundity of the Fish—Mr,
Stoddart’s Calculations—Dangers of Overfishing—Growth of our
Salmon-Fisheries—The Golden Age of the Fisheries—Grilse-
Killing—The River Tay : Statistics of its Produce—The aneree
Salmon-Fisheries—Upper and Lower Proprietors . 141

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING.

Overfishing of the Herring—The Old Theory of Migration—Geographi-
cal Distribution of the Herring—Mr. John Cleghorn’s Ideas of the
Natural History of the Herring—Mr. Mitchell on the National
Importance of that Fish—Commission of Inquiry into the Herring
Fishery—Growth of the Herring—The i onieaoas there be a
Close-time *—Caprice of the Herring . ,

CHAPTER IX.
THE HERRING FISHERY.

The Herring Fisheries—The Lochfyne Fishery—The Pilchard—Herring
.Commerce—Mr. Methuen—The Brand—The Herring Harvest—
A Night at the Fishing—The Cure—The Curers—Herring Boats
—Increase of Neming—Are we Overfishing ’—Proposal for more
Statistics - F . : ‘ ‘5 A é

CHAPTER X.
OUR WHITE-FISH FISHERIES.

Difficulty of obtaining Statistics of our White- ‘Fish Fisheries—Ignor-
ance of the Natural History of the White Fish—“ Finnan Haddies ”
—The Gadide Family : the Cod, Whiting, etc.—The Turbot and
other Flat Fish—When Fish are in Season—How the White-Fish
Fisheries are carried on—The Cod and Haddock Fishery—Line-
Fishing—The Scottish Fishing Boats—Loss of Boats on the
Scottish Coasts—Storms in Scotland—Trawl-Net Fishing —De-
scription of a Trawler—Evidence on the Trawl Question .

CHAPTER XL
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OYSTER.

Description of the Oyster— Controversies about Oyster-Life — Do
Oysters live upside down?—The Spawning of Oysters—Oyster-
Growth—When do Oysters become reproductive for Dredging ?—
Sergius Orata—Lake Fusaro—-Oyster-Fascines—Ile de Re, and
Growth of the Park System—Economy of the Parks—Greening the
Oyster—Oyster-Growth—Spat Collectors—Miscellaneous Facts

xv

PAGE

162

178

201

2381

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII,

ECONOMY OF AN OYSTER-FARM.
PAGE

English Oyster-Farms—Whitstable—Pont Oyster-Grounds—Price of
Brood—“ Natives ’”’— Colne Oyster-Beds—Cost of Working the
Beéeds—Increase of the Oyster—Demand for the Bivalve—Collect-
ing for the Beds— Newhaven Oyster-Beds — The ‘‘ Whisker’d
Pandore”’—Song of the Dredger—Oysters in America . . 254

CHAPTER XIII.
OUR SHELL-FISH FISHERIES.

Productive Power of Shell-Fish—Varieties of the Crustacean Family
—Study of the Minor Shell-Fishes—Demand for Shell-Fish—
Lobsters—A Lobster Store-Pond destribed—Natural History of
the Lobster and other Crustacea—March of the Land-Crabs—
Prawns and Shrimps, how they are peonent and cured—A Mussel-
Farm—How to grow bait . . . 265

CHAPTER XIV.

FOREIGN FISHERY EXHIBITIONS AND HOME AQUARIUMS,

Amsterdam Fishery Exhibition—The Variety of Exhibits at a Fishery
Exhibition—The Dutch Cure—EXhibition at Arcachon—The
higher aspects of a Fishery Exhibition—Questions for Solution—
The great question, How to Capture !—Mr. Buckland’s Museum of
Economic Fish Culture—The Brighton and Crystal Palace Aquaria
and the Lessons which may be derived from them . é - 288

CHAPTER XV.

THE FISHER-FOLK,

The Fisher-People the same everywhere—Growth of a Fishing Village
—Marrying and giving in Marriage—Newhaven, near Edinburgh
—Newhaven Fishwives—A Fishwife’s mode of doing Business—
Superstitions—Dunbar—Buckhaven—Scene of the Antiquary:
Auchmithie—Smoking Haddoeks—The Round of Fisher Life—
Fittie and its quaint Inhabitants . - . 299

CHAPTER XVI.
STORIES OF FISHER LIFE,

Signs and Tokens—A French Fishwoman—The Fishwives of Paris-—
The Story of a Prestonpans Widow—Psalm John of Whelkholes—
Jean Cowie’s Story—Fisher Names—Dramatic ne area of
a Storm—‘“ The Last Scene of Al” . ‘ $ » 820

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Lge
NEWHAVEN FisHWIvEs " ‘i 4 . Frontispiece.
Eees oF THE SALMON KIND JUST HATCHING . , Pace 8
SALMON A DAY OR TWO OLD . é i 2 ‘ 9
WHITEBAIT GROUND NEAR QUEENSFERRY : Fi 16
Home oF THE VENDACE 5 « : 23
FisH Ponps j ‘ : ; ‘ i 7 31
Packine Herrines (Dutch) . F p ‘ : 33
ComaccHio “ 7 . , ‘ 4 47
BILLINGSGATE . ‘ a ‘ ‘ P 59
FISHMARKET AT BALE . ‘ ; ‘ ‘ , 68
GROUND-PLAN OF HUNINGUE . “ ‘ , ‘ 69
HuNINGUE ‘ - F i ‘ : ‘ 70
HALL oF IncusBaTion (Huningue) : ‘ 71
Basins For Youne Fish (Huningue) . ‘ : 72
Gutters ror Harcuine (Huningue) . . A 73
ARTIFICIAL SPAWNING . ‘ > . i é 74
PIscICULTURAL ESTABLISHMENT AT BuISSE . és - 76
OnIGINAL BREEDING-PonD AT STORMONTFIELD i * 82
PROFILE OF STORMONTFIELD Ponps ‘ % i 83
Dersign FoR SALMON-BREEDING Ponps 3 e ‘ 84
PIscICULTURAL APPARATUS . ; Z . e 90
ANGLERS’ FisHrs i Fe 2 A ‘ 99
JACK IN HIS ELEMENT . . é 3 F ; 102
THameis ANGLERS.—FRoM AN OLD PicTURE . : ‘ 109
Corry Harsour r é ‘ 3 . ‘ 120
PARR ONE YEAROLD . é ‘ ‘i ‘ 128
SmoLT TWO YEARS OLD ‘ 3 ‘ i 7 133

FIsHES OF THE SALMON FAMILY F ‘ 140
SALMON-WATCHER’s TOWER ON THE RHINE. ‘ 143

XVili LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

SrakE-NETs ON THE River SOLWAY .
Satmon-FisHine STATION AT WOODHAVEN ON Tae
MEMBERS OF THE HERRING FAMILY .
View or Locurynr :

View or 4 Curine Yarp ss . 3
DIAGRAM OF THE HERRING FisHING
Ture Gapipa FaMILy . .

THE PLEURONECTID[ FAMILY .

Lake Fosaro

OvysTER-PYRAMID

OysTER-FASCINES

OysTER-PARKS .

OysTER-CLAIRES

OvystER-TILES

OystER-DREDGING AT eechien
MusskEL-STAKES

A MossEL-Farm é

Tue FisHine Frog

SItvRIs GLANIS

PEARL SHELLS (Scottish)

NEWHAVEN FIsHWIVES

A Frenca Fishwoman

PAGE
147
149
176
181
187
200
204
211
240
241
242
245
246
251
261
283
286
290
295
297
303
321

CHAPTER IL

eee nee
FISH LIFE AND GROWTH.

Classification of Fish—Their Form and Colour—Mode and Means of Life
—Curiously-shaped Fish—Senses of Smell and Hearing in Fish—Fish
nearly Insensible to Pain—The Fecundity of Fish—Sexual Instinct of
Fish—External Impregnation of the Ova—Ripening of a Salmon Egg
—Birth of a Herring—The Rich versus the Poor Man’s Fish—Curious
Stories about the Growth of the Hel—All that is known about the
Mackerel—Whitebait—Mysterious Fish : the Vendace and the Powan
—Where are the Haddocks ?—The Food of Fish—Fish as a rule not
Migratory—The Growth of Fish Shoals—When Fish are good for
Food—The Balancing Power of Nature.

Fisa form the fourth class of vertebrate animals, and, as a
general rule, live in water; although in Ceylon and India
species are found that live in the earth, or, at any rate, that
exist in mud, not to speak of others said to occupy the trees of
those countries! The classification of fishes given by Cuvier is
usually adopted. He has divided these animals into those with
true bones, and those having a cartilaginous structure; the former,
again, being divided into acanthopterous and malcopterous fish.
Other naturalists have adopted more elaborate classifications ;
but Cuvier’s being the simplest has a strong claim to be con-
sidered the best, and is the one generally used.

A fish breathes by means of its gills, and progresses chiefly
by means of its tail. This animal is admirably adapted for pro-
gressing through the water, as may be seen from its form, and
fish are exceedingly beautiful, both as regards shape and colour.
There are comparatively few persons, however, who have an
opportunity of seeing them at the moment of their greatest
brilliancy, which is just when they are brought out of the
water. I allude more particularly to some of our sea fish—as
the herring, mackerel, etc. The power of a fish to take on the

B

2 COLOURS OF FISH.

colour of its hiding-place may be mentioned ; various kinds, when
in the water, as may be observed at the Brighton and Orystal
Palace Aquariums, are not to be distinguished from the vegetable
matter in which they take shelter. It is almost impossible to
paint a fish so as accurately to transmit to canvas its exquisite
shape and glowing colours, because the moment it is taken
from its own element its form alters and its delicate hues
fade: and in different localities fish have, like the chameleon,
different hues, so that the artist must have a quick eye and
a responding hand to catch the fleeting tints of the animal.
Nothing, for instance, can reveal more beautiful masses of
colour than the hauling in of a drift of herring-nets. As
breadth after breadth emerges from the water the magnificent
ensemble of the fish flashes ever-changing upon the eye—a
wondrous gleaming mixture of blue and gold, silver and purple,
blended into one great burning glow, and lighted to brilliant
life by the soft rays of the newly-risen sun. But, alas for the
painter! unless he can instantaneously fix the burnished mass
on his canvas, the light of its colour will fade, and its harmon-
ious beauty become dim, long before the boat can reach the
harbour. The brightly-coloured fish of the tropics are gorgeous,
as the plumage of tropical birds; but as regards flavour and
food power, they cannot for a moment be compared with that
beautiful fish—the common herring, or pilchard, of our British
waters,

If the breathing apparatus of a fish were to become dry the
animal would at once suffocate. When in the water a fish has
very little weight to support, as its specific gravity is about the
same as that of the element in which it lives, and the bodies of
these animals are so flexible as to aid them in their movements,
while the various fins assist either in balancing the body or in
aiding progress. The motion of a fish is excessively rapid ; it can
dash through the water with lightning-like velocity. Many of
our sea fish are curiously shaped, such as the hammer-headed
shark, the globe-fish, the monk-fish, the angel-fish, etc, ; then
we have the curious forms of the rays, the flounders, and of
some other “fancy fish ;” but all kinds are admirably adapted
to their mode of life and the place where they live—as, for in-
stance, in a cave where light has never penetrated fish have
been found without eyes! Fresh-water fish do not vary much
in shape, most of them being very elegant. Fish are cold-
blooded, and nearly insensible to pain, their blood being only

SENSES OF FISH, 3

two degrees warmer than the element in which they live, It
is worthy of note that fish have small brains compared to the
size of their bodies—considerably smaller in proportion than in
the case of birds or mammalia, but the nerves communicating
with the brain are as large in fish, proportionately, as in birds
or mammalia. The senses of sight and hearing are thought
to be well developed in fish, likewise those of smell and taste,
particularly smell, which chiefly guides them in their search for
food. Fish, I think, have a very keen scent; thus it is that
strong-smelling baits are successful in fishing, The French
people, for instance, when fishing for sprats and sardines, bait
the ground with prepared cod-roe, which adds largely to the
expense of that branch of fishing in the Bay of Biscay. As an
evidence of fish having a strong sense of smell, salmon-roe used
to be a deadly trout-bait. Some naturalists assert that fish do
not hear well, which is contrary to my own experience ; for after
tepeated trials of their sense of hearing, I found them as quick
in that faculty as in seeing; and have we not all read of pet
fish summoned to dinner by means of a bell, and of trouts
and cod-fish that have been whistled to their food like dogs?
Water is an excellent conducter of sound: it conveys noise of
any kind to a great distance, and nearly as quick as air.
Benjamin Franklin often experimented on water as a conductor,
and arrived at the conclusion that its powers in this way are
wonderful, Most kinds of fish are voracious feeders, preying
upon each other without ceremony ; and the greatest difficulties
of anglers are experienced after fish have had a good feed,
when the practised artist, with seductive bait, cannot induce
them even to nibble. Many fish have a digestion so rapid
as to be comparable only to the action of fire, and on good feed-
ing-prounds the growth of fish corresponds to their power of
eating. In the sea there exists an admirable field for observing
the cannibal propensities of fish, where shoals of one species have
apparently no other object in life than to chase other kinds
with a view to eat them.

To compensate for the waste of life incidental to their
place of birth and their ratio of growth, nature has en-
dowed this class of animals with enormous reproductive power.
Fish yield their eggs by thousands or millions, according to the
danger incurred in the progress of their growth. There is no-
thing in the animal world that can in this respect be compared to
them, except perhaps a queen bee, with fifty thousand young

4 FECUNDITY OF FISH.

each season ; or the white ant, which produces eggs at the rate
of fifty per minute, and goes on laying for a period of unknown
duration ; not to speak of that terrible domestic bugbear which
no one likes to name, but which is popularly supposed to become
a great-grandfather in twenty-four hours! The little aphides
of the garden may also be noted for their vast fecundity, as may
likewise the common house-fly. During a year one green aphis
may produce one hundred thousand millions of young ; and the
house-fly lays twenty millions of eggs in a season! But al-
though there may be thirty thousand eggs in a herring, the
reader must bear in mind that if these. be not vivified by the
milt of the male fish, they rot in the sea, and never become of
food value, except perhaps to some minor monster of the deep.:
Millions of the eggs that are emitted by the cod or the herring
never come to life—many of them from lack of fructifying
power, others being devoured by enemies, Then, again, of
those eggs that are ripened, it is ascertained from careful in-
quiry, that fully ninety per cent of the young fish perish before
they are six months old. Were only half the eggs to come to
life, and but one moiety of the young fish to live, the sea
would so abound with animal life that it would be impossible
for a boat to move in its waters. But we can never hope to
realise such a sight ; and when it is considered that a single
shoal of herrings consists of many millions of individual fish,
and takes up a space in the sea far more than that occupied by
the city of London, and yet gives no impediment to navigation,
my readers will see the magnitude of our fish supplies ; but, by
the destruction of fish life from natural causes, the breeding
stock is kept down to an amount that may not be far from the
point of extermination.

The figures of fish fecundity are quite reliable, and are not
dependent on guessing, because different persons have taken the
trouble, the writer among others, to count the eggs in the roes
of some of our fish, that they might ascertain exactly their
amount of breeding power. It is well known that the female
salmon yields eggs at the rate of about one thousand for each
pound weight, and some fresh-water fish are even more prolific ;
sea fish, again, far excelling these in reproductive power. The
sturgeon, for instance, is wonderfully fecund, as much as two
hundred pounds weight of roe having been taken from one
fish, yielding a total of 7,000,000 of eggs. I possess the
results of several investigations into fish fecundity, which were:™

wd:

ANNUAL INCREASE OF THE HERRING. 5

conducted with attention to details, and without any desire
to exaggerate: these give the following results :—Cod-fish,
3,400,000 ; flounder, 1,250,000 ; sole, 1,000,000; mackerel,
500,000 ;. herring, 35,000, and smelt, 36,000.

Any person who wishes to manipulate these figures may try
by way of experiment a few calculations with herring. The
produce of a single herring is, say, thirty-six thousand eggs, but
we may—the deduction being a most reasonable one—allow that
half of these never come to life, which reduces the quantity to
eighteen thousand, Allowing that the young fish are able to
repeat the story of their birth in three years, we may safely
calculate that the breeding stock by various accidents will be
reduced to nine thousand individuals ; and granting half of these
to be females, or let us say, for the sake of rounding the figures,
that four thousand of them yield roe, we shall find by multiply-
ing that quantity by thirty-six thousand (the number of eggs in
a female herring) that we obtain one hundred and forty-four
thillions as the produce in three years of a single pair of herrings ;
and although half of these might be taken for food as soon as
they were large enough, there would still be left an immense
breeding stock even after all casualties had been given effect to ;
so that the devastations committed on the shoals while capturing
for. food uses must be enormous, if, as is asserted, they affect
the reproductiveness of these useful animals, Of course this is
but guesswork. Practical people do not think that, taking all
times and seasons into account, five per cent of the roe of our
herrings come to life.

It is known even to tyros in the study of natural history,
as well as anglers and others interested, that the impregnation
of fish-eggs is a purely external act; but at one time this
was not believed, and a portion of the experiments at the Stor-
montfield salmon-breeding ponds was dedicated to a solution of
this question, with what result may be guessed. The old theory,
that it is contrary both to fact and reason that fish can differ
from land animals in the matter of the fructification of their
eggs, was signally defeated, and the question conclusively settled
at the ponds in a very simple way—namely, by placing in the
breeding-boxes a quantity of salmon eggs which not having: been
brought into contact with milt, rotted away. Curious ideas used
to prevail on this branch of natural history. Herodotus observes

‘of the fish of the Nile, that at the spawning season they move

in vast multitudes towards the sea; the males lead the way,

6 DO FISH. LIVE A SEPARATE LIFE?

and emit the engendering principle in their passage ; this the
females absorb as they follow, and in consequence conceive, and
when their ova are deposited they are then matured into fry !
Linnaeus backed up this idea, and asserted that there could be
no impregnation of the eggs of any animal out of the body.
It is this wonderfully exceptional principle in fish life that
gave rise to pisciculture—#.e, the artificial impregnation of the.
eggs of fish forcibly exuded and brought into contact with the
milt, independent altogether of the will or instinct of the animal.
The principle which brings male and female together at the
spawning period is unknown, It is supposed by some naturalists
that fish do not gather in shoals till they perform the grandest
action of their nature, and that till such period each animal
lives a separate life. If we set down the sense of smell as the
power which attracts the fish sexes, we shall be nearly correct :
cold-blooded animals cannot have any more powerful instinct.
A very clever Spanish writer on pisciculture hints that the fish
have no amatory feeling for each other at that period, thus
forming a curious exception to most other animals, and that it
is the smell of the roe in the female which attracts the male,
This idea—viz. as to the shoaling of fish at the period of
spawning only—has been thrown out in regard to the herring
by parties who do not admit even a partial migration from
deep to shallow water, which, however, is an idea stoutly held
by some writers on the herring. ‘It is rather interesting, how-
ever, in connection with this phase of fish life, to note that
particular shoals of herrings deposit their spawn at particular
places, that the eggs come simultaneously to life, and that it is
certain that the young fish remain together for a considerable
period—a few months at least—after being hatched. This is
well known from large bodies of young herrings being caught
during the sprat season: these could not, of course, have
assembled to spawn; too young, and without milt or roe,
This, if these fish separate, gives rise to the question—At
what period do the herrings begin their individual wander-
ings? Sprats, of course, may have come together, at the period
when they are so largely captured, for the purpose of perpetu-
ating their kind ; but, if so, they must live long together before
they acquire milt or roe, And how is it that we so often find
young herrings in sprat shoals? Then, again, how comeg it
that fishermen do not frequently fall in with the separate her-
rings during the white-fishing seasons? How is it that fisher-

DESCRIPTION OF A SALMON EGG. t

men find particular kinds of fish always on particular ground ?
How is it that eels migrate in immense bodies? My opinion
is, that particular kinds of fish do hold always together, or,
at all events, gather at particular seasons into greater or
lesser bodies. Life among the inhabitants of the sea is, doubt-
less, quite as diversified as life on land, where we observe that
many kinds of animals colonise—ants, bees, etc, Are, therefore,
the old stories about each kind of fish having a king so abso-
lutely incredible after all? That there are schools of fish is cer-
tain ; how the great bodies may be divided or governed, none can
tell.

It is noteworthy that fish-eggs afford us an admirable oppor-
tunity of studying a peculiarly interesting stage of animal life—
namely, the embryo stage—which, naturally enough, is obscure
in all animals. Having observed the eges of salmon in all
stages of progress, from the period of their first contact with the
milt till the bursting of the egg and the coming forth of the
tiny fish, I venture briefiy to describe what I have seen, because
salmon eggs are of a convenient size for continued examination.
The roe of this fine fish is, I daresay, pretty familiar to most
of my readers, The microscope reveals the eggs of salmon as
being more oval than round, although they appear quite round
to the naked eye. A yolk seems to float in the dim mass,
and the skin or shell appears full of minute holes, while
there is an appearance of a kind of funnel opening from the
outside and apparently closed at the inner end. The milt is
found to swarm with a species of very small creatures with big
heads and long tails, apparently of very low organisation. On
the contact of this fiuid with the egg, into which it enters by
the canal, an immediate change takes place—the ovum becomes
illuminated by some curious power, and the egg appears a great
deal brighter and clearer than before. It is surely wonderful
that, by the mere touching of the egg with this wonder-working
sperm, so great a change should take place—a change indicating
that the grand process of reproduction characteristic of all living
nature has begun, and will go on with increasing strength to
maturity,

Salmon-spawn is so accessible, comparatively speaking, as
to render it easy to trace the development from the egg of the
complete animal, As may be supposed, however, the transmu-
tation of a salmon egg into a fish is a tedious process, taking
above a hundred days. The eggs of the female, under the

8 FROM EGG TO FISH.

natural system of spawning, are laid in the secluded and shallow
tributary of some choice stream, in a trough of gravel ploughed
up by the fish with great labour, and are there left to be wooed
into life by the eternal murmuring of the water. From Novem-
ber till March, through the storms and floods of winter, the ova
lie hid among the gravel, slowly but surely quickening into life ;
and few persons would guess, from a mere casual glance at the
tributary of a great salmon stream, that it held among its
bubbling waters such countless treasures of future fish. Prac-
tised persons will find a burrow of salmon eggs with great pre-
cision ; and a little bit of water may contain perhaps a million
eggs waiting to be summoned into life, During the first
three weeks from the milting of the egg, scarcely any change is
discernible in its condition, except that about the end of that.
period it contains a brilliant spot, which gradually increases in

EGGS OF THE SALMON KIND JUST HATCHING.

brilliancy till certain threads of blood faintly prefigure the
young fish. After another day or two the bright spot assumes
a ring-like form, having a clear space in the centre, and the
blood-threads then become more and more apparent. These
blood-like tracings are ultimately seen to take an animal shape ;
but it would be difficult at first to say what the animal may
turn out to be—whether a tadpole or a salmon. After this stage
of development is reached, two bright black specks are seen—
these are the eyes of the fish. We can now, from day to day,
note the animal gradually assuming a more perfect shape ; we can
see it change palpably almost from hour to hour. After the egg
has been laved by the water for a hundred days, we can observe

PERIOD OF HATCHING. 9

that the young fish is then thoroughly alive, and, to use a com-
mon expression, kicking. We can see it moving, and can study
its anatomy, which, although as yet very rudimentary, contains
all the elements of the perfect fish, Heat expedites the birth
of the animal, The eggs of a minnow have been sensibly ad-
vanced towards maturity by being held on the palm of the hand.
Salmon eggs deposited early in the season, when the temperature
is high, come sooner to life than those spawned in mid-winter :
indeed a difference of as much as fifty days has been noticed be-
tween those deposited in September and those spawned in De-
cember, the one requiring ninety, the other one hundred and
forty days to ripen into life. Salmon have been brought to life
in sixty. days at Huningue; but the quickest hatching ever ac-
complished at the Stormontfield breeding-ponds was when the
fish came to life in one hundred and twenty days. The preced-
ing drawing shows the eggs at about their natural size, as also
the growth of the fish in its early stages.

At the salmon-ponds of Stormontfield the eggs laid down
the first season were hatched in one hundred and twenty-eight
days. The usual time for the hatching of salmon eggs in our
northern rivers is one hundred and thirty days, or between four

SALMON A DAY OR TWO OLD.

and five months, according to the openness or severity of the
season. When at last the infant animal bursts from its fragile
prison, it is a clumsy, unbalanced, tiny thing, having attached
to it the remains of the parental egg, which hamper its move-
ments; but, after all, the remains of its little prison are exceed-
ingly useful, as for about thirty days the young salmon cannot
obtain other nourishment than what is afforded by this umbili-
cal bag.

We have never yet been able to obtain a sight of the ripen-
ing eggs of any of our sea fish at a time when they would prove

10 THE RICH versus THE POOR MAN'S FISH.

useful to us, No one, so far as I know, has seen the young
herring burst from its shell under such advantageous circum-
stances as we can view the salmon ova; but I have seen
bottled-up spawn of that fish just after it had ripened into life,
the infant animal being remarkably like a fragment of cotton
thread that had fallen into the water: it moved about with
great agility, but required the aid of a microscope to make out
that it was a thing endowed with life. Who could suppose,
while examining those wavy floating threads, that in a few
months afterwards they would be grown into beautiful fish,
with a mechanism of bones to bind their flesh together, scales
to protect their body, and fins to guide them in the water?
But young herring cannot be long bottled up for observation,
or be kept in an artificial atmosphere; for in that condition
they die almost before there is time to see them live; and
when in the sea ‘there are no means of tracing them, because
they are speedily lost in an immensity of water. Perhaps now
that we have large aquariums at Brighton and the Crystal
Palace, we shall be able to trace the progress of the fish with
more exactitude.

There are points of contrast between the salmon and the
herring which are worthy of notice. They form the St. Giles’
and St. James’ of the fish world, the one being a portion of
the rich man’s food, the other filling the poor man’s dish.
The salmon is hedged round by protecting Acts of Parliament,
but the herring gets leave to grow just as it swims, parliamen-
tary statutes not being thought necessary for its protection.
The salmon is born in a fine nursery, and wakened into life by
the music of beautiful streams: nurses and night-watchers,
hover about its cradle and guide its infant ways ; the herring,
however, like the brat of some wandering pauper, is dropped in
the great ocean workhouse, and cradled amid the hoarse roar of
ravening waters, whether it lives or dies being a matter of no
moment, and no person’s business, Herring mortality in its infan-
tile stages is appalling, and even in its old age, at a time when
the rich man’s fish is protected from the greed of its enemies,
the herring is doomed to suffer the most. And then, to finish
up with the same appropriateness as they have lived, the venison
of the waters is daintily Jaid out on a slab of marble, while the
vulgar but beautiful herring is handled by a dirty costermonger.
who drags it about in a filthy cart drawn by a wretched donkey.
At the hour of reproduction the salmon is guarded with

THE QUESTION OF FISH GROWTH. 11

jealous care from the hand of man, but at the same season
the herring is offered up a wholesale sacrifice to the destroyer.
It is only at its period of spawning that the herring is fished.
How comes it to pass that what is a high crime and misde-
meanour in the one instance is a government-rewarded merit in
the other? To kill a gravid salmon is as nearly as possible
felony ; but to kill a herring as it rests on the spawning-bed is
an act at once meritorious and profitable !

Having given my readers a general idea of the fecundity
of fish, and the method of fructifying the eggs, and of the de-
velopment of these into fish—for, of course, the process will °
‘be nearly the same with all kinds of fish eggs, the only dif-
ference perhaps being that the eggs of some varieties will
take a longer time to hatch than those of others—I will now
consider the question of fish growth.

All fish are not oviparous. There is a well-known blenny
which is viviparous, the young of which at the time of their
birth are so perfect as to be able to swim about with great ease ;
and this fish is also very productive. Our skate fishes are all
viviparous. “ The young are enclosed in a horny capsule of an
oblong square shape, with a filament at each corner. It is nour-
ished by means of an umbilical bag till the due period of exclu-
sion arrives, when it enters upon an independent existence.” I
could name a few other fish which are viviparous. In the fish-
room of the British Museum may be seen one of these. It is
known as Ditrema argentea, and is plentifully found in South
America, But information on this portion of the natural his-
tory of fish is still very obscure. Many facts of fish bio-
graphy have yet to be ascertained, which, if we knew, would
probably conduce to stricter economy of fish life and better
regulation of the fisheries. Beyond a knowledge of gene-
ralities, the kingdom of the sea is a sealed book. No person
can tell, for example, how long a time elapses from the birth of
any particular fish till it is brought to table. Sea fish grow up
unheeded—quite, in a sense, out of the bounds of observation.
Naturalists can only guess at what rate a cod-fish grows. The
life of a herring, in its most important phase, is still a mystery ;
and at what age mackerel or other fish becomes reproductive,
who can say? The salmon is the one fish that has hitherto
been compelled to render up to those inquiring the secret of
its birth and the ratio of its growth. We have imprisoned this
valuable fish in artificial ponds, and by robbing it of its eggs

12 PROPOSAL TO NOTE GROWTH OF SEA FISH.

have noted when the young ones were born and how they grew,
why then not devise a means of observing sea fish at the expense
of the nation? What naturalists chiefly and greatly need in
respect of sea fish is, precise information as to their rate of
growth. We have a personal knowledge of the fact of sea.
fish selecting our shores as a spawning-ground, but we do.
not, precisely know in some instances the exact time of spawn-
ing, how long the spawn takes to quicken into life, or at.
what rate the fish increase in growth. The eel may be taken
as an example of our ignorance of fish life. Do professed
naturalists know anything about it beyond its migratory
habits —habits which, from sheer ignorance, have at one period
or another been“ assumed as pertaining to all kinds of fish.
The tendency to the romantic, specially exhibited in the amount
of travelling power bestowed by the elder naturalists on this
class of animals, would seem to be very difficult to put down.
An old story about the eel was gravely revived a few years ago,
having the larger portion of a little book devoted to its eluci-
dation—a story seriously informing us that the silver eel
is the product of a black beetle! But no one need wonder at
a new story about the eel, far less at the revival of this old
one ; for the eel is a fish that has at all times experienced the
greatest difficulty in obtaining recognition as being anything at
all in the animal world, or as having respectable parentage of
even the humblest kind. In fact, the study of the natural
history of the eel has been hampered by old-world romances and
quaint fancies about its birth, or, in its case, may I not say
invention? “The eel is born of the mud,” said one old author.
“Tt grows out of hairs,” said another, “It is the creation of
the dews of evening,” exclaimed a third. “ Nonsense,” emphati-
cally uttered a fourth controversialist, “itis produced by means
of electricity.” “You are all wrong,” asserted a fifth, “the eel
is generated from turf;” and a sixth theorist, determined to
outdo all others, and come nearer the mark than any of his
predecessors, assured the public that young eels are grown from
particles scraped off old ones! The beetle theorist tells us
that the silver eel is a neuter, having neither milt nor roe,
and is. therefore quite incapable of perpetuating its kind;
that, in short, it is a romance of nature, being one of the pro-
ductions of some wondrous lepidopterous animals seen by Mr.
Cairncross (the author of the work alluded to) about the place
where he lived in Forfarshire, its other production being of its

THE EEL, 13

own kind, a black beetle! The story of. the rapid growth and
transformatian of the salmon is—as will by and by be seen—
wonderful enough in its way, but it is certainly far surpassed by
the extraordinary silver eel, which is at one and the same time
a fish and an insect.

There can be no doubt that the eel is a curious animal even
without the extra attributes bestowed upon it by this very
original naturalist, for that fish is in many respects the opposite
of the salmon : it is spawned in the sea, and almost immediately
after coming to life proceeds to live in brackish or entirely fresh
water. It is another of the curious features of fish life that
about the period when eels are on their way to the sea, where
they find a suitable spawning-ground, salmon are on their way
from the sea to the river-heads to fulfil the grand instinct of
their nature—namely, reproduction. The periodical migrations
of the eel, on which has been founded the great fishing industry
of Comacchio, on the Adriatic, can be observed in all parts of
the globe: they take place, according to climate, at different
periods from February to May; the fish frequenting such canals
or rivers as have communication with the sea. The myriads
of young eels which ascend are almost beyond belief; they are
in numbers sufficient for the population of all the waters of
the globe—that is, if there were reservoirs in which they might
be preserved for food as required. The eel, indeed, is quite
as prolific as the generality of sea fish, Eels have been noted
to pass up a river from the sea at the extraordinary rate of
eighteen hundred per minute! This montee used to be called
eel-fair.

It would be interesting, and profitable as well, to learn as
much of any one of our sea-fish as we know of the salmon, and
as considerable progress is now being made in observing the
natural history of fish, we expect in time to know much more
than we do at present; everything in the fish world is not
taken for granted as formerly, although we are still inclined
rather to revive old traditions than to study or search out new
facts. Naturalists are so ignorant of how the work of growth
is carried on in the fish world—in fact, it is so difficult to in-
vestigate points of natural history in the depths of the sea—
that we cannot wonder at less being known about marine
animals than about any other class of living things. The ex-
periments carried on at the Brighton Aquarium may ultimately
help us to more precise information, In that institution there

14 MACKEREL GROWTH.

is scope and verge enough for real practical work to be carried
on. It is the want of precise information about the growth of
fish that tells so heavily against our fisheries, for all is fish that
comes to the fisherman’s net, no matter what size the animals
may be, or whether they have been allowed to perpetuate their
kind. No person, either naturalist or fisherman, knows how
long a period elapses from the date of its birth till a turbot or
cod-fish becomes reproductive. It is now well known, in conse-
quence of repeated experiments, that salmon grow with immense
rapidity, a consequence in some degree of quick digestive power,
The cod-fish, again, reasoning from the analogy of its greatly
slower power of digesting its food and from other corroborative
circumstances, must be correspondingly slow in growth; but
people must not, in consequence of this slower power of diges-
tion, believe all they hear about the miscellaneous articles often
said to be found in stomachs of cod-fish, as a large number of
the curiosities found in the intestinal regions of his codship are
placed there by fishermen, as a joke, or to increase the weight,
and so enhance the price of the animal.

As regards the natural history of one of our best-known
food fishes, I have taken the pains to compile a brief precis of
its life from the best account of it that is known. I allude to
the mackerel ; and from a perusal of the following facts it will
be seen that our knowledge of the growth of this fish is very
defective. 1. Mackerel, geographically speaking, are distributed
over a wide expanse of water, embracing the whole of the Euro-
pean coasts, as well as the coasts of North America, and this
fish may be caught as far southward as the Canary Islands.
2. The mackerel is a wandering unsteady fish, supposed to be
migratory, but individuals are always found in the British seas.
3. This fish appears off the British coasts in quantity early in
the year ; that is, in January and February. 4. The male kind
are supposed to be more numerous than the female. 5, The
early appearance of this fish is not dependent on the weather,
6. The mackerel, like the herring, was at one time supposed to
be a native of foreign seas, 7. This fish is laden with spawn in
May, and it has been known to deposit its eggs upon our shores
in the following month. Now, we have no account here of how
long it is ere the spawn of the mackerel quickens into life, or
at what age that fish becomes reproductive, although in these
two points is unquestionably obtained the key-note to the
natural history of all fishes, whether they be salmon or sprats.

WHITEBAIT. 15

In fact we have no precise information whatever as to power
of growth. We have at best only a few guesses and general
deductions, and we would like to know as regards all fish
~—Ist, When they spawn; 2d, How long it is ere the spawn
quickens into life; and 3d, At what period fish are able to
repeat the story of their birth. These points once known—and
they are most essential to the proper understanding of the
economy of our fisheries—the chief remaining. questions con-
nected with fishing industry would be of comparatively easy
solution, and admit of our regulating the power of capture to
the natural conditions of supply. ;

As another example of long continued ignorance of fish life,
I may instance that diminutive member of the herring family—
the whitebait. This fish, which is so much better known gastro-
nomically than it is scientifically, was thought at one time to be
found only in the Thames, but it is much more generally
diffused than is supposed, It is found for certain, and in great
plenty, in three rivers—viz, the Thames, the Forth, and the
Hamble. I have also seen it taken out of the Humber, not far
from Hull, and have heard of its being caught near the mouth
of the Deveron, on the Moray Firth ; and likewise of its being
found in plentiful quantities off the Isle of Wight. Mr. Stewart,
the natural history draughtsman, tells me also that he has seen
it taken in bushels on many parts of the Clyde, and that at
certain seasons, while engaged in taking coal-fish, he has found
them so stuffed with whitebait that by holding the large fish
by the tail the little silvery whitebait have fallen out in hand-
fuls. The whitebait has become celebrated from the mode in
which it is cooked, and the excuse it affords to Londoners for
an afternoon’s excursion, as also from its forming a famous dish
at the annual fish-dinner of her Majesty’s ministers ; but truth
compels me to state that there is nothing in whitebait beyond
its susceptibility of taking on flavour from the skilled cook.

The whitebait, however, if I cannot honestly praise it as a
table fish, is particularly interesting as an object of natural
history, there having been from time to time, as in the case of
most other fish, some very learned disputes as to where it comes
from, how it grows, and whether oy not it be a distinct member
of the herring family or the young of some other fish. The
whitebait—which, although found in rivers, is strictly speaking
a sea fish—is a tiny animal, varying in length, when taken for
cooking purposes, from two to four inches, and has never been.

16 ° WHITEBAIT IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH.

seen of greater length than five inches. In appearance it is
pale and silvery, with a greenish back, and should be cooked
immediately after being caught ; indeed if, like Lord Lovat’s
salmon, whitebait could leap from the water into the frying-pan,
it would be a decided advantage to those dining upon it, for if

Re Ny’ _
ue NY Naa
: pes

ASR me

———

WHITEBAIT GROUND NEAR QUEENSFERRY.

kept even for a few hours it becomes greatly deteriorated, and,
in consequence, requires careful cooking to bring the flavour
up to the proper pitch of gastronomic excellence. Perhaps,
as all fish are chameleon-like in reflecting not only the colour of
their abode, but what they feed on as well, the supposed fine
flavour of whitebait, so far as not conferred upon. that fish
by the cook, may arise from matters held in solution in the
Thames water, and so the result from the corrupt source of
supply may be a quicker than ordinary decay. The waters of
the Forth at the whitebait ground, a little way above Inch-
garvie, of which I have given a slight sketch, where the sprat-
fishing is usually carried on, are clean and clear, and the fish
taken there are in consequence slightly different in colour, and

WHITEBAIT. 17

greatly so in taste, from those obtained in the Thames ; in fact,
all kinds of fish, including salmon, live and thrive in the Firth
of Forth. It is long since the refined salmon forsook the
Thames, but then salmon are very delicate in their eating, and
at once take on the surrounding flavour, whatever that may be.

Returning, however, to our whitebait, we have over and
over again been assured by various authorities that that fish is
the young of the shad; and a whole regiment of the young fish
was shown by Mr. Larkin, a Cheapside fishmonger, in order to
prove the case, All sizes were marshalled in order, from the
tiniest specimen to the comparatively monster parent of the
progeny—-the great shad itself. The verdict must, however,
in the meantime be the Scotch one of “not proven.” It is not
very well known who first promulgated the theory of whitebait
being the young of the shad; but Donovan, the author of a
History of British Fishes, is at least responsible for spreading the
error. What must, however, surprise all who take the trouble
to study the controversy i is this fact, that if whitebait be young
shad, their parents are very seldom seen. There is no shad-
fishery in the Thames, or near the Thames, at present; yet
millions of these so- called young shad are annually devoured by
visitors to Greenwich, Blackwall, and Richmond, not to speak
of the number eaten in the great metropolis, If the progeny,
then, are plentiful, how come the parents to be scarce? is
the idea immediately presenting itself to the mind when re-
quested to believe whitebait to be young shad. Fishes of all
kinds, and especially the herring kind, are very prolific; but
even if the female shad yields its ova in thousands, the dangers
the young ones encounter considerably diminish the number
that come to life. Thousands of pairs of shads would therefore
be required to produce the quantities of so-called whitebait
which are annually brought to table during the summer season,
Shad were at one time very abundant in the Thames; and
this fact would no doubt be a good argument in the mouths
of those who were of opinion that whitebait grew in time into.
shat fish. If, however, we reject the shad as the parent of
ihe whitebait, and conclude that fish to be a distinct species,
we shall undoubtedly want to know a great deal more about
4 than that bare fact. First of all, we must know where the
oarent fish can be found ; secondly, if they be good for food ;
and thirdly, at what season and in what markets they are sold:
seems so strange that we should be. addicted to eating the

Cc

18 SHAD.

fry of a fish we never see! Besides, may we not reasonably
enough conclude that if the fry be so very fine, the full-grown
fish will be even more palatable? It is curious that while there
are thousands of whitebait in the Firth of Forth, and equally
curious that they are caught chiefly on the sprat-ground there,
no Edinburgh fishmonger, nor any of the Scottish fishermen,
ever saw specimens of these fish with milt or roe in them. Nor
did any of these persons ever see a whitebait bigger than the
usual size, that is, ranging in length from one to about three
inches, After they attain that size they become either sprats
or herrings.

If what some naturalists have published in regard to its
habits be true, the shad must be a very interesting fish. It has
been hinted that it ascends from the sea to deposit its spawn in
the rivers, being something like the salmon in that respect. In
this phase of its life it is the opposite of the eel, which lives in
fresh but spawns in salt water. What salmon do, shad can
doubtless also accomplish, although it will go a long way to dis-
prove what has been said by naturalists, if the shad should be
proved not to be the parent of the whitebait, or rather, if it can
be proved that whitebait are the young of some other fish.
In the days when the herring was thought to be an animal of
migratory habits, rushing continually from our own firths and
bays to the icy polar seas, some of the giants of the tribe were
poetically described as swimming in the van of the mighty heer,
acting as the guides and leaders of the smaller fish. These
giants were Thwaite shads ; but as it is now well known that
the herring is local in its habits, and not migratory in the sense
of taking long journeys, the shad must therefore be deposed
from that leadership ; nor can it be even allowed the merit of
being a tolerable table-fish, it is a coarse, insipid fish, and alto-
gether destitute of the delightful flavour of the common herring.

What is whitebait if it be not the young of the shad? Is
it, then, a distinct species? It would be easy enough to befool
the public with an absurd answer as to what whitebait is,
because no writer, not the ubiquitous Buckland himself, can.
successfully contradict another on almost any point of fish-
growth, When we see the transformation of the tadpole into
a frog, and the zoea into a crab, we need not be surprised at its
having been once prophesied that the whitebait turned a bleak,
or the assertion that it undoubtedly grows into a herring (clupea
hargenus) ; and if pressed for our reasons, we have a better

WHITEBAIT NOT YOUNG SHAD. 19

answer to give than the young Scotch ploughman, who, being
asked how he knew that God had made him, replied, after some
little deliberation, that, ‘it was the common talk of the country,”
In many places where whitebait are captured, fishermen believe
them to be young herring —“ herrinsile” they are called on the
river Clyde ; and this idea has been ventilated by the author in
the popular periodicals of the day—it is an idea too that has
long been common among our fishmongers. That whitebait are
young herring, or sprats in an infantile stage, can be easily proved
—on paper at least ; and if our Government had a fish laboratory,
such as the French have at Concarneau, the fact might very
speedily be ocularly demonstrated. It is left, we suppose, for either
the Brighton or Crystal Palace Aquarium to determine what fish
the whitebait ultimately becomes, herring or sprat. There
has been a great amount of controversy as to the natural history
of the herring during late years, and so many curious facts
have been educed, that no one need be surprised to learn that
whitebait are truly the young of that fish, This may seem ex-
traordinary ; but without being. dogmatic, it may be permitted
us to say that the points of resemblance between herring and
whitebait are wonderfully numerous and convincing, as well in
the outward appearance as-the anatomical structure of the
two fishes, At all events the young of the shad and the true
whitebait (at some places, such is the demand, that all sorts of
fry are “manufactured” into the latter fish, there being so
many who do not know one from the other) are very different
in many essential points as in the formula of the fin-rays and
the number of the vertebra, “Of course a young animal will
change greatly in appearance during growth. The whitebait,
for instance, in common with the sprat, has a serrated belly ;
but if it be the young of the herring, it must grow out of that
serration. It is elsewhere argued that, in the case of the sprat,
the bones protruding from the abdomen are ultimately covered
by the growth of the animal, and so gradually disappear.
Assuming “ whitebait” to be young herring, we are entitled
to ask at what date the fish of that name, sold in London in
June and July, were spawned. The herrings at Wick, for
example, are taken full of spawn up till the end of the great
fishery in August; at what time, then, .if whitebait be young
herring, would those we can now eat at Blackwall be spawaed ?
This, of course, involves a surmise as to the rate of growth of
the herring itself, upon which question there has from first to

20 SPECULATIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS,

last been much speculation, many very dissimilar ideas having
been propounded as to the period at which the “poor man’s
fish” arrives at the reproductive stage. As we know that
there are different races of herrings coming to maturity at
different times, there ought to be no difficulty on this point,
as the waters must constantly contain fish of all ages, and it
appears certain that the whitebait of May and June cannot
be older than the year; it seems pretty certain, also, that
the sprat-sized herrings which begin to come to market early
in November are a little over a year old; they were pro-
bably released from their tiny shells early in the August or
late in the July of the previous year. It is admitted by at
least one competent naturalist, that fry of the sprat may be
seen in multitudes in July and August, when they are of the
length of two inches. We know, also, that young herrings and
young sprats are captured indiscriminately in the Firth of Forth
in the same shoals, of the same size, and presumably of the
same age. In ashoal of young herrings the sizes of the fish are
exceedingly varied, ranging from three to six inches in length,
and of corresponding girth ; some serrated, some not; some
weighing a quarter of an ounce, some nearly an ounce. Were
these fish all born at once? Howabout the serrations? Again,
a jar of whitebait from the Thames, received by the writer for
examination, contained specimens of all sizes ; some little more
than an inch long, while some were two or three inches. How
old would these be? and were some of them serrated and others
not? The bellies being all decayed, that point could not be
determined in any of the specimens received. February and
March are the great months forthe spring races of herring to
spawn ; so that the specimens of whitebait just alluded to (there
were other fishes besides the young of the herring and the sprat)
would be about three months old ; and by November they would
in all probability be grown to the average size of sprats. Young
herrings of the Moray Firth, spawned in August, can sometimes
be seen inshore about November, looking exactly like whitebait. °
The blanquette of Normandy and Brittany did not look when
examined—if it was it that was placed before us—to be any
other fish than our sprat in an early stage of its life. It
is curious that whitebait exhibit many of the characteristics
of the sprat, and particularly the strongly serrated abdomen,
That peculiar mark is held by some naturalists as good proof
that sprats never become herrings of any kind ; if so, the same

PENNANT’S OPINION. 21

argument must likewise hold good against the whitebait being
the young of the herring ; yet it is remarkable that the number
of vertebre of both fishes, ¢.¢. the common herring and a portion
of the whitebait, are the same, namely, fifty-six, as are also the
formule of the various fin-rays. But little weight need be laid
on this latter point; few writers give the same figures about the
fin-rays ; and as there are different kinds of herrings, and dif-
ferent races of each kind, it is probable that there will be
differences in the number of fin-rays. What is harder to under-
stand is the fact that the vertebre differ also; these run from
forty-seven in the sprat to fifty-six in the common herring, different
numbers having been found in the same race of herring. But whilst
it may be admitted, for the sake of argument, that the smaller
number might increase—i.¢, that sprats with forty-eight vertebrae
might grow into herring with fifty-six vertebree—it is quite clear
that whitebait with fifty-six vertebrae will never grow into sprats
with forty-eight vertebre! The more the case of the whitebait
is studied, the more difficult it becomes to arrive at a satisfactory
conclusion, The earliest writer on whitebait that we know is
Pennant ; but when he wrote the whitebait was not a fashion-
able fish, It was eaten then only by .“ common people”—
“the lower order of epicures”—-and the authorities, thinking
that whitebait were the young or fry of some large fish, “ pro-
claimed” that it should not be taken.. Pennant at one time
held the whitebait to be the young of the bleak, and Dr.
Shaw followed suit in his General Zoology; while Donovan
held “that same” to be the young of the shad. Donovan,
blundering himself, “pitches into” Pennant for his errors,
maintaining that the industrious zoologist had never seen the
real whitebait. This latter idea is worth following up. Might
not our savans, now that the mysterious dish has taken its place
on the rich man’s table, summon a congress to sit upon it?
Were a general fishery congress to be held, it would be well
that specimens of the whitebait of different rivers should be ex-
hibited and reported upon; for the fish known as whitebait at
Blackwall may not be the fish known as whitebait at Queens-
ferry. In the case of the parr controversy, it was found that
there were parrs of many different members of the salmon
family, which, as a matter of course, greatly enhanced the diffi-
culty of solution, as well as setting the experimenters by the
ears, The whitebait mystery is one of those mysteries which
many a dabbler in natural history will hold himself able to

22 THE VENDACE.

solve ; and yet those attempting to solve the problem may be
all working on different fishes. Any man who may know even
a little about fish, will have seen that the so-called dish of
whitebait, served at a fashionable tavern, is a varied mass of
minnows, young bleak, infantile sprats, and the fry of other
well-known fish. So much for this tavern celebrity !

Besides whitebait there are other mysterious fish—especially
in Scotland—which are well worthy of being alluded to. An
idea prevails in Scotland that the vendace of Lochmaben and
the powan of Lochlomond are really herrings forced into fresh
water, and slightly altered by the circumstances of a new dwell-
ing-place, change of food, and other causes. One learned
person lately ascribed the presence of sea fish in fresh water
to a great wave which had at one time passed over the
country. But no doubt the real cause is that these peculiar fish
were brought to those lakes ages ago by monks or other persons
who were adepts in piscicultural art.

A brief summary of the chief points in the habits of these
mysterious fish may interest the reader. The “vendiss,” as
it is locally called, occurs nowhere but in the waters at Loch-
maben, in Dumfriesshire; and it is thought by the general
run of the country people to be, like the powan of Lochlomond,
a fresh-water herring. The history of this fish is quite
unknown, but it is thought to have been introduced into the
Castle Loch of Lochmaben in the early monkish times, when
it was essential, for the proper observance of church fasts, to
have an ample supply of fish for fast-day fare. It is curious
as regards the vendace that they float about in shoals, that they
make the same kind of poppling noise as the herring, and that
they cannot be easily taken by any kind of bait. At certain
seasons of the year the people assemble for the purpose of
holding a vendace feast, and at one time large quantities of the
fish were caught by means of a sweep net; but of late years the
vendace has been scarce ; only six were taken this year (1873).
The fish is said to have been found in other waters besides
those of Lochmaben, but I have never been able to see a
specimen anywhere else. There are a great number of tradi-
tions afloat about the vendace, and a story of its having been
introduced to the lake by Mary Queen of Scots. The’ country
people take a pride in showing their fish to strangers, The
principal information I can give about the vendace, without
becoming technical, is, that it is a beautiful and very symmetri-

LOCHMABEN. 23

cal fish, about seven or eight inches long, not at all unlike a
herring, only not so brilliant in colour; and that the females
of the vendace seem to be about a third more numerous than
the males—a characteristic which is also observed in the sal-
mon family. The vendace spawn about the beginning of

LOCHMABEN.
The home of the Vendace.

winter, and for this purpose gather, like the herring, into
shoals. They are very productive, and the young do not take
long to grow to maturity.

The specialties of the Lochleven trout may be chiefly
ascribed to a peculiar feeding-ground. Feeding I believe to be
everything, whether the subjects operated on be cattle, capons,
or carps. The land-locked bays of Scotland afford richer
flavoured fish than the wider expanses of water, where the
finny tribe, it may be, are much more numerous, but have not
the same quantity or variety of food, and, as a consequence,
the fish obtained in such places are comparatively poor. both in
size and flavour. Nothing can be more certain than that a
given expanse of water will feed only a certain number of fish ;
if there be more than the feeding-ground will support they will

24 LOCHLEVEN TROUT.

be small in size, and if the fish again be very large it may be
taken for granted that. the water could easily support a few
more. It is well known, for instance, that the superiority of |
the herrings caught in the inland sea-lochs of Scotland is owing .
to the fish finding there a better feeding-ground than in the :
large and exposed open bays. Look, for instance, at Lochfyne :
the land runs down to the water’s edge, and the surface water
or drainage carries with it rich food to fatten the loch, and put’
flesh on the herring ; and what fish is finer, I would ask, than
a Lochfyne herring? Again, in the bay of Wick, which is the ,
scene of the largest herring fishery in the world, the fish have |
no land food, being shut out from such a luxury by a vast sea |
wall of everlasting rock ; and the consequence is, that the Wick |
herrings are not so rich in flavour as those taken in the sea-lochs .
of the west of Scotland. In the same way I account for the
fine flavour and beautiful colour of the trout of Lochleven. |
This fish has been acclimatised with more or less success in |
other waters, but when transplanted it deteriorates in flavour, |
and gradually loses its beautiful colour—another proof that
much depends on the feeding-ground ; indeed, the fact of the
trout having deteriorated in quality as a consequence of the .
abridgment of their feeding-range, is on this point quite conclu- |
sive. I feel certain, however, that there must be more than
one kind of these Lochleven trouts ; there is, at any rate, one
curious fact in their life worth noting, and that is, that they
are often in prime condition for table use when other trouts are
spawning.

The powan, another of the mysterious fish of Scotland, is
also considered.to be a fresh-water herring, and thought to be
confined exclusively to Lochlomond, where they are taken in
great quantities. It is supposed by persons versed in the sub-
ject that it is possible to acclimatise sea fish in fresh water,
and that the vendace and powan, changed by the circum-
stances in which they have been placed, are, or were, un-
doubtedly herrings. The fish in Lochlomond also gather into
shoals, and on looking at a few of them one is irresistibly forced
to the conclusion, that in size and shape they are remarkably
like common herring. The powan of Lochlomond and the
pollan of Loch Neagh are not the same fish, but both belong
to the Coregoni: the powan is long and slender, while the
pollan is an altogether stouter fish, although well shaped and
beautifully proportioned.

WHERE ARE THE HADDOCKS ? 25

I could analyse the natural history of many other. fish,
but the result in all cases is nearly the same, and ends in a
repeated expression that what we require as regards all fish
is the date of their period of reproduction ; all other informa-
tion, without this great fact, is comparatively unimportant. It
is difficult, however, to obtain any reliable information on the
natural history of fish either by way of inquiry or by means
of experiments. Naturalists cannot live in the water, and
those who live on it, and have opportunities for observation,
have not the necessary ability to record, or at any rate to gene-
ralise what they see. No two fishermen, for instance, will
agree on any one point regarding the animals of the deep. I
have examined many intelligent fishermen during the last ten
-years, and few of them have any real knowledge regarding the
habits of the fish which it is their business to capture. As an
instance of fishermen’s knowledge, one of that body recently
repeated to me the old story of the migration of the herring,
holding that the herring comes from Iceland to Great Britain in
order to spawn, and that the sprat goes to the same icy region
that it may fulfil the same instinct !

“Where are the haddocks?” I once asked a fisherman.
“They are about all eaten up, sir,” was his very innocent
reply ; and this in a sense is true. The shore races of that
‘fish have long disappeared, and our fishermen have now to seek
this most palatable inhabitant of the sea in deeper water. Vast
numbers of the haddock used to be taken in the Firth of Forth,
but during late years they have become very scarce, and the
boats now require to go a night’s voyage to seek for them. If
we knew the minutie of the life of this fish we should be better
able to regulate the season for its capture, and the percentage
that we might with safety take from the water without deteri-
rating the breeding power of the animal. There are some
touches of romance even about the haddock, but I need not
further allude to these in this division of my book, as I shall
have to refer to this fish under the head of the “ White Fish
Fisheries,” The haddock, like all fish, is wonderfully prolific,
and is looked upon by fishermen as being also a migratory fish,
as are also turbot and many other sea animals.

The family to which the haddock belongs embraces many of
our best food fish, as whiting, cod, ling, etc.; but of the growth
and habits of the members of this family we are as ignorant as
we are of the natural history of the whitebait or sprat. I have

26 FOOD OF FISH.

the authority of a rather learned Buckie fisherman for stat-
ing that cod-fish do not grow at a greater rate than from eight
to twelve ounces per annum. This fisherman had seen a cod
that had got enclosed by some accident in a large rock pool,
and so had obtained for a few weeks the advantage of studying
its powers of digestion, which he found to be particularly slow,
although there was abundant food. The haddock, which is a
far more active fish, my informant considered grew more rapidly.
On asking this man about the food of fishes, he said he was
of opinion that they preyed extensively upon each other, but.
that, so far as his opportunities of observation went, they did
not as a matter of course live upon each other’s spawn; in
other words, he did not think that the enormous quantities.
of roe and milt given to fish were provided, as has been asserted.
by one or two writers on the subject, for any other purpose
than keeping up the species. The spawn of sea-animals is
extensively wasted by other means; and fish have no doubt a.
thousand ways of obtaining food that are unknown to man;
indeed the very element in which they live is a great mass of
living matter, and doubtless affords by means of minute animals
a wonderful supply of food. Fish, too, are less dainty in their
eating than is generally supposed, and some kinds eat the most
revolting garbage with great avidity.

It is a very common error that all fish are migratory.
Some fishermen, and naturalists as well, picture the haddock and
the herring as being afflicted with perpetual motion—perpetual
wanderers from sea to sea and shore to shore, The migratory
instinct in fish, in my opinion, being very limited, They do move
about a little, without doubt, but not farther than from their
feeding-ground to their spawning-ground—from deep to shallow
water. Some plan of taking fish other than the present must
speedily be devised ; for now we only capture them—and I take
the herring as an example—over their spawning-ground, when
they are in the worst possible condition, their whole flesh-form--
ing or fattening power having been bestowed on the formation
of the milt and roe. I repudiate altogether this iteration of the
periodical wandering instincts of the finny tribes. There are great
fish colonies in the sea, in the same way as there are great seats of”
population on land, and these colonies are stationary, having, com-
paratively speaking, only a limited range of water in which to live-
and die. Adventurous individuals of the fish world occasionally
roam far away from home, and speedily find themselves in a

THE BALANCE OF NATURE. 27

warmer or colder climate, as the case may be; but, speaking
generally, as the salmon returns to its own waters, so do sea
fish keep to their own colony, All they seem to need is a
rallying point—thus at any place where there is a wrecked ship
in the water, a sand-bank, or a chain of rocks, certain kinds of
fish will there be found assembled. Our larger shoals of fish,
which form money-yielding industries, are of wonderful extent,
and must have been gathering and increasing for ages, having a
population multiplied almost beyond belief. Century after
century must have passed away as these colonies grew in size,
and were subjected to all kinds of influences, evil or good: at
times decimated by enemies, or perhaps attacked by mysterious
diseases, that killed the fish in tens of thousands. Schools or
shoals of fish, when they become of an extent that will admit of
constant fishing, must have been forming during long periods of
time ; for we know that, despite the wonderful fecundity of all
kinds of sea-fish, the expenditure of both seed and life is some-
thing tremendous. We may rest assured that, if a female cod-
fish yields its roe by millions, a balancing power exists in the
water that prevents the bulk of the eggs from coming to life, or
at any rate from reaching maturity. If it were not so, how
came it, when there was no fish commerce, and when man only
killed the denizens of the sea for the supply of his individual
wants, that our waters were not, so to speak, impassable from
a superfluity of fish? Buffon has said that if a pair of herrings
were left to breed and multiply undisturbed for a period of
twenty years, the result would be a bulk of fish equal to that
of the globe on which we live!

CHAPTER II.
a
FISH COMMERCE.

Early Fish Commerce—Sale of Fresh-water Fish—Cured Fish—Influence
of Rapid Transit on the Fisheries—Fish-ponds—The Logan Pond—
Ancient Fishing Industries—The Dutch Herring Fishing—Zuyder Zee
Herring Fishery—The Fishers of Friesland—The Herring in Holland
—The Dutch Cure—Dutch Salmion—Salmon Fishing in Holland—
Law of the Fishing.

In the absence of precise information, it may be guessed that
even during the far back ages fish was esteemed as an article
of food, and formed an important contribution to the diet of
such peoples as had access to the sea, or who could obtain the
finny inhabitants of the deep by purchase or barter. In the Old
and New Testaments, and in various ancient profane histories,
fish and fishing are frequently mentioned ; and in what may
be called modern times a few scattered dates, indicating the
progress of the sea fisheries, may, by the exercise of great in-
dustry and much research, be collected; but these are not in
any sense consecutive, or indeed very reliable, so that we are,'as
it were, compelled to imagine the progress of fish commerce, and
to picture in our mind’s eye its transition from a period when
the mere satisfaction of individual wants was only cared for, to
a time when fish began to be bartered for land goods—such as
farm, dairy, and garden produce—and to trace, as we best can,
that commerce through these obscure epochs to the present time,
when fisheries form a prominent outlet for capital, are a large
source of national revenue, and attract, because of these qualities,
a degree of attention never before bestowed upon them. Fish
commerce being an industry naturally arising out of the im-
mediate wants of mankind, has unfortunately been invested with
an amount of exaggeration having no parallel in other branches
of industry. Blunders perpetrated long ago in natural histories
and Encyclopedias, when the life and habits of all kinds of fish,

EARLY FISH COMMERCE, 29

from the want of investigation, were but little understood, have
been, with those additions which under such circumstances
always accumulate, handed down to the present day, so that
even now we are carrying on some of our fisheries on altogether
false assumptions, never dreaming that there will be a fishing
to-morrow, which must be as important, or even more important,
than the fishing of to-day, beyond which the fisher class never
look.

It is curious to note that there was in most countries a
commerce in fresh-water fish long before the food treasures of
the sea were broken upon. This is particularly noticeable in
our own country, and is vouched for by many authorities both
at home and abroad. We can all imagine, also, that in the pre-
historic or very early ages, when the land was untilled and
virgin, and the earth was undrained, there were sources for the
supply of fresh-water fish that do not now exist in consequence
of the enhanced value of land. At the period to which I have
been alluding there was a much greater water surface than there
is now—rivers were broader and deeper, as also were our lakes
and marshes. In those early days, although not so early as the
remote uncultivated age of which I have spoken, there were
great inland stews populous with fish, especially in connection
with monasteries and other religious houses, many examples of
which, in their remains, may be seen in England and on the
Continent. In fact, fish commerce, in despite of many curious
industries connected with the productiveness of the fisheries,
was not really developed till a few years ago, when the railway
system of carriage began. Even up to the time of George
Stephenson commerce in fish was, generally speaking, a purely
local business, except in so far as fishwives could extend the
trade by carrying the contents of their husbands’ boats inland,
in order, as in more primitive times, to barter the fish for other
produce. The fishermen of Comacchio, for instance, still cure
their eels, because they have not the means of sending them so

‘rapidly into the interior of Italy as would admit of their being
eaten fresh. Scotch salmon in the beginning of the present
century was nearly all kippered or cured in some way as soon as
caught, because the demand for fresh fish was purely local, and
therefore limited. With the discovery that salmon packed in
ice could be kept a long time fresh, trade in that fish began to
extend and the price to rise. This discovery, which exercised a
very important influence on the value -of our salmon-fisheries,

30 THE DISTRIBUTION OF FISH.

was made by a country gentleman of Scotland, Mr. Dempster of
Dunnichen, in 1780. Steamboat and railway transit, when
they became general, at once converted salmon into a valuable
commodity ; and such became the demand, from facility of
transport, that this particular fish, from its great individual
value, has more than once been in danger of being exterminated
through the greed of the fishery tenants.

The network of railways which now encircles the land has
conferred upon our inland towns, so far as fish is concerned, all
the advantages of the coast. For instance, the fishermen of
Prestonpans send more of their fish to Manchester than to
Edinburgh, which is only nine miles distant: indeed our most
landward cities are comparatively well supplied with fresh fish
and crustacea, while at the seaside these delicacies are not
plentiful. The Newhaven fishwife is a common and picturesque
visitant of many of the larger Scottish inland towns, being able
by means of the railways to take profitable journeys; indeed,
one consequence of the extension of railways has undoubtedly
been to add enormously to the demand for sea produce, and to
excite the ingenuity of our seafaring population to still greater
cunning and industry in the capture of all kinds of fish. In
former years, when a large haul of fish was taken, there was no
means of despatching them to a distance, neither was there a
resident population to consume what was caught. Railways
not being in existence, the conveyance of the period was too
slow for perishable commodities, and visitors to the seaside
were also rarer than at present. The want of a population to
eat the fish no doubt aided the comfortable delusion of our
supplies being inexhaustible. But it is now an undoubted fact,
that with railways branching to every pier and quay, our densely-
populated inland towns are better supplied with fish than the
villages where they are caught—a result of that keen competi-
tion so noticeable where fish and other sea delicacies are concerned.
High prices form an inducement to the fishermen to take from
the water all they can get, whether the fish be ripe for food or
not. A practical fisherman, whom I have often consulted on
these topics, says that forty years ago the slow system of carriage
was a sure preventive of over-fishing, as fish, to be valuable for
table purposes, require to be fresh. “It’s the railways that has
done all the mischief, sir; depend on that; and as for the fish-
ing, sir, it’s going on at such a rate that there will some day be
a complete famine, I've seen in my time more fish caught with

FISH-PONDS. 31

a score of hooks on a line than can now be got with eight

- thousand

At one time it was usual for noblemen and other country
gentlemen to have fish-ponds; in fact, a fish-pond was as
necessary an adjunct of a large country house as its vegetable
or fruit garden, These ponds, as the foregoing sketch will.
show, were of the most simple kind, and were often enough
constructed by merely stopping a little stream at some suitable
place, and so forming a couple of artificial lakes, in which were
placed some large stones, or two or three bits of artificial rock-
work, so constructed as to afford shelter to the fish. In those
days fish-ponds were a necessity to noblemen and gentlemen in
the habit of entertaining guests or giving great dinner-parties ;
hence also the multiplicity of recipes in our older cookery-books
for the dressing of all kinds of fresh-water fishes; besides, in
ancient times, before the Reformation, when Roman Catholicism

32 FISH-PONDS.

required a rigorous observance of church fasts, a fish-pond near
every cathedral city, and in the precincts of every monastery,
was a sine qua non, The varieties of fish bred in these ponds.
were necessarily very limited, being usually carp, some of which,
however, grew very large. As has been already stated, there
are traces of some of our curious and valuable fishes having
been introduced into this country during those old monastic
times. As already shown, most fish-ponds of these remote
times were quite primitive in their construction—very similar,
in fact, to the beautiful trout-pond at Wolfsbrunnen, near
Heidelberg. There were no doubt ponds of large extent and
of elaborate construction, but these were comparatively rare ;
and even on the sea-coast we used to have ponds or storing-
places for sea fish. One of these is still in existence: I allude
to Logan Pond in Galloway, for keeping fish so as to have
them attainable for table uses without reference to the state of
the weather, it is the property of General M‘Douall of Port
Logan House. This particular pond is not an artificially-con-
structed one, but has been improved out of the natural sur-
rounding of the place. It is a basin, formed in the solid rock,
ten yards in depth, and having a circumference of one hundred
and sixty feet, a wall of loose stones adnrits the waters of the
sea through a chasm of rock, and prevents the egress of the
fish, The fish which it contains are taken in the neighbouring
bay when the weather is fine, and transferred to the pond,
which communicates with the sea by a narrow passage, It is
generally well stocked with cod, haddock, and flat fish, which
in the course of time become very tame; and I regret to say,
from want of proper shelter, most of the animals become blind.
The fish have of course to be fed, and they partake greedily,
from the hand of the woman who feeds them, of the mass
of boiled mussels, limpets, whelks, ete., with which they are
regaled, and their flavour is really unexceptionable,

Coming back, however, to the subject of fresh-water fish-
ponds, it may be stated that these have been long given up,
except as adjuncts to the amenities of gentlemen’s pleasure-
grounds. Ornamental canals and fish-ponds are not at all
uncommon in the parks of our country gentlemen, although they
are not required for fish-breeding purposes, because the fast
London or provincial trains carry baskets of fish a distance of
one hundred miles in a very few hours, so that a turbot ora
dish of whiting may be in excellent condition for a late dinner,

ANGIENT FISHING INDUSTRIES. 33

All the ancient fishing industries, whether still existing or
extinct, except in their remains, bear traces of the times in
which they originated. Pisciculture was had recourse to at a
very ancient period, but chiefly in connection with fresh-water
fishes—the ova of such being the most readily obtainable ; or
with the mollusca, as these could bear a long transport, having

PACKING HERRINGS,

a reservoir of water in their shell. Sea fishers of the olden time
dealt with the fish for the purpose of their being cured with salt
or otherwise, simply, as has already been stated, because of the
want of rapid carriage and a comparatively scanty local popula-
tion. ;

The particular fishing industry which has bulked largest in
literature, and was pursued in a systematic way, is, or rather
was, that of the Dutch, for Holland does not at present make
her mark so largely on the waters as she was wont to do, being
at present surpassed in fishing enterprise by Scotland and other

D

34 PICTURES OF THE DUTCH FISHERIES.

countries. The particular fish coveted by the Dutch people was
the herring. A set of engravings which I procured in Amster-
dam convey a graphic idea’ of the great importance that was
attached by the Dutch themselves to their herring-fishery. This
series of sixteen peculiarly Dutch plates begins at the beginning
of the fishery, as is indeed proper it should, by showing us a
party. busy at a sea-side cottage knitting the gerring nets ; one
or two busses are seen in the distance busy at work. We are
then shown, on the banks of one of the numerous Dutch canals,
a congregation of quaint-looking coopers engaged in preparing
the barrels, while next in order comes a representation of the
preparing and victualling of the buss, which is surrounded by
small boats, and crowded with an active population engaged in
getting the vessel ready for sea—barrels of provisions, breadths
of netting, and various necessaries, are being got on board,
Then follow plates, of which the foregoing is a specimen, show-
ing us the equipment of various other kinds of boats, which
again are succeeded by a view of the busses among the shoals of
herring, the big mast struck, most of the sails furled, and the men
busy hauling the nets, which of course, as is fitting in a picture,
are laden with fish. Various other boats are also shown at work,
as the great hoy, a one-masted vessel, that is apparently furnished
with a seine-net, and the great double shore or sea-boar, which
is an open boat, Then we have the herring-buss coming gal-
lantly into the harbour, with its sails all set and its flags all
flying—-its hull deep in the water, which seems to frolic lovingly
round its prow, as if glad at its safe return. Next, of course,
there is a scene on the shore, where the pompous-looking curer
and his servants are seen congratulating each other amid the
bustle of surrounding commerce and labour ; dealers, too, are
figured in these engravings, with their wheelbarrows drawn by
dogs of unmistakable Dutch build, and there are also to be seen
in the picture many other elements of that industry peculiar to
all fishing towns, whether ancient or modern.

The next scene of this fishing panorama is the herring
banquet or feast, where the king, or mayhap the rich owner of
a fleet of busses sits grandly at table, with his wife and daughter,
attended by a butler and a black footman, partaking of the first
fruits of the fishery. After this follows a view of the fishmarket,
with portraits of the fishwives, altogether thoroughly indica-
tive of their peculiar way of doing business, which is always
the same, whether the scene be laid in ancient Holland or

THE GREATEST FISHERS IN THE WORLD. 35

modern Billingsgate. Next comes a picture of the various
buyers of the commodity on their way home, of course by the
side of a canal, with their purchases of deep-sea, shore, state,
and red herrings. The next scene of the series is a smoking-
house, partially obscured by wreaths of smoke, where the herrings
are being red-ed ; and the series is appropriately wound up with
a tableau representing the important process of repairing the
damaged nets—the whole conveying a really graphic, although
not very artistic, delineation of what was once a liighly charac-
teristic Dutch industry. A few plates illustrative of the whale-
fisheries of Holland are appended to the series I have been describ-
ing—for whale-fishing was at one time one of the industries of
the hard-working Dutch.

’ The old saying of Amsterdam being built on herring bones
was frequently used to symbolise the fishing power of ‘Holland.
It is thought that the attention of the Dutch people was first
drawn to the value of the sea fisheries by the settlement of some
Scottish fishermen in their country. I cannot vouch for the
truth of this statement as to the Scottish emigration, but I
believe it was a Fleming who first discovered the virtues of
pickled herrings, and it is also known that the capture of the
herring was a chief industry on the sea-board of all the Low
Countries: it is likewise instructive to learn that at a time
when our British fisheries were very much undeveloped the
Dutch people found our seas to be a gold mine, so productive
were they in fish, and so famous did the Dutch cure of herrings
become. We are not willing, however, to credit all the stories
of miraculous draughts, and store of wealth garnered up, by the
plodding Hollanders, We must bear in mind that when the
Dutch began to fish, the seas, as a field of industry were nearly
virgin, and that that people at one time kept this great source
of wealth all to themselves. At that particular period there was
no limit to the supply, fishermen having only to dip their nets
in the water to have them filled. No wonder, therefore,
that the fisheries of Holland became a prominent industry, and
in time the one absorbing hobby of the nation. Busses in large
fleets were fitted out and manned, till in time the Dutch came
to be reputed the greatest fishers in the world. But great as
was the fishing industry of those days in Holland, and industri-
ous as the Dutch undoubtedly were, there has been a consider-
able amount of exaggeration as to the results, more especially
in regard to the enormous quantities of fish said to have

36 BENEFITS DERIVED FROM A GOOD FISHERY.

been captured and cured. But whatever this total might be
was not of great consequence, for the mere quantity of fish
caught is perhaps, although a considerable one, the smallest of
the many benefits conferred on a nation by an energetic pursuit
of its fisheries. The fishermen must have boats, and these must
be fitted with sails, rigging, etc. ; and, moreover, the boats must
be manned by an efficient crew ; then the curing and sale of the
fish give employment? to a large number of people as well;
whilst the articles of cure—as salt, barrels, etc.—must of
necessity be largely provided, and are all of them the result of
some kind of trained industry: and these varied circumstances
of demand combine to feed the particular industrial pursuit I
am describing. Besides, the fisheries provide a grand nursery
for seamen, which is, perhaps, in a country like ours, having a
powerful navy, the greatest benefit of all, :

I have taken the pains to collate as many of the figures of
the ancient Dutch fishery as I could collect during an industrious
search ; and I find that, in the zenith of its prosperity, after the
proclamation of the independence of the States of Holland, three
thousand boats were employed in her own bays, while sixteen
hundred herring busses fished industriously in British waters,
and eight hundred larger vessels prosecuted the cod and whale
fisheries at remote distances, In the year 1603 we are informed
that the Dutch sold herrings to the amount of £4,759,000, be-
sides what they themselves consumed. We are also told that
in 1618 they had twelve thousand vessels engaged in this branch
of the fishery, and that these ships employed about two hundred
thousand men, It must have been a splendid sight, on every
24th of June, to witness the departure of the great fleet from
the Texel ; and as most of the Dutch people were more or less
interested in the prosperity of the fishery, either as labourers or
employers of labour, there would be no lack of spectators on
these occasions. The Wick herring drave of a thousand boats
is an industrial sight of no common kind ; but it must give way
before the picturesque fleet of Holland, as it sailed from the
Texel about three hundred years ago.

It is interesting to see the Holland of to-day, and to compare
its fishing fleets with those of other nations. Flat fish are the
spécialité of the Dutch sea fisheries, eels ranking next, vast
numbers being taken in the canals of South Holland, while large
quantities are obtained from the numerous lakes of Friesland.
An active fishery of a miscellaneous description is likewise car-

SCHEVENINGEN FISHERY. 37

ried on in the Zuyder Zee. The fishermen who frequent that
water capture in particular a small herring, locally known as
pan-fish, and they likewise obtain great supplies of anchovies,
or rather sprats, as well; but in South Holland the fish chiefly
taken are soles and flounders.

At Scheveningen there are about one hundred and forty
boats engaged in this kind of fishery, and also in the red-herring
fishery—that is, in capturing herrings which are ultimately
smoked. It is interesting to observe the fishing fleet come in
to Scheveningen: there being no harbour at that place, the
vessels have to sail right upon the sandy beach, The luggers
are admirably constructed for that purpose, being flat bottomed
as well as blunt bowed, and having, instead of a keel, a large
wooden wing at each side, for the purpose of keeping the ship
steady. So built, these boats can run quite safely against the
shore, although it surprises one not acquainted with the circum-
stances to see them float right on to the beach with all their
sails set. As soon as the vessels take the ground, the crew
commence to wade ashore with the produce of the fishery—
generally flounders, plaice, and soles, packed in wicker baskets
of tolerable size, The women, as is the case in most fishing-
places, are at hand to receive and carry away the produce; and
when any very small fish are taken, they fall to these female
carriers as a perquisite, The vessels are each fitted with a
couple of light trawl nets, which are hauled to the mast-head
to be dried, on the ship arriving at the beach. The Dutch fish
on the numerous banks of the German Ocean, only, however,
for flat fishes: they have done very little of late in the way of
local line-fishing, partly, no doubt, from the want of mussels
for bait, and partly from the custom which has so long prevailed
of following after one kind of fish. The Dutch have, iowever,
a winter cod-fishery, to which their busses proceed after knock-
ing off from what is called in Holland the great fishery. There
are no shell-fish about this part of the Netherlands, but large
quantities are obtained in other places. At the western side of
the Texel, I was told there were both oyster and mussel fisheries,
and at Bruinesse, in Zealand, there are fifty or sixty boats em-
ployed in obtaining these molluscs. I could not learn that any
lobsters or crabs were taken at the places I visited; but, as
there are no rocks among which they can find a fit dwelling-place,
crustaceans cannot be expected. Mr. Maas of Scheveningen in-
tends to introduce a shore line-fishery. I asked him where he

38 ZUYDER ZEE HERRING-FISHERY,

would get bait. “Oh,” he replied, “I can get thousands of
splendid lampreys.” Only think of such fine fish being cut up
for bait! Would it not pay better to send them to London?
The herring-fishery on the Zuyder Zee has no connection
whatever with the great fishery ; it is a miscellaneous fishery for
winter herrings and sprats, which are cured in different ways, also
for the universal flounder and the abounding eel ; whilst the
great fishery is for the herring only. Many of the fishermen stay
out at sea in their beautifully clean half-decked boats during the
week, and only come home to their families on Saturday night,
their cargo being taken from time to time, as it accumulates, to
the curer. The quaint races of fishermen who dwell on the curious
islands of Marken, Urk, and Shokland, leave their homes at mid-
night on Sunday, and, if they find fish, do not return till the fol-
lowing Saturday. There are about twelve hundred boats of all
kinds fishing on the Zuyder Zee, and numerous smokeries have
been erected for smoking the herrings. The people are now be-
coming very proficient in this branch of the fishery business,
which was inaugurated by the fishermen of Dieppe during the
twelfth century. The Dutch do not esteem the fresh herring
as we do in Britain—indeed the Zuyder Zee herrings are in a
measure despised—still the fresh herring fishery is of consider-
able value, and yields about £40,000 a year to Scheveningen,
Catwyk, and Noordwyk, not to speak of what it brings in to
Monniekendam, Enkhuizen, Wollenhove, and numerous other
little fishing towns or hamlets. I found it exceedingly difficult
to procure reliable statistics of the produce of the fisheries car-
ried on in the Zuyder Zee, but was told that the eels which are
annually caught may be valued at 85,000 florins, and that the
sprat fishery will produce four times that amount of money.
As to the fresh herring fishery, the figures, although they were
double the amount stated above, would, after all, be modest,
compared to those of the Scottish herring fishery. The Fries-
landers aré mighty fishers ; two-thirds of their fishing craft are
on the Zuyder Zee, and their part of the country, as may be
seen from any map, is full of lakes, some of them of large size.
The Frisons derive wealth from the waters as well as from
their peat grounds, and many of their lakes and fish-ponds
have been formed out of holes created by carrying away the
peat. The Frison people also carry on fishing industries on the
islands of Ter Schelling and Ameland, which lie opposite their
coast, and which were once united as a part of the land. Then,

THE FISHERS OF FRIESLAND. 39

again, there is a fishery at Hourn ; and Hourn is celebrated : it
gave to Holland the famous navigator who doubled the Cape
which he called after his birthplace. There are about two
hundred fishermen there, men quite as industrious as their
opposite neighbours, the Frisons, There is no doubt that the
- Dutch are reviving their fisheries; but it is amusing to hear
everywhere of the former greatness of this branch of industry,
and to contrast it with what now prevails, It is instructive to
note that some of the towns in Holland, which were at one time
famous and wealthy fishing ports, are fast fading away into
ruins. There is Enkhuizen, which, long ago, sent a fleet of one
hundred and fifty mighty vessels to the “ great fishery,” escorted.
by a squadron of war-ships, now sending only seven vessels ;
but the greatness of the place has passed away, and that town
at present is but a wreck or shadow of its former self. Most
of the fish taken by the Dutch are sent out of Holland—the
eels to Billingsgate, the flounders tp Belgium, the turbot to
London or Paris, and so forth. The fish-markets of the chief
towns of Holland are but poorly supplied with what was once
the staple article of the country—another illustration of that
old proverb which tells us about the scarcity of coals at New-
castle-on-Tyne,

One would suppose the herring in Holland to be an altogether
different animal from the fish which bears that name in Great
Britain, The Dutch reverence the stork, but they almost worship
the herring ; it is without question their national fish, and they
most lovingly eat it—raw out of the pickle! and some of the
people are so fond of it that they devour it, bones, fins, and all.
Amsterdam is reputed to have been founded on herring bones ;
and whatever greatness Holland has achieved in commerce has
undoubtedly grown from the apprenticeship served by its sons
on the waters, in the days when the greatness of the nation
arose from its fisheries, Although the herring fishery of the
Netherlands has fallen off greatly from what it was, it is again
reviving ; and the shipowners of Holland talk confidently of
renewing the ancient glory of their “herring drave,” which at
one time was the most gigantic fleet upon the seas. In the
meantime, although the trade in herrings be comparatively small,
the individual love of the fish is as great as ever. In all towns
and cities of that remarkable country there are shops for the
sale of this fish, and in these shops there are always to be found
numerous persons partaking of that most choice delicacy—a

40 ‘THE HERRING IN HOLLAND.

pickled herring. One requires to be among the Dutch when
the arrival of the new fish takes place, to understand the uni-
versal love of the people for the herring. It is wonderful to
note the enthusiasm which is developed the moment it becomes
known that the new fish have come to hand. A fast vessel
brings in the first fruits of the cure from the ocean fleet, and
lo! the people burst into a demonstration. At one time they
used to deck the steeple of Vlaardingen Church—Vlaardingen
is now the chief herring port—and ring a joyful peal of bells.
The curers and shipowners decked their houses with flowers ;
and persons who sold the fish decorated their signboards, in
order to let the public know that the newly-cured delicacy had
arrived. ‘Then rival curers sent off a sample of their herrings to
the king; and many a rapid race has been run to the Hague,
in order to have the honour of being first in the field, and so
obtain the reward of five hundred guilders which were given on
the occasion. There is got now, I believe, so much outward
demonstration ; but the first fruits of the fishery are as valuable
as ever, a single herring often costing a couple of guilders! Her-
rings are usually served raw in Holland, with a sauce of vinegar,
cucumber, etc. ; they are also dressed with salad, and are like-
wise eaten au naturel, No stranger should leave Holland with-
out making trial of the national dish ; it is as delicious in its
way as the Scotch kipper herring, or as the exquisite broiled
fresh herring of Lochfyne, and almost beats the famous “ split-
bellies ” of the Moray Firth fishing towns.

It is curious that while the State has ceased to interfere in
any way with the herring fishery, the size of the mesh, the
mode of fishing, and all other details, being left to the honour
of the boat owners, it still regulates with jealous care the cure
of the fish. The curing laws are carried out as rigorously as
ever: the captains are sworn to do their duty in seeing that the
herrings are properly cured. Scottish herrings—and it is in
Scotland we now find the really “great” fishery for the poor
man’s fish—are cured on shore. Dutch herrings, again, are
cured on board the vessel that captures them; and there is no
question but that their cured herrings are superior to ours,
although I think they would be still better if Government
would let them alone, and let each curer stand or fall by the
perfection of his individual cure. It is certain that a great
deal of pains is taken with the manipulation of the herring on
board the Netherland busses ; and at one time the Dutch mode

THE DUTCH CURE. 41

of cure was kept a profound secret, it being a strict rule that
no stranger should be admitted on board the fishery vessels.
The superiority of the Dutch cure is said to be owing to the
use of a superior kind of salt, which the boat-owners take great
pains to procure, and to-purify still further after they obtain it,
and also to the very careful selection and assorting of the fish
into different classes, as “full” herrings, ‘ Matjes,” etc. Only
a portion of the intestines is taken out of the herring by the
Dutch; they content themselves with removing the gills and
stomach, leaving the crown-gut in the fish, The herrings, as
fast as they are prepared, are thrown into a strong brine, in
which they are kept for eighteen hours before being packed in
the barrels, It is an imperative rule of the great fishery that
all herrings taken on one day must be cured during that day ;
herrings that cannot be cured on the day they are caught must
be thrown overboard, or as an alternative they may be so packed
as to be sold for inferior fish. There is a penalty of 300 guilders
exigible from the master of the buss in case he should fail to
perform his duty according to rules which are laid down for his
guidance. As I have said, great pains are taken to procure fine
salt. All the fish caught before St. James’s Day are cured with
Spanish or Portuguese salt ; those fish are known as herrings of
the large salt; the herrings cured after that date are known as
herrings of the fine salt, only the finest Dutch-made small salt
being used. Then it is a rule of the great fishery that barrels
made of new and good oak only must be used. A small steamer
in attendance on the fleet starts off to Vlaardingen as soon as it
can collect a hundred barrels of fish, the “ hunters” or “ yagers”
in attendance on the fishery vessels, follow as rapidly as they
can, the first one after the steamer with 120 barrels, the second
one with fifty more, etc., and the first fish bring the great prices
already alluded to. In consequence of the crew having both to
fish and to cure, the mass of the herrings taken cannot be dealt
with so as to receive the Government brand ; they lie in salt,
therefore, in the vessel, and after arriving at home, are taken
out and smoked, but of course only realise an inferior price.
Having been told that Dutch salmon was excellent, large in
size, and delicious in flavour, and knowing that a considerable
quantity of that fish is annually sent to London,—indeed Rhine
salmon are now sold in Edinburgh in December,—I felt anxious
during a visit to the Netherlands to obtain reliable infor-
mation about the Dutch salmon fisheries, The Rhine having

42 DUTCH SALMON.

many mouths in Holland, I expected to see salmon everywhere
in that country, and to find it cheap, but in that I was disap-
pointed. There can be no doubt that the mighty father of
waters contains in his liquid bosom a great army of fish. The
fish breeding and feeding grounds of a river which has a course
of nine hundred miles, and which is supplemented, on its way
to the sea, by hundreds of minor streams, must be numerous
and productive, but for all that I was told that Rhine salmon
were not so plentiful in Holland as they had once been. No
wonder. A salmon river and its tributaries, to be thoroughly
economised, requires, like the Duke of Richmond’s Spey, to be
under the management of one person, or at any rate to be sub-
ject to some one set of laws. But as the Rhine flows through
several kingdoms, such an arrangement is obviously impossible.
A fish may be bred in some far away tributary, and after pass-
ing through the territory of the King of Prussia, may be caj-
tured in Holland! Although salmon are now comparatively
scarce in Holland, I was told the old story of its having been
once so plentiful that apprentices used to bargain against eating
it oftener than twice a week! Now, I daresay they never see it
except on rare holiday occasions, it being quite as dear in Hol-
land as in London, averaging about 1s, 8d. per pound, and from
all I can learn never likely to be cheaper under present circum-
stances,—ls. 4d, per pound weight being about the price at
which salmon is sold to the dealers. The fish is, of course, -
dearer when bought retail.

Salmon fisheries in Holland appear to be well managed, so
far as capturing the fish is concerned, some of them being fished
very systematically. I paid a visit to one on the Maas, a
few miles above Rotterdam, and easily accessible by means of the
steamer to Dordrecht. It is worked by a company of gentlemen
in Rotterdam, who rent it from Mr, Van Briennan, and it is
situated on a terrace on the right bank of the river—that is, it
is worked from the terrace which is fitted up for the purpose,
Except during the fence months, which the Company are careful
to observe, the fishing is worked night and day, the nets being
tugged out from the upper end of the terrace by means of a small
steamboat, which, sweeping down the river for about a mile,
lands the fish at a stage constructed for the purpose, when they
are at once carried in a hand net to a large floating iron tank,
pierced with the necessary holes for permitting a full supply of
water, there to be kept alive till they are required for market,

SALMON FISHING IN HOLLAND. 43

Buyers from Rotterdam and elsewhere come to a plateau on the
opposite side of the river, and hold a market every morning,
The fish are then killed by the fishers, and carried across to the
selling place, where they are sold at so "much per fish, the persons
buying being quite able to discern the weight and quality of
each salmon by looking at it. I was not present at any of the
sales, but I was told that they were “Dutch auctions,” there
being always a few persons to compete.

This salmon fishery, so far as I could judge from a visit of
a few hours, is remarkably well conducted ; the capture of the
fish goes on by night as well as by day, so that about thirty
hauls of the nets are obtained every twenty-four hours—there
being a cessation from labour at the flow of the tide, A con-
siderable number of salmon are taken at this fishery, as many as
seventy having been frequently caught in a day (and night)—
a common take being fifty or sixty. During the time of
my visit, twelve hauls of the nets were made by hand—the
steamer being under repair—with a result of eighteen fish: on
that day the total capture was sixty-six fish, which produced a
sum of £67: 15s,—being a little over one pound sterling per
fish ; and as the average weight of the Maas salmon is fifteen
pounds, the sum I have named gives 1s, 4d. per pound weight
as the price. Upwards of thirty men and halfa-dozen boys,
in addition to an overseer, are employed at this fishery on the
Maas, and their wages average about 18s. a week each, These
men live in a bothy, and only go home on the Saturdays. None
of the persons employed are allowed to drink spirituous liquors,
but a plan to provide food for them at a general table was not
successful ; they now mess individually or in groups at their
bothy as best suits them. The superintendent has a pleasant
house to live in, and about double the wage of the men under
him, The Company weave and dye their own nets in the winter
time. Each set of nets is 2000 feet in length, and 33 feet deep,
and at the Van Briennan fishery three sets of nets are kept con-
stantly at work night and day, as I have already stated. When
the steamboat engaged in this fishery is disabled, as happened
to be the case during my visit, horses are called into requisition,
in order to wind in the nets by means of a very powerful wheel
windlass. The fishing is by law suspended from November till
February, and also during every flow of the tide. An act of
parliament regulates the size of the mesh, and prohibits the use
of all fixed nets, The Dutch people won't allow the Maas to be

‘44 LAW OF THE FISHERY.

‘called a branch of the Rhine, or their fish to be called Rhine
salmon, which the superintendent of the Van Briennan fishery
‘said were inferior fish, but in this he is evidently wrong. The
total quantity of salmon taken from the waters of Holland and
from the lower Rhine is, of course, very large, great quantities
of them being sent to Paris, Brussels, London, Edinburgh, and
other populous places. The Scottish people, and they are good
judges, do not like the Dutch salmon so well as their own fine
“curded fish ; those taken in the estuaries of Holland are too oily
and rich, whilst those taken a few hundred miles up the Rhine
are rather lean and flavourless to suit the epicures of Scotland.

CHAPTER IIL

—_>—_

ITALIAN, SCOTTISH, AND FRENCH FISHERIES.

Comacchio—The Art of Breeding Eels—A well-designed Eel Farm—
Profits of Hel breeding in the 16th century—Progress of Fishing in
Scotland—aA Scottish Buss—Newfoundland Fisheries—The Greenland
Whale Fishing—Specialty of different Fishing Towns—The General
Sea Fisheries of France—French Fish Commerce—French Sea Fisheries
—The Basin of Arcachon—French Sardine Fishery—Sardine Curing—
Want of Statistics of the British Fisheries,

Lone before the organisation of the Dutch fisheries there
existed a quaint colony of Italian fisher people on the borders
of a more poetic water than the Zuyder Zee. I allude to the
eel-breeders of Comacchio on the Adriatic, This particular
fishing industry is of very considerable antiquity, as we have
well-authenticated statistics of its produce, extending over three
centuries, The lagoons of Comacchio afford a curious example
of what may be done by design and labour. This place was at
one time a great unproductive swamp, about one hundred and
forty miles in circumference, accessible to the waves of the
sea, where eels, leeches, and other inhabitants of such watery
regions, sported about unmolested by the hand of man ; and its
inhabitants—the descendants of those who first: populated its
various islands— isolated from the surrounding civilisation, and
devoid of ambition, have long been contented with their obscure
lot, and have even remained to this day without establishing
any direct communication with surrounding countries.

The precise date at which the great lagoon of Comacchio
was formed into a fish-pond is not known, but so early as the
year 1229 the inhabitants. of the place—a community of fishers
as quaint, superstitious, and peculiar as those of Buckie on the
Moray Firth, or any other ancient Scottish fishing port—pro-
claimed Prince Azzo d’Este Lord of Comacchio; and from the
time of this appointment the place grew in prosperity, and its
fisheries began to assume an organisation and design which had
not before been their characteristic. The waters of the lagoon

46 COMACCHIO.

were dyked out from those of the Adriatic, and a series of canals
and pools were formed suitable for the requirements of the
peculiar fishery carried on at the place, all of which operations
were greatly facilitated by the Reno and Volano mouths of the
Po forming the side boundaries of the great swamp ; and, as a
chief feature of the place, the marvellous fish labyrinth celebrated
by Tasso still exists, Without being technical, we may state
that the principal entrances to the various divisions of the
great pond—and it is divided into numerous stations—are from
the two rivers. A number of these entrances have been con-
structed in the natural embankments which dyke out the waters
of the lagoon, Bridges have also been built over all these
trenches by the munificence of various Popes, and very strong
flood-gates, worked by a crank and screw, are attached to each,
so as to regulate the migration of the fish and the entrance and
exit of the waters. A very minute account of all the varied.
hydraulic apparatus of Comacchio would only weary the reader ;
but I may state generally, and I speak on the authority of M.
Coste, that these flood-gates place at the service of the fish-
cultivators about twenty currents, which allow the salt waters
of the lagoon to mingle with the fresh waters of the river,
Then, again, the waters of the Adriatic are admitted to the
lagoon by means of the Grand Pallota Canal, which extends
from the Port of Magnavacca right through the great body of
the waters, with branches stretching to the chief fishing stations
which dot the surface of this inland sea, so that there are about
a hundred mouths always ready to vomit into the lagoon the
salt water of the Adriatic. The entire industry of this unique
place is founded on a knowledge of the natural history of the
particular fish which is so largely cultivated there—viz. the eel.
Being migratory, it is admirably adapted for cultivation, and
being also very prolific and of tolerably rapid growth, it can be
speedily turned into a source of profit. About the end of the
sixteenth century we know that the annual income derived
from eel-breeding in the lagoons was close upon £12,000—a
very large sum of money at that period.

The inhabitants of Comacchio seem to have a very correct
idea of the natural history of this rather mysterious fish, They
know exactly the time when the animal breeds, which, as well
as the question how it breeds, has in Britain been long a
source of controversy. And these shrewd people know very
well when the fry may be expected to leave the sea and perform

A FISHING-PLACE OF COMACCHIO. 47

their montee, They can measure the numbers, or rather estimate
the quantity, of young fish as they ascend to the lagoon, and
consequently are in a position to know what the produce will
eventually be, as also the amount of food necessary to be pro-
vided, for the fish-farmers of Comacchio do not expect their

A DIVISION OF COMACCHIO,

A. Canal Palotta. H. Second compartment.

B. Entrance from the canal. I. Chamber of second compartment.

C. Canal for the passage of boats. K. Third compartment.

C’. Sluices forfclosing canal. LLL. Chambers of third compartment.

D. First compartment of the labyrinth. |M. Wickerwork baskets for keeping fish

E. Outer basin. alive.

F. Antechamber of the first compart-|N. Boat with instruments of fishing,
ment. O. Dwelling-house.

G.

. Chamber of the first compartment. P. Storehouse.

animals to fatten upon nothing. However, they go about this
in a very economic way, for the same water that grows the fish
also grows the food on which they are fed. This is chiefly the
aquadelle, a tiny little fish which is contained in the lakes in
great numbers, and which, in its turn, finds food in the insect
and vegetable world of the lagoons. Other fish are bred as well
as the eel—viz. mullet, plaice, etc. On the 2d day of February
the year of Comacchio may be said to begin, for at that time
the montee commences, when may be seen ascending up the Reno
and Volano mouths of the Po from the Adriatic a great series
of wisps, apparently composed of threads, but in reality young

48 HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY.

eels ; and as soon as one lot enters, the rest, with a sheeplike
instinct, follow their leaders,"and hundreds of thousands pass
annually from the sea to the waters of the lagoon, which can be
so regulated as in places to be either salt or fresh as required,
Various operations connected with the working of the fisheries
keep the people in employment from the time the entrance-
sluices are closed, at the end of April, till the commencement
of the great harvest of eel-culture, which lasts from the begin-
ning of August till December. The engraving represents one
of the fishing-places of the lagoon.

No country has, taking into account size and population, been
more industrious on the seas than Scotland—the most productive
fishery of the country having been that for herring. There
is no consecutive historical account of the progress of the
herring-fishery, The first really authentic notice we have of a
trade in herrings is nine hundred years old, when it is recorded
that the Scots exported herrings to the Netherlands, and there
are indications that even then a considerable fishery for herrings
existed in Scotland ; and prior to that date Boethius alludes to
Inverlochy as an important seat of commerce, and persons of

‘intelligence consider that town to have been a resort of the
French and Spaniards for the purchase of herring and other
fishes, The pickling and drying of herrings for commerce were
first carried on by the Flemings. This mode of curing fish is
said to have been discovered by William Benkelen of Biervlet,
near Sluys, who died in 1397, and whose memory was held in
such veneration for that service that the Emperor Charles V.
and the Queen of Hungary made a pilgrimage to his tomb.
Incidental notices of the herring-fishery are contained in the
records of the monastery of Evesham, so far back as the year
709, and the tax levied on the capture of herrings is noticed in
the annals of the monastery of Barking as herring-silver. The
great fishery for herrings at Yarmouth dates from the earliest
Anglo-Saxon times, and at so early a period as the reign of
Henry I. it paid a tax of 10,000 fish to the king, We are told
that the most ancient records of the French herring-fishery are
not earlier than the year 1020, and we know that in 1088 the
Duke of Normandy allowed a fair to be held at Fecamp during
the time of this fishery, the right of holding it being granted to
the Abbey of the Holy Trinity, The Yarmouth fishery, even in
these early times, was a great success—as success was then
understood. Edward III, did all he could to encourage the

THE SCOTTISH HERRING-FISHERY. 49

fishery at that place. In 1357 he got his parliament to lay
down a body of laws for the better regulation of the fisheries,
and the following year sixty lasts of herring were shipped at
Portsmouth for the use of his army and fleet in France. In
1635 a patent was granted to Mr. Davis for gauging red-herrings,
for which Yarmouth was famed thus early, at a certain price
per last ; his duty was, in fact, to denote the quality of the fish
by affixing a certain seal; this, so far as we know, is the first
indication of the brand system. His Majesty Charles IT, being
interested in the fishefies, visited Yarmouth in company with
the Duke of York and others of the nobility, when he was
handsomely entertained, and presented with four golden herrings
and a chain of considerable value.

Several of the kings of Scotland were zealous in aiding the
fisheries, but the death of James V., and the subsequent religious
and civil commotions, put a stop for a time to the progress of
this particular branch of trade, as well as to every other indus-
trial project of his time. In 1602 his successor on the throne,
James VI., resumed the plans which had been chalked out by
his grandfather. Practical experiments were made in the art of
fishing, fishing towns were built in the different parts of the
Highlands, and persons well versed in the practice were brought
to teach the ignorant natives; but as the Highlanders were
jealous of these “‘interlopers,” very slow progress was made ;
and again the course of improvement was interrupted by the
king’s accession to the throne of England and the union of the
two Crowns. During the remainder of James’s reign little
progress was made in the art of fishing, and we have to pass
over the reign of Charles I., and wait through the troublous
times of the Protectorate till we have Charles IT, seated on the
throne, before much further encouragement is decreed to the
fisheries. Charles II. aided the advancement of this industrial
pursuit by appointing a Royal Council of Fishery, in order to
the establishment’ of proper laws and regulations for the en-
couragement of those engaged in this branch of our commerce.

After this period the British trade in fish and knowledge of
the arts of capture expanded rapidly. It is said, as I have
already stated, that during our early pursuit of the fishery the
Dutch learned much from us, and that, in fact, while we were
away founding the Greenland whale-fishery, the people of Hol-
land came upon our seas and robbed us of our fish, and so
obtained a supremacy in the art that lasted for many years. At

E

50 COD-FISHERY OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

any rate, whatever the Dutch accomplished, we were particularly
industrious in fishing, Our seas were covered with busses of
considerable tonnage—the average being vessels of fifty tons,
with a complement of fourteen men and a master. The mode
of fishing then was to sail with the ship into the deep sea, and
then, leaving the vessel as a rendezvous, take to the small boats,
and fish with them, returning to the large vessel to carry on the
cure, The same mode of fishing, with slight modifications, is
still pursued at Yarmouth and some other places in England.
Much has been written about the great cod-fishery of New-
foundland: it has been the subject of innumerable treatises,
Acts of Parliament, and other negotiations, and various travellers
have illustrated the natural products and industrial capabilities
of the North American seas, The cod-fishery of Newfoundland
undoubtedly affords one of the greatest fishing industries the
world has ever seen, and has been more or less worked for three
hundred and sixty years. Occasionally there is a whisper of
the cod grounds of Newfoundland being exhausted, and it would
be no wonder if they were, considering the enormous capture of
that fish that has constantly been going on during the period
indicated, not only by means of various shore fisheries, but by
the active American and French crews that are always on the
grounds capturing and curing. Since the time when the Red
Indian lay over the rocks and transfixed the codfish with his
spear, till now, when thousands of ships are spreading their sails
in the bays and surrounding seas, taking the fish with ingenious
instruments of capture, myriads upon myriads of valuable cod
have been taken from the waters, although to the ordinary eye
the supply seems as abundant as it was a century ago. When
my readers learn that the great bank from whence is obtained
the chief supply of codfish is nearly six hundred miles long and
over two hundred miles in breadth, it will afford a slight index
to the vast total of our sea wealth, and to the enormous numbers
of the finny population of this part of our seas, the population
of which, before it was discovered, must have been growing and
gathering for centuries; but when it is further stated—and this
by way of index to the extent of this great food-wealth—that
Catholic countries alone give something like half a million
sterling every year for the produce of these North American
seas, the enormous money value of a well-regulated fishery must
become apparent even to the most superficial observer of facts
and figures. It is much to be regretted that we are not in

OUR. VARIOUS FISHERIES. Bl

possession of-reliable annual statistics of the fisheries of New-
foundland, but there are so many conflicting interests connected
with these fisheries as to render it difficult to obtain accurate
statistics.

It is pleasant to think that the seas of Britain are at the
present time crowded with many thousand boats, all gleaning
wealth from the bosom of the waters. As one particular branch
of sea industry becomes exhausted for the season, another one
begins. In spring we have our white fisheries ; in summer we
have our mackerel ; in autumn we have the great herring-fishery ;
then in winter we deal in pilchards and sprats and oysters ; and
all the year round we trawl for flat fish or set pots for lobsters,
or do some other work of the fishing—in fact, we are continually,
day by day, despoiling the waters of their food treasures. When
we exhaust the inshore fisheries we proceed straightway to the
deep waters. Hale and strong fishermen sail hundreds of miles
to the white-fishing grounds, whilst old men potter about the
shore, setting nets with which to catch crabs, or ploughing the
sand for prawns. At different places we can note the specialties
of the British fisheries, In Caithness-shire we can follow the
greatest herring-fleet in the world; at Cornwall, again, we can
view the pilchard-fishery ; at Barking we can see the cod-fleet ;
at Hull there is a wealth of trawlers; at Whitstable we can
make acquaintance with the oyster-dredgers ; and at the quaint
fishing-ports on the Moray Firth, we can witness the manu-
facture of “ Finnan haddies,” as at Yarmouth we can take part
in the making of bloaters ; and all round our coasts we can see
women and children industriously gathering shell-fish for bait,
or performing other functions connected with the industry of
the sea—repairing nets, baiting the lines, or hawking the fish,
for fisherwomen are true helpmates to their husbands. At
certain seasons everything that can float in the water is called
into requisition—little cobles, gigantic yawls, trig schooners,
are all required to aid in the gathering of the sea harvest.
Thousands of people are employed in this great industry ;
betokening that a vast population have chosen to seek bread
on the bosom of the great deep.

Crossing the Channel, we may note that the general sea
fisheries of France are also being prosecuted with great vigour,
and at those places which havg railways to bear away the pro-
duce with considerable profit, All kinds of fish are caught on
the French coasts with much assiduity, and the coast-line of that

52 FRENCH SEA FISHERIES.

country being enormous—in length, reaching from Dunkirk to
Bayonne, including sinuosities, it will be considerably over 2000
kilometres—there is a great abundance of fish, the only regret
in connection with the food fisheries being that at those places
where the yield could be best obtained the fishing is but lazily
prosecuted, in consequence of the want of inland conveyance.
From many of the fishing villages there is no path to the
populous inland cities, and the fish is sold, as it used to be sold
in Scotland before the days of railways and other quick con-
veyances, by the wives of the fishermen, who hawk the produce
of the sea through the country. In such towns as Boulogne,
where there is a large resident population, and a constant
accession of English visitors as well, the demand for fish is con-
stant and considerable, and well supplied. ' In the department
of the Pas de Calais there are over 600 fishing-boats. In
Boulogne harbour, which is the chief port of the district, the
English visitors will see a large number of boats, chiefly trawls,
and all who visit Boulogne have seen the fishwives, if not dressed
en fete, then in their work-a-day habits, doing hard labour for
their husbands or the tourists, Sea fish is scarce and dear over
most of inland France; the prices in the market at Paris rule
very high for premier qualities, but in that gay capital there is
apparently no scarcity. Fish must be had, and fish can always
be obtained, whenever there is money to pay the price demanded.
In fact, a glance at the fish department of the grand marché
would lead one to suppose that, next to growing fruit and
vegetables, catching fish was the great industry of the country.

The modes of sea-fishing are so much alike in every country
that it is unnecessary to do more than just mention that the
French method of trawling is very similar to our own. But
there are details of fishing industry connected with that pursuit
on the French coasts that we are not familiar with in Britain,
The neighbouring peasantry, for instance, come to the seaside
and fish with nets which are called bas parc; and these are
spread out before the tide is full, in order to retain all the fish
which are brought within their meshes. The children of these
land-fishers also work, although with smaller nets, at these fore-
shore fisheries, while the wives poke about the sand for shrimps
and the smaller crustacea, These people thus not only ensure
a supply of food for themselves during winter, but also contrive
during summer to take as much fish as brings them in a little
store of money.

THE BASIN OF ARCACHON, 53

By far the best place to study the economy of the French
fisheries is at the basin of Arcachon, 34 miles from Bordeaux.
There may be seen the small boat as well as the trawl fishery ;
and, above all, in the placid waters of the basin may be seen
the model oyster-beds of France—beds that rarely languish
for lack of spat, which has seldom been known to fail; beds
which produce a nice, fat, tasteful oyster, placed in an inland sea
that is prolific of many of the best food fishes, and contains the
finest grey mullet in the world, To those who are anxious
thoroughly to study the French mode of fishing, Arcachon has
this advantage, that it has a day as well as a night fishery, and
is also one of the most unique bathing-places in the whole of
France. From the balconies of one’s hotel, or from the windows
of the houses, the whole industry of the basin may be observed
daily and nightly; but the best plan for seeing a fishery is to
take a part in it, to sail out in the boats, and handle the trawl
or other nets. The chief fishing quarter is at the extreme east
end of Arcachon, consisting of a cluster of wooden houses,
easily known as those of the fishermen, from the various appa-
ratus and articles of dress which are depending about, and from
the “ancient and fish-like smell” which prevails in their neigh-
bourhood, No less than thirteen hundred sailors find employ-
ment in and about the basin; and there are close on five hun-
dred boats of all kinds, a number of them being steam trawlers.
The value of the fishery of which Arcachon is the head-quar-
ters is estimated at over 1,500,000f., exclusive of the revenue
derived from the oyster-beds, In the basin there are lots of
fish of all kinds, both round and flat, capital soles in tolerable
abundance, and very excellent mullet, both red and grey ; there
are also occasional takes of sardines, which fish is locally known
as the royan, The steamboats referred to go out into the Bay
of Biscay to trawl, and carry also an immense net, which the
men call atrammel ; it is cumbrous and heavy, and can only be
drawn in by using the steam-engine of the ship. Great “takes”
of mullet are occasionally got at Arcachon by watching and
hemming in shoals which get lost in the numerous creeks that
indent the shores of the basin. There is a ready market for all
the fish that can be taken in Bordeaux, Poitiers, Tours, and
neighbourhood, and it is because of this market that there has
grown up at Arcachon such a considerable fishing industry.
The most picturesque part of the fishing industry carried on at
Arcachon is the night fishery. Whenever it becomes dark

54 NIGHT-FISHING AT ARCACHON.

enough the fishermen go out with the leister, and fish, as they
used to do long ago in the Tweed, from an illuminated boat.
Three men are required for each boat for the night fishing, two
to row and one to hurl the spear. As many as a dozen boats
may be seen nightly at this work, each with a brilliant flame
of light flashing from its prow ; the fish speared are mullet, and
they are mostly used for local consumption, the accession of
visitors in summer rendering a large supply of fish necessary.
There are illuminated fisheries in some other parts of France, but
that of Arcachon is the most prominent. The yield of fish,
however, is not large—indeed it could not be, when it is taken
into account that each individual fish has to be speared. Some
more economical mode of night fishing, if night fishing be
necessary, ought to be invented. A few scores of mullet are a
poor reward for three or four hours’ labour of three men.

The perpetual industry carried on by the coast people on
the French foreshores is quite a sight, although it is fish
commerce of a humble and primitive kind. Even the little
children contrive to make money by building fish-ponds, or
erecting trenches, in which to gather salt, or in some ‘other
little industry incidental to sea-shore life, One occasionally en-
counters some abject creature groping about the rocks to obtain
the wherewithal to sustain existence. To these people all is
fish that comes to hand ; no creature, however slimy, that creeps
about is allowed to escape, so long as it can be disguised by
cookery into any kind of food for human beings. Some of the
people have old rickety boats patched up with still older pieces
of wood or leather, sails mended here and there, till it is difficult
to distinguish the original portion from those that have been
added to it; nets torn and dared till they are scarce able to
hold a fish ; and yet that boat and that crippled machinery are
the stock in trade of perhaps two or three generations of a
family, and the concern may have been founded half a century
ago by the grandfather, who now sees around him a legion of
hungry gamins that it would take a fleet of boats to keep in
food and raiment. The moment the tide flows back, the fore-
shore is at once overrun with an army of hungry people, who
are eager to clutch whatever fishy debris the receding water may
have left ; the little pools are eagerly, nay hungrily, explored,
and their contents grabbed with that anxiety which pertains
only to poverty.

On some parts of the French coasts, and it is proper to

FISHING INDUSTRY IN FRANCE. 55

mention this, the fishery is not of importance, although fish
are plentiful enough. At Cancale, for instance, the fishermen
have imposed on themselves the restriction of only fishing twice
a week. In Brittany, at some of the fishing places, the people
seem very poor and miserable, and their boats look to be almost
valueless, reminding one of the state of matters at Fittie in the
outskirts of Aberdeen, At the isle of Croix, however, there is
to be found a tolerably well-off maritime and fishing community ;
at this place, where the men take-to the sea at an early age,
there are about one hundred and thirty fishing boats of from
twenty to thirty tons each, of which the people—ze. the practi-
cal fishermen—are themselves the owners. At the Sands of
Olonne there is a most extensive sardine-fishery—the capture of
sprats, young herrings, and young pilchards, for curing as sar-
dines, yielding a considerable share of wealth, as a large number
of boats follow this branch of business all the year round.
Experiments in artificial breeding are constantly being madeé
both with white fish and crustaceans, and sanguine hopes are
entertained that in a short time a ‘plentiful supply of all kinds
of shell and white fish will reward the speculators, and as regards
those parts of the French coast which are at present destitute of
the power of conveyance, the apparition of a few locomotives
will no doubt work wonders in instigating a hearty fishing
enterprise. ~

In fact the industry of the French as regards the fisheries
has become of late years quite wonderful, and there is evidently
more in their eager pursuit of sea wealth than all at once meets
the eye. No finer naval men need be wished for any country
than those that are to be found in the French fishing luggers,
and there can be no doubt but that they are being trained with
a view to the more perfect manning of the French navy. At
any rate the French people (? government) have discovered the
art of growing sailors, and doubtless they will make the most of
it, being able apparently to grow them at a greatly cheaper rate
than we can do.

The commercial system established in France for bringing
the produce of the sea into the market is of a highly elaborate
and intricate character. The direct consequence of this system
is, that the price of fish goes on increasing from its first removal
from the shore until it reaches the market. This fact cannot
be better illustrated than by tracing the fish from the moment
they are landed on the quay by the fishermen, through various

56 FRENCH FISH COMMERCE,

intermediate transactions, until they reach the hands of the fish-
monger of Paris. The first agent into whose hands they come
is the ecoreur. The ecoreur is usually a qualified man appointed
by the owners of the vessels, the municipality, or by an associa-
tion termed the Société d’Ecorage. He performs the functions of
a wholesale agent between the fishermen and the public. He
is ready to take the fish out of the fisherman’s hands as soon as
they are landed. He buys the fish from the fisherman, and
pays him at once, deducting a percentage for his own services. /
This percentage is sometimes 5, 4, or even as low as 34 per
cent. He undertakes the whole risk of selling the fish, and
suffers any loss that may be incurred by bad debts or bad sale,
for which he can make no claim whatever upon the owner of
the boat. The system of ecorage is universally adopted, as the
fisherman prefers ready money with a deduction of 5 per cent
rather than trouble himself with any repayment or run the risk
of bad debts. Passing from the ecoreur we come to the mareyeur
—that is, the merchant who buys the fish from the wholesale
agent. He provides baskets to hold the fish, packs them, and
despatches them by railway. He pays the carriage, the town-
dues or duties, and the fees to the market-crier, Should the
fish not keep, and arrive in Paris in bad condition, and be com-
plained of by the police, he sustains the loss. As regards the
transport arrangements, the fish are usually forwarded by the
fast trains, and the rates are invariable, whatever may be the
quality of the fish. Thus, turbot and salmon are carried at the
same rate as monk fish, oysters, and crabs. On the northern lines
the rate is 37 cents per ton per kilometre ; upon the Dieppe and
Nantes lines, 25 or 26 cents; which gives 85 or 96 francs as
the carriage of a ton of fish despatched from the principal ports
of the north—such as St. Valery-sur-Somme, Boulogne, Calais,
and Dunkerque—and 130 francs per ton on fish despatched
from Nantes.

The fish, on their arrival in Paris, are subjected to a duty.
For the collection of this duty the fish are divided into two
classes—viz. fine fresh fish and ordinary fresh fish. The fine
fish—which class includes salmon, trout, turbot, sturgeon,
tunny, brill, shad, mullet, roach, sole, lobster, shrimp, and
oyster—pay a duty of 10 per cent of the market value, The
duty upon the common fresh fish is 5 per cent. This duty is
paid after the sale, and is then of course duly entered in the
official register.

FRENCH SARDINE-FISHERY. 57

{

All fish sent to Paris are sold through the agency of auction-
eers (factewrs & la crice) appointed by the town, who receive a
commission of 2 or 3 per cent. The auctioneer either sells to
the fishmonger or to the consumer.

It will be seen from the above statement that between
the landing of the fish by the fisherman and the purchase of
it by the salesman at Paris there is added to the price paid
to the fisherman 5 per cent for the ecorage; 90, 100, or 130
francs per ton for carriage; 10 or 5 per cent, with a double
tithe of war, for town-dues; and 3 per cent taken by the
auctioneer—or, altogether, 18 or 13. per cent, besides the war-
tithe and the cost of transport. This is an estimate of the
indispensable expenses only, and does not include a number
of items—such as the profit which the mareyewr ought to
make, the cost of the baskets, carriage from the market to the
railway, and from the custom-house to the market in Paris;
besides presuming that the merchant who buys in the market
is the consumer, which is seldom the case.

The capture and cure of the sardine is a great business in
France, and especially at Concarneau, where as many as 13,000
men aid in the fishery. It is not easy to obtain accurate statistics
of the business done in sardines, In the first place there is a
large quantity sold fresh—that is, packed in dry salt, in little
baskets made of rushes, and sent wherever there is a mode of
outlet, Then there is an enormous number sold in those
familiar tins, It is said that besides the quantity exported,
which is large, there are as many as 4,000,000 boxes cured in
oil and prepared for the home market; then, besides these, a
large number are sold in barrels, and also pressed in barrels,
It is an interesting sight to witness the arrival of the boats, and
to see the rush to the curing establishments of the men, women,
and children interested in the sales. How their sabots do clatter
as they prance over the stones! The curers just buy from day
to day what sardines they require, and no more; generally
speaking, they do not, as in the Scottish herring fishery, make
contracts with boats, and only one or two firms have boats
of their own. When the curers are in want of a supply of fish
they put up a flag at their curing establishment, and the fisher-
men hurry to supply them, the price varying from day to day
according as the fishery has been abundant or the reverse. As
soon as the boats arrive the fish are put in train for the cure, by
being gutted, beheaded, sorted into sizes, and washed in sea

58 SARDINE-CURING.

water, chiefly by women, who can earn from 12 francs to 20
francs a week at these curing establishments. The cure is begun
by drying the fish on nets or willows, generally in the open air,
but sometimes, from stress of weather it must be done under
cover. After being dried they are ready for the process of the
pan, which is kept over a furnace, and is filled with boiling oil.
Into the cauldron the fish are plunged, two rows deep, arranged
on wire gratings. In this pan of oil (the very finest olive oil)
they remain for a brief period, till, in the judgment of the cook,
they are done sufficiently. Then they are placed to drip, the
drippings of oil being, of course, carefully collected ; after which
they are packed by women and girls into the nice little clean
boxes in which they are sold. Again they are allowed to drip.
by the boxes being sloped; then each box, by means of a tap,
is filled carefully up to its lip with pure olive oil, when it is
ready for the next operation, which is the soldering on of the lids,
or, as it may be called, the hermetical sealing up of the box, a
most particular part of the process, at which the men can earn
very large wages, with this drawback, that they have to buy all
the fish that are spoilt. After the soldering has been accom-
plished the boxes have to be boiled in a steam chest. Those
that do not bulge out after the boiling are condemned as “ dead ;”
for when the process is thoroughly gone through the perfection
of the cure is known by the bulging out of the boxes, which are
of various sizes, according to the purpose for which they are
designed. There are boxes of 6 Ibs. weight and 21 lbs. weight,
as also half and quarter boxes, with from 24 to 12 fish in them,
according to size. Little kegs are also filled with sardines cured
as anchovies. The finishing process of the sardine cure is to
stamp the boxes and affix the thin brass labels which are always
found upon them. There are little incidental industries con-
nected with the cure which may be noticed. The débris is sold
for agricultural purposes, as is the case at home here, where the
curers get a few pounds annually for their offal; then a large
quantity of oil is exuded from the sprat during the process of
the cure, and on the total fishery this oil ig of considerable value.
The “dead” fish, as we have said, are sold to the men, but the
success of the cure is usually so great that the “dead” form but
a very small percentage of the total number of boxes submitted
to the test.

But allowing the French people to cultivate to the very
utmost—as they especially do as regards the oyster—it is

BILLINGSGATE. 59

‘impossibie they, can ever exceed, either in productive power or
money value, the fisheries of our own coasts. If, without the
trouble of taking a long journey, we desire to witness the results
of the British fisheries, we have only to repair to Billingsgate
to find this particular industry brought to a focus, At that

\

SS
~~ =

BILLINGSGATE,

piscatorial bourse we can see in the early morning the produce
of our most distant seas brought to our greatest seat of popula-
tion, sure of finding a ready and a profitable market. The
aldermanic turbot, the tempting sole, the gigantic codfish, the
valuable salmon, the cheap sprat, and the universal herring, are
all to be found during their different seasons in great plenty at
Billingsgate ; and in the lower depths of the market buildings
countless quantities of shell-fish of all kinds, stored in immense
tubs, may be seen ; while away in the adjacent lanes there are
to be found gigantic boilers erected for the purpose of crab and
lobster boiling. Some of the shops in the neighbourhood have

60 THE WANT OF STATISTICS.

always on hand large stocks of all kinds of dried fish, which are
carried away in great waggons to the railway stations for country
distribution, About four o’clock on a summer morning this
grand piscatorial mart may be seen in its full excitement—the
auctioneers bawling, the porters rushing madly about, the
hawkers also rushing madly about seeking persons to join them
in buying a lot, so as to divide their speculations ; and all over
is sprinkled the dripping sea-water, and all around we feel that
peculiar perfume which is the concomitant of such a place. No
statistics of a reliable kind are published as to the value of the
British fisheries. An annual account of the Scottish herring-
fishery is taken by commissioners and officers appointed for that
purpose ; which, along with a yearly report of the Irish fisheries,
are the only reliable annual documents on the subject that we
possess, and the latest official report of the commissioners will
be found analysed in another part of this volume. For any
statistics of our white-fish fisheries we are compelled to resort
to second-hand sources of information ; and, as is likely enough
in, the circumstances, we do not, after all, get our curiosity
properly gratified on these important topics—the progress and
produce of the British fisheries.

CHAPTER IV.
4
FISH CULTURE.

Antiquity of Pisciculture—Italian Fish-Culture—Sergius Orata—Re-dis-
covery of the Art—Shaw versus Gehin and Remy—Jacobi—Shaw of
Drumlanrig—The Ettrick Shepherd—Scientific and Commercial Pisci-
culture—A Trip to Huningue—Bale and its Fishmarket—Huningue
described—The Water Supply—Modus Operand at Huningie—Pack-
ing Fish-Eggs—An important Question—Artificial Spawning—Danube
Salmon—Plan of a Suite of Ponds—M. de Galbert’s Establishment
—Practical Nature of Pisciculture—Turtle-Culture—Best Kinds of
Fish to rear—Pisciculture in Germany—Stormontfield Salmon-Breed-
ing Ponds—Design for a Suite of Salmon-Ponds—Statistics of Stor-
montfield—Acclimatisation of Fish—-The Australian Experiment,

Tue art of fish-culture is almost as old as civilisation it-
self. We read of its having been practised in the empire of
China for many centuries, and we also know that it was much
thought of in the palmy days of ancient Italy, when ex-
peusively-fed fish of all kinds were a necessity of the wonderful
banquets given by wealthy Romans and Neapolitans, There is
still in China a large trade in fish-eggs, and boats may be seen
containing men who gather the spawn in various rivers, and
then carry it into the interior of the country for sale, where the
young fish are reared in great flocks or shoals in the rice-fields,
One Chinese mode of collecting fish-spawn is to map out a river
into compartments by means of mats and hurdles, leaving only
a passage for the boats. The mats and hurdles intercept the
spawn, which is skimmed off the water, preserved for sale in
large jars, and is bought by persons who have ponds or. other
pieces of water which they may wish to stock with gold or“other
fish. Another plan is to hatch fish-eggs in paddy fields, and in
these places the spawn speedily comes to life, and the flocks of
little fishes are herded from one field to another as the food
becomes exhausted. The trade in ova is so well managed, even

62 CHINESE FISH CULTURE.

in the present day, that fish are plentiful and cheap—so cheap
as to form a large portion of the food of the people ; and nothing
so much surprises the Chinese who come here as the high price
paid for the fish of this country. A Chinese fisherman was
much astonished, some years ago, at the price he was charged
for a fish-breakfast at Toulon. This person had arrived in
France with four or five thousand young fish of the best kinds
produced in his country, for the purpose of their being placed in
the great marine aquarium in the Bois de Boulogne. Being
annoyed at the comparative scarcity of fish in France, the young
Chinaman wrote a brief memoir, showing that, with the com-
mand of a small pond, any quantity of fish might be raised at a
trifling expense, All that is necessary, he stated in the memoir
alluded to, is to watch the period of spawning, and throw yolks
of eggs into the water from time to time, by which means an
incredible quantity of young fry are saved from destruction.
For, according to the information conveyed by this very intelli-
gent youth, thousands of infantile fish annually die from starvation
—they are unable to seek their own food at so tender an age,
Many of the stories we hear about the Chinese mode of breeding
fish are evidently exaggerated ; but one particularly ingenious
method of artificial hatching which has been resorted to by the
people of China is worth noting as a piscicultural novelty. These
ingenious Celestials carry on a business in selling and hatching
fish-spawn, collecting the impregnated eggs from various rivers
and lakes, in order to sell to the proprietors of canals and private
ponds, When the proper season for hatching arrives, they
empty a hen’s egg, by means of a small aperture, sucking out
the natural contents, and then, after substituting fish-spawn,
close up the opening. The egg thus manipulated is placed
for a few days“under a hen! By and by the shell is broken,
and the contents are placed in a vessel of water, warmed by the
heat of the sun only; the eggs speedily burst, and in a short
time the young fish are able to be transported to a lake or river
of ordinary temperature, where they are of course left to grow
to maturity without being further noticed than to have a little
food thrown to them.

The luxurious Romans achieved great wonders in the art of
fish-breeding, and were able to perform curious experiments with
the piscine inhabitants of their aquariums; they were also well
versed in the arts of acclimatisation. A classic friend, who is
well versed in ancient fish lore, tells me that the great Roman

ITALIAN LUXURY. 63

epicures could run their fish from ice-cold water into boiling
cauldrons without handling them! They spared neither labour
nor money in order to gratify their palates. The Italians sent
to the shores of Britain for their oysters, and then flavoured
them in large quantities on artificial beds, The value of a
Roman gentleman’s fish in the palmy days of Italian banqueting
was represented by an enormous sum of money., The stock
kept up by Lucullus was never valued at a less sum than £35,000!
These classic lovers of good things had pet breeds of fish in the
same sense as gentlemen in the present day have pet breeds of
sheep or horned cattle. Lwucullus, for instance, to have such a
valuable stock, must have been in possession of unique varieties
derived from curious crosses, etc. Red mullet or fat carp, which
sold for large prices, were not at all unusual. Sixty pounds
were given for a single mullet, more than three times that sum
being paid for a dish of that fish ; and enormous sums of money
were lavished in the buying, rearing, and taming of the mullet ;
so much so, that some of those who devoted their time and
money to this purpose were satirised as mullet millionaires,
One noble Roman went to a fabulous expense in boring a tunnel
through a mountain, in order to obtain a plentiful supply of salt-
water for his fish-ponds. Sergius Orata invented artificial
oyster-beds, He caused to be constructed at Bais, on the
Lucrine Sea, great reservoirs, where he grew the dainty mollusc
in thousands; and in order that he and his friends might have
this renowned shell-fish in its very highest perfection, he built
a palace on the coast, in order to be near his oyster-ponds ; and
thither he resorted when he wanted to have a fish-dinner free
from the care and turmoil of business. Many of the more
luxurious Italians, imitating Sergius Orata, expended fabulous
sums of money on their fish-ponds, and were so enabled, by
means of their extravagance, to achieve all kinds of outré results
in the fattening and flavouring of their fish, A curious story,
illustrative of these times and of the value set on fish of a par-
ticular flavour, is related, in regard to the bass (Jabrax Lupus)
which were caught in the river Tiber. The Roman epicures
were very fond of this fish, especially of those caught in a parti-
cular portion of the river, which they could distinguish by means
of their taste and fine colour. An exquisite, while dining, was
horrified at being served with bass of the wrong flavour, and
loudly complained of the badness of the fish ; the fact being that
the real bass (the high-coloured kind) were flavoured by the dis-

64 COMMERCIAL FISH CULTURE.

gusting food which they obtained at the mouth of a common
sewer.

The modern phase of pisciculture is entirely a commercial
one, which as yet does not liein imparting fanciful flavours to
fish, but has developed itself both at home and abroad in the
replenishing of exhausted streams with salmon, trout, or other
kinds of fish. The present idea of piscicultureyas a branch of
commerce, is due to the shrewdness of a simple French peasant,
who gained his livelihood as a pécheur in the tributaries of the
Moselle, and the other streams of his native district, La Bresse
in the Vosges. He was a thinking man, although a poor one,
and it had long puzzled him to understand how animals yield-
ing such an abundant supply of eggs should, by any amount of
fishing, ever become scarce. He knew very well that all female
fish were provided with tens of thousands of eggs, and he could
not well see how, in the face of this fact, the rivers of La Bresse
should be so scantily peopled with the finny tribes. Nor was
the scarcity of fish confined to his own district: the rivers of
France generally had become impoverished; and as in all
Catholic countries fish is a prime necessary of life, the want of
course was greatly felt, Joseph Remy was the man who first
found out what was wrong with the French streams, and
especially with the fish supplies of his native rivers—and, better
than that, he discovered a remedy. He ascertained that the
scarcity of fish was chiefly caused by the immense number of
eggs that never came to life, the enormous quantity of young
fish that were destroyed by enemies of one kind or another, and
the fishing-up of all that was left, in many instances, before they
had an opportunity to reproduce themselves ; at any rate, with-
out any care being taken to leave a sufficient breeding stock in
the rivers, so that the result he discovered had become inevitable.

The guiding fact of pisciculture has been more than once
accidentally re-discovered—that is, allowing that the ; ancient
Romans knew it exatvtly as now practised ; but nothing came of
such discoveries, and till a discovery be turned to some practical
use, it is, in a sense, no discovery at all. After being lost for
many hundred years, the art of artificially spawning fish was
re-discovered in Germany by one Jacobi, and practised on some
trout more than a century ago. This gentleman not only
practised pisciculture himself, but wrote essays on the subject
as well. His elaborate treatise on the art of fish-culture was
written in the German language, but also translated into Latin,

SCIENTIFIC AND COMMERCIAL FISH-CULTURE, 65

and inserted by Duhamel du Monceau in his General Treatise on
Fishes. Jacobi, who practised the art for thirty years, was not
‘satisfied with a mere discovery, but at once turned what he had
discovered to practical account, and, in the time of Jacobi, great
attention was devoted to pisciculture by various gentlemen of
scientific eminence. Count Goldstein, a savan of the period,
likewise wrote en the subject. The Journal of Hanover also
had papers on this art, and an account of Jacobi’s proceedings
was enrolled in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Berlin.
This discovery of Jacobi was the simple result of keen observa-
tion of the natural action of the breeding salmon, Observing
that the process of impregnation was entirely an external act,
he saw at once that this could be easily imitated by careful
manipulation ; so that, by conducting artificial hatching on a
large scale, a constant and unfailing supply of fish might readily
be obtained. The results arrived at by Jacobi were of vast
importance, and obtained not only the recognition of his govern-
ment, but also the more solid reward of a pension.

Some persons dispute the claims of France to the honour of
this discovery, asserting that the peasant Remy had borrowed
his idea from the experiments of the late Mr. Shaw of Drumlan-
rig, who had by the artificial system undertaken to prove that
parrs were the young of the salmon. Mr. Shaw’s experiments
were very complete and laborious; they extended over a number
of years, were reported to the Royal Society of Scotland, and
were brought to a successful conclusion long before the re-dis-
covery of the art of pisciculture by Remy. In my opinion the
honours may be thus divided, whether Remy knew of Shaw’s
experiments -or not: I would give to Scotland the honour ‘of
having re-discovered pisciculture as an adjunct of science, and
to France the useful part of having turned the art to commercial
account. In regard to what has been already stated here as to
the accidental discovery of artificial fish-breeding, I may mention
that James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, was one of the dis-
coverers. Hogg had an observant eye for rural scenes and
incidents, and anxiously studied and experimented on fish-life,
He took an active share in the parr controversy. Having seen
with his own eyes the branded parr assuming the scales of the
smolt, he never doubted after that the fact that the parr was
the young of the salmon. In Norway, too, an accidental dis-
covery of this fish-breeding power was made; and certainly if
salmon-fishing in that country goes on at its present rate culti-

F

66 : LABOURS OF GEHIN AND REMY.

vation will be largely required, The artificial plan of breeding
oysters has been more than once accidentally discovered. There
is at least one well-authenticated instance of this, which occurred
about a century ago, when a saltmaker of Marennes, who added
to his income by fattening oysters, lost a batch of six thousand
in consequence of an intense frost, the shells not being sufficiently
covered with water; but while engaged in mourning over his
loss and kicking about the dead molluscs, he found them, greatly
to his surprise, covered with young oysters already pretty well
developed, and these, fortunately, although tender, all in good
health, so that ultimately he repeopled his salt-bed without
either trouble or expense—having of course to wait a year or
two for the growth of the natives before he could recommence
his commerce.

To return to Remy, however, his experiments were so in-
stantaneously crowned with success as even to be a surprise ‘to
himself; and in order to encourage him and Gehin, a coadjutor
he had chosen, the Emulation Society of the Vosges voted them
a considerable sum of money and a handsome bronze medal.
But it was not till 1849 that the proceedings of the two
attracted that degree of notice which their importance demanded
both in a scientific and economic sense. Dr. Haxo of Epinal
then communicated to the Academy of Sciences at Paris an
elaborate paper on the subject, which at once fixed attention on
the labours of the two fishermen—in fact, it excited a sensation
both in the Academy and among the people. The government
of the time at once gave attention to the matter, and finding,
upon inquiry, everything that was said about the utility of the
plan to be true, resolved to have it extended to all the rivers in
France, especially to those of the poorer districts of the country.
The artificial system of fish-breeding was by this mode of action
rapidly extended over the chief rivers of France, and added
much to the comfort of the people, and in some cases little for-
tunes were realised by intelligent farmers who appreciated the
system, and had a pond or stream on which they could conduct
their experiments in safety. The piscicultural system culmi-
nated in France, chiefly under the direction of Professor Coste,
in the erection of a great establishment at Huningue, near Bale,
for the collection and distribution of fish-eggs. In order to see
this place with my own eyes, and so be enabled to describe
exactly how the piscicultural business of France is administered,
I paid a visit to the great laboratory.

A TRIP TO HUNINGUE. 67

Bent on a piscatorial tour, I noted with care the spots of
water that pretty often fringed the line of rails, and wondered
if they were populated by any of the finny tribe ; if so, by what
kind of fish, and whether they had been replenished by the aid of
pisciculture ? There was evidently fishing in the districts passed
through, because at some of the stations there was the vision of
an occasional angler, and a frequent “flop” in many of the pools
which we passed convinced me that fair sport might be had ;
and the entry of an occasional Waltonian into some of the stations
with a few pounds weight of trout quite excited everybody, and
made some of us long to whip the waters of the district of
Champagne, through which we were passing. And a close in-
spection of the national etablissement de pisciculture at Huningue
has convinced me that if any river in France be still fishless, it
is not through any fault of the government.

As even the longest journey will come to an end, the train
arrived in due time at Mulhouse, or Mulhausen, as it is called
in the German, and it being late and dark, and all of us (I was
one of a little party) somewhat fatigued, we allowed ourselves to
be carried to the nearest hotel, a large, uncomfortable, dirty-
looking place, where apparently they seldom see British gold, and
make an immense charge for bougies, Being within scent of
Switzerland, having the feeling that we were in the shadow of
its mountains, and almost within hearing of the noise made by
its many waters, we hurried on by the first morning train to Bale,
The distance is short, and the conveyance quick. Almost before
we had time to view the passing landscape, which is exceed-
ingly beautiful, being rich in vineyards and orchards, and rapidly
turning Swiss in its scenery, we were stopped at St. Louis by
the custom-house authorities, who, it is but proper to say, are
exceedingly polite to all honest travellers. I would advise any
one in search of the etablissement de pisciculture at Huningue to
leave the train at this station. Not knowing its proximity at
the time of my visit, I went right on to Bale.

Poets might go into raptures about Bale—Bale the beautiful
—with the flowing Rhine cutting it into two halves, its waters
green as the icefields which had given them birth, its houses
quaint, its streets so clean, its fountains so antique ; but we had
no time to go into raptures—our business was to get to Huningue,
and curiously enough we had wandered into the fishmarket before
we knew where we were. Like various other fishmarkets which
we have visited, it contained no fish that we could see, but it is

68 THE FISHMARKET AT BALE.

so picturesque that I determined to place a view of it in this
work, Hailing a voiture, our party had no end of difficulty to
get the coachman to understand where we wanted to be driven.
I said, “To Huningue ;” he then suggested that it must be
“ Euiniguen,” and a Scotch young lady friend, who was all in a

THE FISHMARKET AT BALE,

glow about the “beautiful Rhine,” as, of course, a young lady
ought to be, suggested that the pronunciation might be “ Hin-
ingue,” which proved a shrewd guess, as immediately on hearing
it we were addressed in tolerable but very broken English by a
quiet-looking coachman, who said, “Come with me; I have
study the English grammaire ; I know where you want to go,
and will take you.” Although I could not help wondering that
a celebrated place, as we all thought Huningue ought to be, was
not better known, I felt pretty sure our coachman knew it ; and
having persuaded my Scotch friend and his young lady to take
a drive, we at once started for the etablissement de pisciculture,
where we were all of us most hospitably received by the super-

HUNINGUE, 69

intendent, who at once conducted us over the whole place with
great civility and attention.

The series of buildings which have been erected at
Huningue are admirably adapted to the purpose for which
they have been designed. The group forms a square, the
entrance portion of which—two lodges—is devoted to the
corps de garde, and the centre has been laid out as a kind of

GROUND-PLAN OF THE PISCICULTURAL ESTABLISHMENT AT HUNINGUE,

Showing the disposition of the buildings and the situation of the experimental
watercourses.

shrubbery, and is relieved with two little ponds containing
fish, The whole establishment, ponds and buildings, occupies
a space of eighty acres. The suite of buildings comprise at the
side two great hatching galleries, 60 metres in length and 9
metres broad, containing a plentiful supply of tanks and egg-
boxes; and in the back part of the square are the offices,
library, laboratory, and residences of the officers. Having

70 HUNINGUE.

minutely inspected the whole apparatus, I particularly admired
the aptitude by which the means to a certain end had been
carried out. The egg-boxes are raised in pyramids, the water
flowing from the one on the top into those immediately below.
The eggs are placed in rows on’ glass frames which fit into the
boxes, as will be seen by examining the drawings. The grand

VIEW OF HUNINGUE,

agent in the hatching of fish-eggs being water, I was naturally
enough rather particular in making inquiry into the water sup-
plies of Huningue, and these I found were very ample: they
are derived from three sources—the springs on the private
grounds of the establishment, the Rhine, and the Augraben
stream, The water of the higher springs is directed towards the
buildings through an underground conduit, whilst those rising
at a lower level are used only in small basins and trenches for
the experiments in rearing fish outside. Being uncovered, how-
ever, they are easily frozen, and are besides frequently muddy
and troubled. As a general rule, fish are not bred at Hun-
ingue, the chief business accomplished there being the collec-

HUNINGUE. 71

tion and distribution of their eggs; but there is a large supply
of tanks or troughs for the purpose of experimenting with
such fish as may be kept in the place. The waters of the
Rhine, being at a higher level than the springs, can be at once

HALL OF INCUBATION.

employed in the appareils and basins, The waters of the
Augraben stream, which cross the grounds, are of very little
use, Nearly dry in summer, rapid and muddy after rain,
they have only hitherto served to supply some small exterior
basins. - Of course, different qualities of water are quite neces-
sary for the success of the experiments in acclimatisation
carried on so zealously at this establishment. Some fish delight
in a clear running stream, while others prefer to pass their
life in sluggish and fat waters. The engineering of the different
water-supplies, all of them at different levels, has been effectu-
ally accomplished by M. Coumes, the engineer of this department
of the Rhine, who, in conjunction with Professor Coste, planned

72 HUNINGUE.

the buildings at Huningue ; indeed the machinery of all kinds
is as nearly as possible perfect.

The course of business at Huningue is as follows :—The
eggs are brought chiefly from Switzerland and Germany, and
embrace those of the various kinds of trout, the Danube and

BASINS FOR THE YOUNG FISH.

Rhine salmon, and the tender ombre chevalier, People are
appointed to capture gravid fish of these various kinds, and
having done so to communicate with the authorities at
Huningue, who at once send an expert to deprive the fishes
of their spawn and bring it to the breeding or store boxes,
where it is carefully tended and daily watched till it is ready
to be despatched to some district in want of it. The mode of
artificial spawning is as follows, and I will suppose the subject
operated upon to be a salmon :—Well, first catch your fish ; and
here I may state that male salmon are a great deal scarcer than
female ones, but fortunately one of the former will milt two or

even three of the latter, so that the scarcity is not so much felt

ARTIFICIAL SPAWNING. 73

as it might otherwise be. The fish, then, having been caught,
it should be seen, before operating, that the spawn is perfectly
matured, and that being the case, the salmon should be held in
a large tub, well buried in the water it contains, while the hand

AM

pi
ny

i

=a

GUTTERS FOR HATCHING PURPOSES.

®
is gently passed along its abdomen, when, if the ova be ripe, the
eggs will flow out like so many peas. The eggs must be care-
fully roused or washed, and the water should then be poured
off, The male salmon may be then handled in a similar way,
the contact of the milt immediately changing the eggs into a
brilliant pink colour. After being again washed, the eggs may
be ladled out into the breeding-boxes, and safely left to come
to maturity in due season. Very great care is necessary in
handling the ova. The eggs distributed from Huningue are
all carefully examined on their arrival, when the bad ones are
thrown out, and those that are good are counted and entered
upon the records of the establishment, which are carefully

74. PACKING OF FISH EGGS.

kept. The usual way of ascertaining the quantity is by means
of a little stamped measure, which varies according to the
particular fish-eggs to be counted. The ova are watched with
great care so long as they remain in the boxes at Huningue, and
any dust is removed by means of a fine camel-hair brush, and
from day to day all the eggs that become addled are removed.
The applications to the authorities at Huningue for eggs, both
from individuals and associations, are always a great deal more

ARTIFICIAL MODE OF SPAWNING.

numerous than can be supplied ; and before second applications
from the same people can be entertained, it is necessary for
them to give a detailed account of how their former efforts
succeeded. The eggs, when sent away, are nicely packed in
boxes among wet moss, and they suffer very little injury if there
be no delay in the transit.

“ How about the streams from which the eggs are brought?”
I asked. “Does this robbery of the spawn not injure them ?”

“Oh, no; we find that it makes no difference whatever.
The fish are so enormously fecund that the eggs can be got in
any quantity, and no difference be felt in the parent waters ;
what we obtain here are a mere percentage of the grand totals
deposited by the fish.”

Of course, as the operations are pursued over a large district
of two countries, no immediate difference will be felt ; but how
if these Huningue exploratew's go on for years taking away tens
of thouands of eggs? ‘Will not that ultimately prove a case of
robbing Peter to pay Paul? I know full well that all kinds of
fish are enormously prolific, and the reader would see from the
figures given in a former section that it is so; but suppose a
river, with the breeding power of the Tay, was annually robbed
of a few million eggs, the result must some day be a slight dif-

DANUBE SALMON. 15

ference in the productive power of the water. I would like to
know with exactitude if, while the waters of France are being
replenished, the rivers in Switzerland and Germany are not be-
ginning to be in their turn impoverished? It surely stands to
reason that if the impoverishment of streams resulting from
natural causes be aided by the carrying away of the eggs by zealous
explorateurs, they must become in a short time almost totally
barren of fish. The best plan, in my opinion, is for each river
to have its own breeding-ponds on the plan of those of Stormont-
field on the river Tay.

It would scarcely pay to breed the commoner fishes of the
lakes and rivers, as pike, carp, and perch ; the commonest fish
bred at Huningue is the fera, whilst the most expensive is the
beautiful ombre chevalier, the eggs of which cost about a penny
each- before they are in the water as fish, The general calcula-
tion, however, appertaining to the operations carried on at
Huningue gives twelve living fish for a penny. The fera is very
prolific, yielding its eggs in thousands; it is called the herring
of the lakes ; and the young, when first born, are so small as
scarcely to be perceptible. The superintendent at Huningue
told me that several of them had escaped by means of the canal
into the Rhine, where they had never before been found. I
inquired particularly as to the Danube salmon, but found that
it was very difficult to hatch, especially at first, great numbers
of the eggs, as many sometimes as 60 or 70 per cent, being de-
stroyed ; but now the manipulators are getting better acquainted
with the modus operandi, and it is expected that by and by the
assistants at Huningue will be as successful with this fish as
they are with all others, Even allowing for a very considerable
loss in the artificially-manipulated ova—and it is thought that
two-thirds at least of the eggs of this fish are in some way lost
— it is certain that the artificial system of protection is immen-
sely more productive in fish than the natural one, for it has been
said, in reference especially to the salmon of the river Tay, that
hardly one in a thousand of the eggs ever reaches maturity as a
proper table-fish, such is the enormous destruction of eggs and
young fry; and the percentage of destruction in Catholic
countries is greatly larger, because during those fast-days enjoined
by the church fish must be obtained.

The piscicultural establishment of M. de Galbert, one of
the most important of the kind which exists in France, is worthy
of notice. It is situated at Buisse in the canton of Voiron in

76 M. DE GALBERT’S ESTABLISHMENT.

Isere, a department: on the south-east frontier of France. The
works, of which the accompanying engraving is a plan, comprise
four ponds for the reception of the fish in various stages of
growth, The first (1 in the plan) is about 100 metres long by
3 m. 60 in breadth, with a mean depth of 1 metre, It is
almost divided into two parts, a sheet of water and a stream,

PISCICULTURAL ESTABLISHMENT AT BUISSE,

by a peninsula, and the division is completed by a grating which
prevents the mixing of the fish contained in each part, and also
arrests the ascent or descent of the fry. The sheet of water is
supplied: from sources of an elevated temperature which diverge
into the stream, and thence into pond No, 2 at N. This basin
(2) is 150 metres long, with a mean breadth of 8 metres, and
a depth varying from 1 to 2 metres. Besides the waters from
the first pond, this basin is supplied from the springs, and from
the millstream which rises from a rock situated at a distance of
200 metres, This pond contains fish of the second year. A
sluice or water-gate (J), placed in the deepest part of the pond,
affords the means of turning the water and the fish contained
therein into the pond No, 3. Courses of rough stones and weeds
line the banks of the pond, and form places of shelter for the
fish, besides encouraging the growth of such shell-fish as shrimps,

PLAN OF A SUITE OF PONDS. U7

lobsters, etc. The third pond (3) has a surface of about 5000
yards, with a depth equal to that of the second pond. An
underground canal (G) runs along the eastern side, and at
distances of 2 metres trenches lined with stones loosely thrown
together join the canal to the basin, and allow the fish to circu-
late through these subterranean passages, where every stone
becomes a means of shelter and concealment. The adult trout
can conceal themselves in the submerged holes and crevices of
the islands (F), of which there are three in the pond, The
narrowest part of the basin is crossed by a viaduct of 8 metres
(N), to. the arch of which is fitted an iron grating with rods in
grooves to receive either a sluice or a snare. The sluice, formed
of fine wire, keeps out the fish that would destroy the spawn at
the time of fecundation, The spawn is covered with a layer of
fine round gravel, to the thickness of 0 m. 30, which the trout
can easily raise as fast as it bursts the egg. The snare or
netting encloses the fish destined for artificial breeding without
hurting them, and also secures the fish that are to be consumed,
and those which it is necessary to destroy because of their
voracity, as the pike. A floodgate placed at the lower end of
the pond permits the pond to be emptied when necessary, and
an iron grating prevents the escape of the fish. All the ponds
are protected by a double line of galvanised iron wire placed on
posts armed with hooks, and yet low enough to allow a boat to
pass. The water of the ponds finally passes into the Isere,
where a permanent snare allows strange fish to penetrate into
the ponds. At spawning time a great many trout deposit their
spawn there, The small pond (4) fed by the mill-stream is a
sort of reservoir for large fish destined for sale or domestic use.
Throughout the year the fish caught in the nets of the third
pond are placed in this basin, so when the spawning season
arrives it is a vast nursery for the purpose of reproduction. In
the house (O) built near the bridge (N) of the third pond lodge
the guard and the hatching-apparatus. The appareils are
similar to those employed at the Collége de France, and are
supplied from a spring, One particular appareil, placed in a
source of which the temperature never varies, is slightly different
from the other models: it is simply zinc boxes pierced with very
fine holes. This apparatus, which has been in use for three
years, has given great satisfaction. It may be added that the
establishment at Buisse can supply 40,000 or 50,000 young
trout in. the year at five centimes each, a result which is mainly

78 PRACTICAL NATURE OF THE ART.

due to the care and solicitude with which M. de Galbert has
conducted his operations.

What strikes us most in connection with the history of
French fish-culture is the essentially practical nature of all the
experiments which have been entered upon, There has been no
toying in France with this revived art of fish-breeding. The
moment it was ascertained that Remy’s discoveries in artificial
spawning were capable of being carried out on the largest
possible scale, that scale was at once resolved upon, and the
government of the country became responsible for its success,
which was immediate and substantial. The discoverer of the
art was handsomely rewarded; and the great building at
Huningue, used as a place for the reception and distribution of
fish-eggs, testifies to the anxiety of France to make pisciculture
one of the most practical industries of the present day. Un-
eeasing efforts are still being made by the government to extend
the art, so that every acre of water in that country may be as
industriously turned to profit as the acres of land are. Why
should not an acre of water become as productive as an acre of
land? ‘We have an immensity of water space that is compara-
tively useless, The French people are now beginning thoroughly
to appreciate the value of their lakes and rivers, and to cultivate
them with the greatest possible assiduity—there is not an acre
of water in the country that is not turned to use by the people.
Think of the fish-ponds of Doombes being of the extent of
thirty thousand acres! No wonder that in France pisciculture
has become a government question, and been taken under the
protecting wing of the state.

The different kinds of water in France are carefully con-
sidered, and only fish suitable for them placed therein, In
marshy places eels alone are deposited, whilst in bright and
rapid waters trout and other suitable fish are now to be found
in great plenty. Attention is at present being turned to sea-
fish, and the latest “idea” that has been promulgated in con-
nection with the cultivation of sea-animals is turtle-culture,
The artificial multiplication of turtle, on the plan of securing the
eggs and protecting the young till they are able to be left to
their own guidance, is advocated by M. Salles, who is connected
with the French navy, and who seems to have a considerable
knowledge of the nature and habits of the turtle. To some
extent turtle-culture is already carried on in the island of Ascen-
sion—so far at least as the protection of the eggs and watching

TURTLE CULTURE. 79

over the young is concerned. M., Salles proposes, however, to
do more than is yet done at Ascension ; he thinks that, to arrive
quickly at a useful result, it would be best to obtain a certain
number of these animals from places where they are still
abundant, and transport them to such parks or receptacles as
might be established on the coasts of France and Corsica, where,
at one time, turtles were plentiful. Animals about to lay would
be the best to secure for the proposed experiments ; and these
might be captured when seeking the sandy shores for the pur-
pose of depositing their eggs. Male turtles might at the same
time be taken about the islets which they frequent. A vessel
of. sufficient dimensions should be in readiness to bring away the
precious freight ; and the captured animals, on arriving at their
destination, should be deposited in a park chosen under the
following considerations :—The formation of the sides to be an
inclosure by means of an artificial barrier of moderate height,
formed of stones, and perpendicular within, so as to prevent the
escape of the animals, but so constructed as to admit the sea,
and, at the same time, allow of a large sandy background for
the deposition of the eggs, which are about the size of those laid
by geese. As the turtles are herbivorous, the bottom of the
park should be covered with sea-weeds and marine plants of all
kinds, similar to those the animal is accustomed to at home, A
fine southern exposure ought to be chosen for the site of the
park, in order to obtain as much of the sunshine as possible, heat
being the one grand element in the hatching of the eggs. Turtles
are very fond of sunshine, and float lazily about in the tropical .
water, seldom coming to the shore except to lay. This they do
in the night-time: crawling cautiously ashore, and scraping a
large hole in a part of the sand which is never reached by the
tide, they deposit their eggs, and carefully cover them with the
sand, leaving the sun to effect the work of quickéning them
into life.

It may be as well to state here that the French people eat
all kinds of fish, whether they be from the sea, the river, the
lake, or the canal. In Scotland and Ireland the salmon only is
bred artificially as yet, and chiefly because it is a valuable and
money-yielding animal, and no other fresh-water fish is regarded
in these countries as being of value except for sport. In France
large quantities of eels are bred and eaten; but in Scotland,
and in some parts of England, the people have such a horror of
that fish that they will not touch it, This of course is due to

80 PISCICULTURE IN GERMANY.

prejudice, the eel being good for food in a very high degree. In
all Roman Catholic countries there are so many fast-days that fish-
food becomes to the people an essential article of diet ; in France
this is so, and the consequence is that a good many private
amateurs in pisciculture are to be found in that country; but
the mission of the French government in connection with fish-
culture is apparently to meddle only with the rearing and ac-
climatising of the more valuable fishes. It would be a waste of
energy for the authorities at Huningue to commence the culture
of the carp or perch. In our Protestant country there is no
demand for the commoner river or lake fishes except for the
purposes of sport ; and with one or two exceptions, such as the
Lochleyen trout, the charr, etc., there is no commerce carried
on in these fishes, One has but to visit the fishmarket at Paris
to observe that all kinds of fresh-water fish and river crustacea
are there ranked as saleable, and largely purchased. The mode
of keeping these animals fresh is worthy of being followed here.
They are kept alive till wanted in large basins and troughs,
where they may at all times be seen swimming about in a very
lively state.

As soon as the piscicultural system became known, it was
rapidly extended over the whole continent of Europe, and the
rivers of Germany were among the first to participate in the
advantages of artificial cultivation. In particular may be
noticed the efforts made to increase the supplies of the Danube
salmon, a beautiful and excellent food-fish, with a body similar
to the trout, but still more shapely and graceful, and which, if
allowed time, is said to grow to an enormous size. The young
salmon of the Danube are always of a darker colour than those
a little older, but they become lighter in colour as they progress
in years. The mouth of this fish is furnished with very strong
teeth ; its*back is of a reddish grey, its sides and belly perfectly
white ; the fins are bluish white; the back and the upper part
of both sides are slightly and irregularly speckled with black
and roundish red spots, This fish is also very prolific. Pro-
fessor Wimmer of Landshut, the authorities at Huningue
mentioned, had frequently obtained as many as 40,000 eggs
from a female specimen which weighed only eighteen pounds.
Our own Salmo salar is not so fecund, it being well understood
that a thousand eggs per pound weight is about the average
spawning power of the British salmon. The ova of the Danube
salmon are hatched in half the time that our salmon eggs re-

STORMONTFIELD. 81

quire for incubation—viz, in fifty-six days—while the young
fry attain the weight of one pound in the first year ; and by the
third year, if well supplied with the requisite quantity. of food,
they will have attained a weight of four pounds, The divisions
of growth of the great fish of the Danube, as compared with
Salmo salar, are pretty nearly as follows :—Our fish, curiously
enough, may at the end of two years be eight pounds in weight,
or it may not be half that number of ounces. One batch of a
salmon hatching go to the sea at the end of the first year after
birth, and rapidly return as grilse, handsome four-pound fish,
whilst the other moiety remain in the fresh water till the expiry
of the second year from the time of birth, so that they require
about thirty months .to become four-pound fish, by which time
the first moiety are salmon of eight or ten pounds! These are
ascertained facts, This is rapid growth when compared with the
Danube fish, which, after the first year, grows only at about
the rate of eighteen ounces per annum. But, even at that rate,
fish-cultivation must pay well. Suppose, for the sake of an
illustration, that by the protected or piscicultural system a full
third (1.2. 13,500) of the 40,000 eggs arrive in twelve months
at the stage of pound fish, and are sold at the rate of three-
pence per pound weight, a revenue of £162 would thus result
in one year’s time from a single pair of breeding salmon! Two
pairs would, of course, double the amount, and so on,

A series of well-conducted operations in fish-culture has been
carried on for about twenty years on the river Tay, about five
mniles from Perth ; and as these have attracted a great amount
of attention, they merit description. The breeding ponds at
Stormontfield are beautifully situated on a sloping haugh on the
banks of Tay, and are sheltered at the back by a plantation of
trees, The ground has been laid out to the best advantage, the
ponds, water-runs, etc., having been planned and constructed by
Mr. Peter Burn, C.E. The supply of water is obtained from a
rapid mill-stream, which runs in a line with the river Tay, as is
shown by our plan. The necessary quantity of water is first
run from this stream into a reservoir, from which it is filtered
through pipes into a little watercourse at the head of the range
of boxes from whence it is laid on. These boxes are fixed on a
gentle declivity, half-way between the mill-race and the Tay,
and by means of the slope the water falls beautifully from one
to another of the “ procreant cradles” in a gradual but constant
stream, and collects at the bottom of the range of boxes in a

G

82 PLAN OF STORMONTFIELD PONDS.

kind of dam, and thence runs into a small lake or depdt where
the young fish are kept. For some years after the experiments

37
a

SSS = 5

390

100 FEET

ea

ORIGINAL BREEDING-POND AT STORMONTFIELD.

A. Mill-race. ' L. Pipe to empty pond.

B. Filtering-pond. M. Pipe from mill-race to filtering-
C. Hatching-boxes. pond.

D. Rearing-pond. 2. Discharge-pipes from do.

E. Upper canal. O. Do. do. to lower canal.

F. Lower canal. P. Sluices from pond.

G. Connecting stream of C and D. R. Marking-box.

H. By-run to river. " §, Keeper’s house.

K. Pipe from mill-race to pond. T V. Sluices from lower canal.

were begun only one pond was to be found at Stormontfield,
but another pond for the smolts has since been added in order

CONSTRUCTION OF THE PONDS. 83

to complete the suite. A sluice made of fine wire-grating
admits of the superfluous water being run off into the Tay, so
that an equable supply is invariably kept up. It also serves
for an outlet to the fish when. it is deemed expedient to send
them out to try their fortune in the greater deep near at
hand, and for which their pond experience has been a mode of
preparation. The planning of the boxes, ponds, sluices, etc.,
has been. accomplished with great ingenuity; and one can
only regret that the whole apparatus is not three times the
size, so that the Tay proprietors might breed annually two
or three million of salmon, which would add largely to the
productiveness of that river, and of course aid in increasing the
rental.

For the purpose of showing ‘the level of the pond at Stor-
montfield I beg to introduce what the French people call “a
profile.”

PROFILE OF STORMONTFIELD SALMON-BREEDING PONDS.

A. Source of water-supply. C. Egg-boxes.
B. Pond from which to filter water D. Pond for young fish.
on boxes, E. River Tay.

The salmon-breeding operations at Stormontfield originated
at a meeting of the proprietors of the river Tay held in July
1852. On the suggestion of Mr. Ashworth, a practical pisci-
culturist was-engaged to inaugurate the breeding operations,
and to teach a local fisherman the art of artificial spawning.
The preparation of the spawn for the nursing boxes was com-
menced on the 23d of November 1853, and in the course of a
month 300,000 ova were deposited in the 300 boxes, which
had been carefully filled with prepared gravel, and made all
ready for their reception. Mr. Ramsbottom, who conducted
the manipulation, says the river Tay is one of the finest breed-
ing streams in the world, and thinks that it would be pre-
sumptuous to limit the numbers of salmon that might be bred

84 DESIGN FOR A SUITE OF SALMON PONDS.

in it were the river cultivated to the full extent of its capa-
bilities,

The date when the first of the eggs deposited was observed
to be hatched ‘vas on the 31st of March, a period of more than

oe §0 10
Latreiipet

DESIGN FOR A SERIES OF SALMON-BREEDING PONDS.

Source of supply at top. Adult salmon-pond to the left.
Breeding-boxes next. River at foot of plan.

Parr-pond after. Ornamental walks.

Smolt-pond to the right. Clumps of trees, etc., dccording to taste.

four months after the stocking of the boxes; and during April
and May most of the eggs had burst into life, and the fry
were observed waddling about the breeding-boxes, and were in
June promoted to a place in the reception-pond, being then
tiny fish a little more than an inch long. The first year’s ex-
periments were remarkably successful in showing the practica-
bility of hatching, rearing, and maintaining in health, a very
large number of young fish, at a comparatively trifling cost.

EGG-BOXES AT STORMONTFIELD. 85

The artificial breeding of salmon is still carried on at these
ponds, and with very great success, when their limited extent is
taken into account: half-a-million of eggs are hatched every
year. They have sensibly increased the stock of fish in the
Tay, and also, as I will by and by relate, under the separate
head of “The Salmon,” contributed greatly to the solution of
the various mysteries connected with the growth of that fish.
The fish, it is remarkable, suffer no deterioration of any kind
by being bred in the ponds, and can compare in every respect
with those bred in the river.

The plan of the ponds at Stormontfield, as originally con-
structed, will be a better guide to persons desiring information
than any written description. The engraving on the opposite
page with the double pond, shows a design of my own, founded
on the Stormontfield suite ; it contains a separate pond for the
detention, for a time, of such large fish as may be taken with
their spawn not fully matured. Cottages for the superintendent
of the ponds and his assistants are also shown in the plan.

The ponds at Stormontfield were originally designed with a
view to breed 300,000 fish per annum, but after a trial of two
years it was found, from a specialty in the natural history of
the salmon elsewhere alluded to, that ‘only half that number of
fish could be bred in each year. Hence the necessity for the
smolt-pond which was added a few years ago, and which will
now admit of a hatching at Stormontfield of at least 500,000
eggs every year. Another reason for the construction of the
additional pond was the fact of the old one being too small in
proportion to the breeding-boxes. Its dimensions were 223 feet
by 112 feet at its longest and broadest parts. The second pond
is nearly an acre in extent, and well adapted for the reception
of the young fish.

The egg-boxes at Stormontfield, unlike those at Huningue,
are in the open air, and in consequence the eggs are exposed to
the natural temperature, and take, on an average of the seasons,
about 120 days to ripen into fish. For instance, the eggs laid
down in November 1872 did not come to life till 29th March
1873. The young fish, as soon as they are able to eat—which
is not for a good few days, the umbilical bag supplying all the
food required for a time by the newly-hatched animal—are
fed with particles of boiled liver. On the occasion of my
last visit Mr. Peter Marshall, the very intelligent keeper,
threw a few crumbs into each of the ponds, which caused an

86 ANOMALIES IN SALMON-GROWTH.

immediate rising of the fry in great numbers. It would, of
course, have been a simple plan to turn each year’s fish out of
the ponds into the river as they were hatched, but it was
thought advisable rather to detain them till they were seized
with the migratory instinct and assumed the scales of smolt-
hood, which occurs, as already stated in other parts of this work,
at the age of one and two years respectively. Indeed, the ex-
periments conducted at the Stormontfield ponds haye conclusively
settled the long-fought battle of the parr, and proved indis-
putably that the parr is the young of the salmon, that it becomes
transformed to a smolt, grows into a grilse, and ultimately
attains the honour of full-grown salmonhood.

The anomaly in the growth of the parr was also attempted
to be solved at Stormontfield, but without success. In November
and December 1857 provision was made for hatching in
separate compartments the artificially impregnated ova of—l,
parr and salmon; 2, grilse and salmon; 3, grilse pure; 4,
salmon pure. It-was found, when the young of these different
matches came to be examined early in April 1859, that the
sizes of each kind varied a little, the superintendent of fisheries
informing us that—“ 1st, the produce of the salmon with salmon
are 4 in, in length ; 2d, grilse with salmon, 34 in.; 3d, .grilse
with grilse, 34: in.; 4th, parr with grilse, 3 in.; 5th, smolt
from large pond, 5 in.” These results of a varied manipulation
never got a fair chance of being of use as a proof in the disputa-
tion ; for, owing to the limited extent of the ponds at the time,
the experiments were matured in such small boxes or pools as
evidently tended to stunt the growth of the fish. Up to the
present time the riddle which has so long puzzled our naturalists
in connection with the growth of the salmon has not been solved.
A visitor whom I met at the ponds was of opinion that a suf-
ficient quantity of milt was not used in the fructification of the
eggs, as the male fish were scarcer than the female ones, and
that those eggs which first came into contact with the milt
produced the stronger fish.

The late Mr. Robert Buist used to say that what most
struck strangers who visited the ponds was the great disparity in
the size of fish of the same age, the difference of which was
only that of a few weeks, as all were hatched by the month of
May. That there are strong and weak fry from the moment
that they burst the covering admit of no doubt, and that the
early fish may very speedily be singled out from among the

SALMON MAY BE KEPT TILL EGGS RIPEN. 87

late ones is also quite certain. In the course of a few weeks
the smolts that are to leave at the end of the first year can be
noted. The keeper’s opinion is that at feeding-time the weak
are kept back by the strong, and therefore are not likely to
thrive so fast as those that obtain a larger portion of food ; he
lays great stress on feeding, and his opinion on that meee is
entitled to consideration.

The guiding of the smolts from the ponds to the river used
to be easily managed through the provision made at Stormont-
field for that purpose, and which consisted of a runlet lined
with wood, protected at the pond by a perforated zinc sluice,
and terminating near the river in a kind of reception-chamber,
about four feet square, likewise provided with a zinc sluice (also
perforated), to keep the fish from getting away till the arranged
time, thus affording proper facilities for the marking and
examination of departing broods. [See plan.] The sluice being
lifted, the current of water carried the fish down a gentle slope
to the Tay, into which they proceeded in considerable quantities,
day by day, till all had departed; the parrs, strange to say,
evincing no desire to remove, although, of course, being in the
same breeding-ponds, they had a good opportunity of reaching
the river. Now all the outlets are kept constantly open, so that
the fish can go away to the sea when the instinct seizes them.

It was a great drawback in former years at Stormontfield,
during the hatching seasons, that many fish were caught with
their eggs not sufficiently matured, and could not be used
in consequence. To remedy this, a plan has been adopted of
keeping all the salmon that are caught, if they be so nearly
ripe for spawning as to warrant their detention. These are
confined in the mill-race till they become thoroughly ready
for the manipulator, and are kept within bounds by strong iron
gratings, placed about 100 yards from each other. These gravid
fish are taken out as they are required, or rather as they ripen,
by means of a small sweep-net, and it ‘is noteworthy that the
animals, after being once or twice fished for, become very
cunning, and hide themselves in such bottom holes as they can
discover, in order that the net may pass over them. I have no
doubt that the Stormontfield mill-race forms an excellent
temporary feeding-place for these fish, as its banks are well
overhung with vegetation, and its waters are clear as crystal, ,
and of good flavour. It is a decided convenience to be able
thus to store the egg-and-milt producing fish till they are

88 STATISTICS OF STORMONTFIELD.

wanted, and will render the annual filling of the breeding-boxes
a certainty, which, even under the old two-year system, was
not so, in consequence of floods on the river Tay, and a
many other causes besides.

Upwards of three millions of pond-bred fish have now been
thrown into the river Tay, and the result has been a satisfactory
rise in the salmon-rental of that magnificent stream.

I have compiled the following summary of what has been
achieved in salmon-breeding in the Stormontfield ponds :—

On the 23d November 1853 the stocking of the boxes com-
menced, and before a month had expired 300,000 ova were
deposited, being at the rate of 1000 to each box, of which at
that time there were 300. These ova were hatched in April
1854, and the fry were kept in the ponds till May 1855, when
the sluice was opened, and one moiety of the fish departed for the
river and the sea, About 1300 of these were marked by cutting
off the dead or second dorsal fin. The smolts marked were about
one in every hundred, so that about 130,000 must have departed,
leaving more than that number in the pond. The second spawn-
ing, in 1854, was a failure, only a few thousand fish being pro-
duced. This result arose from the imperfect manipulation of the
fish by those intrusted with the spawning. The third spawning
took place between the 22d November and the 16th December
1855, and during that time 183,000 ova were deposited in the
boxes. These ova came to life in April 1856. The second migra-
tion of the fry spawned in 1853 took place between the 20th
April and 24th May 1856, Ofthe smolts that then left the ponds,
300 were marked with rings, and 800 with cuts in the tail,
Many grilses having the mark on the tail were re-taken, but
none of those marked with the ring. The smolts from the
hatching of 1856 left the pond in April 1857. About 270
were marked with silver rings inserted into the fleshy part of
the tail; about 1700 with a small hole in the gill-cover; and
about 600 with the dead fin cut off in addition to the mark in
the gill-cover. Several grilses with the mark on the gill and
tail were caught and reported, but no fish marked with the ring.
The fourth spawning took place between the 12th November
and the 2d December 1857, when 150,000 ova were deposited
in the boxes, These came to life in March 1858. Of the
_ smolts produced from the previous hatching, which left the pond
in 1858, 25 were marked with a silver ring behind the dead
fin, and 50 with gilt copper wire, Very few of this exodus were

SMALL HATCHING APPARATUS. 89

Teported as being caught. The smolts produced from the hatching
of 1858 left the pond in April 1859, and 506 of them were
marked, The fifth spawning, from 15th November to 13th
December 1859, produced 250,000 ova, which were hatched in
April 1860. Of the smolts that left in 1860, 670 were marked,
and a good many of them were reported as having been caught
on their return from the sea. The smolts of the hatching of
1860 left the pond in May 1861, but none of them were marked.
The number of eggs deposited in the breeding-boxes in the
spawning season of 1862 (November and December) was about
250,000 ; but in 1863 not more than 80,000 ova could be
obtained in consequence of the unfavourable state of the river
for capturing gravid salmon. During the last nine years the
hatching has been continued as usual, about half-a-million
eges being now manipulated every season ; but, considering the
size of the river Tay, which has a water basin of 2250 square
miles, four times that number of fish might be advantageously
thrown into the water. Peter Marshall has proved a most able
pisciculturist. The loss of eggs under his management forms an
almost infinitesimal proportion of the total quantities hatched
at Stormontfield. The pisciculture of salmon and other fresh-
water fishes is not now a novelty in the United Kingdom ; many
experiments in salmon and trout breeding having been instituted,
with more or less success, both in Ireland and England. These
have been so frequently detailed by the newspapers of the day,
as to render it unnecessary to chronicle them here: they are all
more or less an imitation of what is done every season at the
Stromontfield breeding boxes.

In order that gentlemen who have a bit of running water on
their property may try the experiment of artificial breeding, I
give a drawing of an apparatus invented by M. Coste suitable
for hatching out a few thousand eggs—it could be set up in a
garden or be placed in any convenient outhouse. I may state
that I am able to hatch salmon-eges in the saucer of a flower-
pot ; it is placed on a shelf over a fixed wash-hand basin, and a
small flow of water regulated by a stopcock falls into it, The
vessel is filled with small stones and bits of broken china, and
answers admirably. Out of a batch of about two hundred eggs
brought from Stormontfield, only fifteen were found to have
turned opaque in the first five weeks, Eggs hatched in this
homely way are very serviceable, as one can examine them day
by day, and note how they progress, and in due time observe the

90 M. COSTE’S APPARATUS.

development of the fish for a few days. The young animals can
only be kept in the saucer about ten or twelve days, and should
then be placed in a larger vessel or be thrown into a river.

I should like to see one of the great rivers of England turned
into a gigantic salmon “manufactory.” Ponds might be readily

sl
i

:

PISCICULTURAL APPARATUS.

constructed on one or two places of the Severn, or on some of the
other suitable salmon streams of England or Wales, capable of
turning out two millions of fish per annum, and at a com-
paratively trifling cost. The formation of the ponds would be
the chief expense ; a couple of men could watch and feed the fry
with the greatest ease. The size adopted might be five times
that of the ponds on the river Tay, and the original cost of these
was less than £500. I would humbly submit that the ponds
should be constructed after the manner of the plan I have else-
where given. Except by the protecting of the spawn and the
young fish from their numerous enemies, there is no way of meeting
the present great demand for salmon, which, when in season, is
in the aggregate of greater value than the best butcher’s meat,
dear as beef and mutton now are. The salmon is an excellent
fish to work with in a piscicultural sense, because it is large
enough to bear a good deal of handling, and it is very accessible
to the operations of mankind, because of the instinct which leads
it to spawn in the fresh water instead of the sea, It is only such
a fish as this monarch of the brook that would individually pay

EXTENSION OF PISCICULTURE. 91

for artificial breeding, for, having a high money value as an
animal, it is clear that salmon-culture would in time become as
good a way of making money as cattle-feeding or sheep-
rearing.

There are waste places in England—the Essex marshes, for
instance, or the fens of Norfolk—where it would be profitable to
cultivate eels or other fish after the manner of the inhabitants
of Comacchio. The English people are fond of eels, and would
be able to consume any quantity that might be offered for sale,
and the place being in such close proximity to the Thames, other
fish might be cultivated as well. All the best portions of the °
hydraulic apparatus of Comacchio might be imitated, and to suit
the locality, such other portions as might be required could be
invented. The art of pisciculture is but in its infancy, and we
may all live in the hope of seeing great water farms—to be
profitable, they must be gigantic—for the cultivation of fish, in
the same sense as we have extensive grazing or feeding farms
for the breeding and rearing of cattle.

In Ireland, the late Mr. Thomas Ashworth, of the Galway
fisheries, found it as profitable and as easy to breed salmon as it
is to rear sheep, His fisheries became a decided success ; and,
if we except the cost of some extensive engineering operations
in forming fish-passes to admit of a communication with the sea,
the cost of his experiments was trifling and the returns ex-
ceptionally large. ;

Grave doubts at one time prevailed among persons interested
in acclimatisation and pisciculture as to whether or not it would
be possible to introduce the British salmon into the waters of
Australia; and an interesting controversy was about twelve years
ago carried on in various journals as to the best way of taking
out the fish to that country. Those very wise people who never
do anything, but are largely endowed with the gift of prophecy,
at once proclaimed that it could not be done; that it was
impossible to take the salmon out to Australia, etc, etc. But
happily for the cause of progress in natural science, and the suc-
cess of that particular experiment, there were men who had
resolved to carry it out, and who would not be put down. Mr.
Francis Francis, Mr. Frank Buckland, and Mr. J, A. Youl, took
a leading part in the achievement; but before they fell upon
their successful plan of taking out the ova in ice, hot discussions
had ensued as to how the salmon could be introduced into the
rivers of the Australian continent. Many plans were suggested:

92 PLANS FOR EXPORTING SALMON OVA.

some for carrying out the young fish in tanks, and others for
taking out the fructified ova, so that the process of hatching
might be carried on during the voyage. One ingenious person
promulgated a plan of taking the parr in a fresh-water tank a
month or two before it changed into a smolt, saying that after
the change it would be easy to keep the smolts supplied with
fresh salt water direct from the’sea as the ship proceeded on her
voyage. :

The mode ultimately adopted was to pack up the ova in a
bed of ice, experiments having first been made with a view to
* test the plan. For that purpose a large number of ova were
deposited in an ice-house in order to ascertain how long the
ripening of the egg could be deferred—a condition of the ex-
periment of course being that the egg should remain quite
healthy. The Wenham Lake Ice Company were so obliging as
to allow boxes containing salmon and trout ova, packed in moss,
to be placed in their ice-vaults, and to afford every facility for
the occasional examination of the eggs. Satisfactory results
being obtained—in other words, it having been proved that the
eggs of the salmon could with perfect safety be kept in ice for a
period exceeding the average time of a voyage to Australia—it
was therefore resolved that a quantity of eggs, properly packed
in ice, should be sent out. The result of this experiment is now
well known, most of the daily papers having chronicled the suc-
cessful exportation of the ova, and announced that the fish had
come to life and were thriving in their foreign home.

The naturalisation of fish, to which a brief reference has
already been made, is a subject that is not very well understood ;
but so far as practical experience goes, I have seen nothing to
prevent our breeding in England some of the most productive
foreign kinds. We must not, however, build ourselves much
on the acclimatisation of foreign fish, especially tropical fish,
as—although fish can bear great extremes of temperature—it
would be no easy matter to habituate them to our climate.

CHAPTER V.

—>—

ANGLERS’ FISHES.

Fresh-Water Fish not of much value—The Angler and his Equipment—
Pleasures of the Country in May—Anglers’ Fishes—-Trout, Pike,
Perch, and Carp—Gipsy Anglers—Angling Localities—Gold Fish—
The River Scenery of England—The Thames—Thames Anglers—Sea
Angling—Various Kinds of Sea-Fish—Proper Kinds of Bait—The
Tackle necessary—The Island of Arran—Corry—Goatfell, etc.

AttTHoucs it may be deemed necessary in a work like the
present to devote some space to the subject, I do not set much
store by the common anglers’ fishes, so far, at least, as their
food value is concerned ; for although we were to cultivate them
to their highest pitch, and by means of artificial spawning
multiply them exceedingly, they would never (the salmon, of
course, excepted) form an article of any great commercial value
in this beef-eating country. In France, where the Church
enjoins many fasts and strict sumptuary laws, the people require,
in the inland districts especially, to have recourse to the meanest
produce of the rivers in order to carry out the injunctions of
their priests. The smallest streams are therefore assiduously
cultivated in many continental countries; but the fresh-water
fishes of the British Islands have only at present a very slight
commercial value, as they are not captured, either individually
or in the aggregate, for the purposes of commerce; but to
persons fond of angling they afford sport and healthful recreation,
whether they are pursued in the large English or Scottish lakes,
or caught in the small rivulets that feed our great salmon
streams.

‘Although Britain is possessed of a seabord of 4000 miles,
and a, large number of fine rivers and lakes, the total number of
British fishes is comparatively small (about 250 only), and the
varieties which live in the fresh water are therefore very limited ;
those that afford sport may be numbered with ease on our ten

94 THAMES AND OTHER ANGLERS.

fingers. Fishers who live in the vicinity of large cities are
obliged in consequence to content themselves with the realisation
of that old proverb which tells them that small fish are better
than no fish at all; hence there is a race of anglers who are
contented to sit all day in a punt on the Thames, happy when
evening arrives to find their patience rewarded with a fisher’s
dozen of stupid gudgeons. Byt in the north, on the lakes of
Cumberland or on the Highland lochs of Scotland, such tame
sport would be laughed at. Are there not charr in the Derwent
and splendid trout in Loch Awe? and these require to be pur-
sued with a zeal, and involve an amount of labour, not under-
stood by anglers who punt for gudgeon or who haunt the East
India Docks for perch, or the angler who only knows the usual
run of Thames fish—barbel, roach, dace, and gudgeon. To kill
a sixteen-pound salmon on a Welsh or Highland stream is to be
named a knight among anglers; indeed, there are men who
never lift a rod except to kill a salmon; such, however, like the
Duke of Roxburghe, are giants among their fellows, For sport
there is no fish like the “monarch of the brook,” and great
anglers will not waste time on any fish less noble. An angler,
with a moderate-sized fish of the salmon kind at the end of his
line, is not in the enjoyment of a sinecure, although he would
not for any kind of reward allow his work to be done by deputy.
I have seen a gentleman play a fish for four hours rather’ than
yield his rod to the attendant gillie, who could have landed the
fish in half-an-hour’s time. It is a thrilling moment to find that,
for the first time, one has hooked a salmon, and the event pro-
duces a nervousness that certainly does not tend to the speedy
landing of the fish. The first idea, naturally enough, is to haul
our scaly friend out of the water by sheer force ; but this plan
has speedily to be abandoned, for the fish, making an astonished
dash, rushes away up stream in fine style, taking out no end of
“rope ;” then when once it obtains a bite of its bridle away it
goes sulking into some rocky hiding-place. In a brief time it
comes out again with renewed vigour, determined as it would
seem to try your mettle ; and so it dashes about till you become
so fatigued as not to care whether you land it or not. It is
impossible to say how long an angler may have to “play” a
salmon or a large grilse ; but if it sinks itself to the bottom of
a deep pool, it may be a business of hours to get it safe into the
landing net, if the fish be not altogether lost, as in its exertions
to escape it may so chafe the line as to cause it to snap, and thus

ANGLING ALL THE YEAR ROUND. 95

regain its liberty ; and during the progress of the battle the
angler has certainly to wade, ay and be pulled once or twice
through the stream, so that he comes in for a thorough drenching,
and may, as many have to do, go home after a hard day’s work
without being rewarded by the capture of a single fish,

There is abundance of good salmon-angling to be had at the
proper season in the north of Scotland, where there are always
a great variety of fishings to let at prices suitable for all pockets ;
and there is nothing better either for health or recreation than a
day on a salmon stream. There are one or two places on Tweed
frequented by anglers who take a fishing as a sort of joint-stock
company, and who, when they are not angling, talk politics,
make poetry, bandy about their polite chaff, and generally “go
in,” as they say, for any amount of amusement. These societies
are of course very select, and not easily accessible to strangers,
being of the nature of a.club. The plan which every angler
ought to adopt on going to a strange water is to place himself
under the guidance of some shrewd native of the place, who will
show him all the best pools and aid him with his advice as to what
flies he ought to use, and give him many useful hints on other
points as well. Anglers, however, must divide their attention,
for it is quite as interesting (not to speak of convenience) for
some men to spend a day on the Thames killing barbel or roach
as it is to others to kill a ten-pound salmon on the Tweed or the
Spey. It is good sport also to troll for pike in the Lodden or
to capture grayling in beautiful Dovedale. And so pleasant has
of late years become the sport, that it is now quite a common
sight to see a gentle-born lady handling a salmon-rod with much
vigour on some of our picturesque Highland or border streams.
In fact, angling is a recreation that can be made to suit all
classes, from the child with his stick and crooked pin to the
gentleman with his well-mounted rod and elaborate tackle, who
hies away in his yacht to the fiords of Norway in search of
salmon that weigh from twenty to forty pounds, and require half
a day to capture. For those, however, who desire to stay at
home there is abundant angling all the year round. From New-
Year’s Day to Christmas there needs be no stoppage of the sport ;
even the weather should never stop an enthusiastic angler ; but
on very bad days, when it is not possible to go out of doors, there
is the study of the fish, and their natural and economic history,
which ought to be interesting to all who use the angle, and to
the majority of mankind besides.

96 THE TROUT.

Without pretending to rival the hundred and one guides to
angling that now flood the market, I shall take a glance at a few
of the more popular of the angler’s fishes ; not, however, in any
scientific or other order of precedence, but beginning with the
trout, seeing that the salmon is discussed in a separate division
of this work.

Of all our fresh-water fishes, the one that is most plentiful,
and the one that is most worthy of notice by anglers, is the trout.
It can be fished for with the simplest possible kind of rod in
the most tiny stream, or be captured by elaborate apparatus
on the great lochs of Scotland. There are so many varieties of
it as to suit all tastes; there are well-flavoured burn trout, not
so large as a small herring, and there are lake giants that,
when placed in the scales, will pull down a twenty-pound
weight. The usual run of river trout, however, is about six or
eight ounces in weight ; a pound trout is an excellent reward for
the patient angler. Where a trouting stream flows through arich
and fertile district of country, with abundant drainage, the trout
are usually well-conditioned and large, and of good flavour ; but
when the country through which the stream flows is poor and
rocky, with no drains carrying in food to enrich the stream, the
fish are, as a matter of course, lanky and flavourless ; they may
be numerous, but they will be of small size. It is curious, too,
to note the difference of the fish of the same stream: some of
the trout taken in Tweed, and in other rivers as well, are sharp
in their colour, have fine fat plump thick shoulders, great depth
of belly, and beautiful pink flesh of excellent flavour. The
flavour of trout is of course dependent on the quality and abun-
dance of its food ; those are best which exist on ground-feeding,
living upon worms and such fresh-water crustaceans as are within
reach. Fly-taking fish—those that indulge in the feed of ephe-
mere that takes place a few times every day—are comparatively
poor in flesh and weak in flavour. As to where fishers should
resort, must be left to themselves. I was once beguiled out to
the Dipple, but it is a hungry sort of river, where the trout
were on the average only about three ounces, and scarce enough ;
although I must say that for a few minutes, when “the feed”
was on the water, there was an enormous display of fish, but they
preferred to remain in their native stream, a tributary of the
Clyde I think. The mountain streams and lochs of Scotland, or
the placid and picturesque lakes of Cumberland and Westmore-
land, are the paradise of anglers.

GIPSY ANGLERS. 97

For trout-fishing I would name Scotland as being before all
other countries. ‘“ What,” it has been asked, “is a Scottish
stream without its trout?” Doubtless, if a river has no trout
it is without one of its greatest charms, and it is pleasant to
record that, except in the neighbourhood of very large seats of
population, trout are still plentiful in Scotland, It is true the
railway, and other modes of conveyance, have carried of late
years a perfect army of anglers into its most picturesque
nooks and corners, and therefore fish are not so plentiful as
they were fifty years since, in. the old coaching days, when it
was possible to fill a washing-tub in the space of half-an-hour
with lovely half-pound trout from a few pools on a burn near
Moffat. But there are still plenty of trout ; indeed there are
noted Scotch fishers who can fill baskets from streams near large
cities that have been’ too much fished.

The place to try an angler is a fine Border stream’ or a
grand Highland loch; but I shall not persume to lay down
minute directions as to how to angle, for an angler, like a poet,
must be born, he can scarcely be bred, and no amount of
book lore can eonfer upon a man the magic power of luring
the wary trout from its crystalline home. The best anglers,
and fish-poachers, are gipsies. A gipsy will raise fish when no
other human being can move them. If encamped near a stream,
a gipsy band are sure to have fish as a portion of their daily
food ; and how beautifully they can broil a trout or boil a grilse
those only who have dined with them can say. Your gipsy is
a rare good fisher, and with half a rod can rob a river of a few
dozens of trout in a very brief space of time, and he can do so
while men with elaborate “fishing machines,” fitted up with
costly tackle, continue to flog the water without obtaining more
than a questionable nibble, just as if the fish knew that they were
greenhorns, and took pleasure in chaffing them. Mr. Cheek,
who wrote a capital book for the guidance of those I may call
Thames anglers, says that the best way to learn is to see other
anglers at work—which is better than all the written instructions
that can be given, one hour’s practical information going farther
than a folio volume of written advice, It is all in vain for men
to fancy that a suit of new Tweeds, a fair acquaintance with
Stoddart or Stewart, and a large amount of angling “slang,” will
make them fishers. There is more than that required. Besides
the natural taste, there is wanted a large measure of patience
and skill ; and the proper place to acquire these best virtues of

H

98 THE LAND OF A THOUSAND LOCHS.

the angler is among the brawling hill streams of Scotland, or
on the expansive bosom of some Cumberland lake, while trying
for a few delicious charr. A congregation of fish brought
together by means of a scatter of food and an angler’s taking
advantage of the piscine convention over its diet of worms, is no
more angling than a battue is sport. An American that I have
heard of has a fish-manufactory in Connecticut, where he can
shovel the animals out by the hundred; but then he does not
go in for sport; his idea—a thoroughly American one—is
money! But despite this exceedingly commercial idea, there
are a few anglers in America, and as water and game fishes
‘abound, there is plenty of sport. In North America are to be
found both the true salmon and the brook trout; and as a great
number of the American fishes visit the fresh and salt water
alternately, they, by reason of their strength and size, afford
excellent employment either to the river or sea angler. One of
the best American fishes is called the Mackinaw salmon.

To come back, in the meantime, to Scotland and the trout,
and where to find them, I may mention that that particular fish
is the stock in trade of the streams and lochs of Scotland,—
Scotland, the “land of the mountain and the flood,”—and there
is an ever-abiding abundance of water, for the lochs and streams
of that country are numberless. One county alone (Sutherland,
to wit) contains a thousand lochs, and one parish in that county
has in it two hundred sheets of water, all abounding with fine
trout, affording sport to the angler—rewarding all who persevere
with full baskets. As I have already hinted, the fisher must
study his locality and glean advice from well-informed residents.
The gipsies of a district can usually give capital advice as to
the kind of bait that will please best. Many a time have
anglers been seen flogging away at a stream or lake that was
troutless, or at their wit’s end as to which of their flies would
please the dainty palate of my lord the resident trout. But I
‘shall not further dogmatise on such matters ; most people given
to angling are quite as wise, on that subject at least, as the
writer of these remarks ; and there are as fine trout in England,
I daresay, as there are in Scotland ; indeed there are a thousand
streams in Great Britain and Ireland where we can find fish—
there are splendid trout even in the Thames. Then there are
the Dove and the Severn, as well as rivers that are much
farther away, so that on his second day from London an active
angler may be whipping the Spey for salmon, or trolling on

O CHARMING MAY! 99

Loch Awe for the large trout that inhabit that sheet of water.
The change of scene is of itself a delight, no matter what river
the visitor may choose. At.the same time the physical exertion
undergone by the angler flushes his cheek with the hue of health,

ANGLERS’ FISHES.
x. Great lake trout (Sadmp ferozx). z. Salmo fario. 3. Trout.

and imparts to his frame a strength and elasticity known only
to such as are familiar with country scenes and pure air. May
and the Mayfly are held to inaugurate ‘the angler’s year ; for
although a few of the keenest sportsmen keep on angling all the
year round, most of them lay down their rod about the end
of October, and do not think of again resuming it till they can
smell the sweet fragrance of the advancing summer. Although
few of our busy men of law or commerce are able to forestall
the regular holiday period of August and September, yet a few
do manage a run to the country at the charming time of May,
when the days are not too hot for enjoyment nor too’ short for
country industry. In’ August and September the landscape is
preparing for the sleep of winter, whilst in May it is being

100 LOCH AWE TROUT.

robed by nature for the fétes of summer, and, despite the sneers
of some poets and naturalists, is new and chatming in the high-
est degree. Town living people should visit the country in
May, and see and feel its industry, pastoral and simple as it is,
and at the same’ time view the charms of its scenery in all its
vivid freshness and fragrance.

Some anglers delight in pike-catching, others try for perch ;
but give me the trout, of which there is a large variety, and all
worth catching. In Loch Awe, for instance, there is the great
lake trout, which, combined with the beauty of the scenery,
has sufficed to draw to that neighbourhood some of our best
anglers, The trout of Loch Awe, as is well known, are very
ferocious, hence their scientific name of Salmo ferow, It attains
to great dimensions ; individuals weighing twenty pounds have
been often captured ; but its flavour is indifferent and the flesh
is coarse, and not prepossessing in colour. This kind of trout
is found in ‘nearly all the large and deep lochs of Scotland. It
was discovered scientifically about the end of last century by a
Glasgow merchant, who was fond of sending samples of it to his
friends in proof of his prowess as an angler. The usual way
of taking the great lake trout is to engage a boat to fish from,
which must be rowed gently through the water. The best bait
is a small trout, with at least half-a-dozen strong hooks pro-
jecting from it, and the tackle requires to be prodigiously strong,
as the fish is a most powerful one, although not quite so active
as some others of the trout kind, but it roves about in the
deeper waterss enacting the part of bully and cannibal to all
lesser creatures, and driving before it even the hungry pike.
Persons residing near the great lochs'capture these large trout by
setting night lines for them. As has been already mentioned,
they are exceedingly voracious, and have been known to he
dragged for long distances, and even after losing hold of the
bait to seize it again with much eagerness, and so have been
finally captured. These great lake trout are also to be found
in other countries.

In Lochleven, at Kinross, twenty-two miles from Edin-
burgh, there will be found localised that beautiful trout which
is peculiar to this one loch, and which I have already referred
to as one of the mysterious fishes of Scotland. This fish—
although ‘its quality is said to have been degenerated by the
drainage of the lake in 1830, at which period. it was reduced
by draining to a third of its former dimensions—is of con-

LOCHLEVEN TROUT. 101r

siderable commercial value ; it cannot be bought in Edinburgh
or London except at a fancy price; and if it was properly
cultivated might yield a large revenue. I have not been
able to obtain recent statistics of “the take” of Lochleven
trout, but in former years, during the seven months of the
fishing season, it used to range from fifteen thousand to
twenty thousand pounds weight, and at the time referred
to all trout under three-quarters of a pound in weight were
thrown back into the water by order of the lessee. Eighty-five
dozen of these fine trout have been known to be taken at a
single haul, while from twenty to thirty dozen used to be a
very common take. As to perch, they used to be caught in
thousands. Little has or can be said about Lochleven trout,
except that they are a specialty. Some learned people (but I
take leave to differ from them) consider the Lochleven fish to be
identical with Salmo fario, but never in any of my piscatorial
wanderings have I found its equal in colour, flavour, or shape.
It has been compared with the Fario Lemanus of the Lake of
Geneva, and having handled both fishes, I must allow that there
is very little difference between them ; but still there are differ-
ences, Netting is not now allowed on the loch, but there is a
large fleet of boats, which can be hired at Kinross for an hour
or two’s fishing on Lochleven.

I need not go over all the varieties of fresh-water trout
seriatim, for their name is legion, and every book on angling
contains lists of those peculiar to districts. If anglers’ fishes
ever become valuable as food, it will be by the cultivation of
our great lochs. With such a vast expanse of water as is
contained in some of these lakes, and having ample river accommo-
dation at hand for spawning purposes, there could be no doubt
that artificial breeding, if properly gone about, would be
successful, The Lochleven trout is already of great money
value commercially, and could be systematically cultivated so
as to become a considerable source of revenue to the proprietor
of the lake and amusement to the angler; an experimental
attempt at cultivation took place some years ago, but no regular
plan of breeding these fish has yet been organised.

There are some pretty big pike in Lochleven. As every
angler knows, the pike affords capital sport, and may be taken
in many different ways. Pike spawn in March and April, when
the fish leaves its hiding-place in the deep water and retires for
procreative purposes into shallow creeks or ditches. The pike

102 JACK.

yields a very large quantity of roe on the average, and the
young fish are not long in being hatched. Endowed with great
feeding power, pike grow rapidly from the first, attaining a length
of twenty-two inches. Before that period a young pike is called
a jack, and its increase of weight is at the rate of about four

JACK IN HIS ELEMENT.

pounds a year when well supplied with food. The appetite of
this fish is very great, and, from its being so fierce, it has been
called the pirate of the rivers, It is not easily satisfied with «
food, and numerous extraordinary stories of the pike’s powers of
eating and digesting have been from time to time related. I
remember, when at school at Haddington (seventeen miles
from Edinburgh), of seeing a pike that inhabited a hole in the
“Bang Cram” (a part of the river Tyne), which was nearly
triangular*in shape, supposed to be the exact pattern of its
hiding-place, and which devoured every kind of fish or animal
that came in its way. It was hooked several times, but always

VORACITY OF PIKE. 103

managed to escape, and must have weighed at least twenty-five
pounds. Upon one occasion it was hooked by a little boy, who
fished for it with a mouse, when it rewarded him for his clever-
ness by dragging him into the water; and had help not been
at hand the boy would assuredly have been drowned, as the
water at that particular spot was deep. As to the voracity of
this fish many particulars have been given. Mr. Jesse, in one
of his works, says that a pike of the weight of five pounds has
been known to eat a hundred gudgeon in three weeks; and I
have myself seen them killed in the neighbourhood of a shoal of
parr, and, notwithstanding their rapidity of digestion, I have
seen four or five fish taken out of the stomach of each. Mr,
Stoddart, one of our chief angling authorities, has calculated the
pike to be amongst the most deadly enemies of the infant sal-
mon. He tells us that the pike of the Teviot, a tributary of
the Tweed, are very fond of eating young smolts, and says that,
in a stretch of water ten miles long, where there is good feeding,
there will be at least a thousand pike, and that these during a
period of sixty days will consume about a quarter of a million
of young salmon !

One would almost suppose that some of the stories about
the voracity of pike had been invented ; if only half of them be
true, this fish has certainly well earned its title of shark of the
fresh water. There is, for instance, the well-known tale of the
poor mule, which a pike was seen to take by the nose and pull
into the water; but it is more likely I think that the mule
pulled out the pike. Pennant, however, relates a story of a
pike that is known to be true. On the Duke of Sutherland’s
Canal at Trentham, a pike seized the head of a swan that was

‘feeding under water, and gorged as much of it as killed both.
A servant, perceiving the swan with its head below the surface
for a longer.time than usual, went to see what was wrong, and
found both swan and pike dead. A large pike, if it has the
chance, will think nothing of biting its captor; there are
several authentic instances of this having been done. The
pike is a long-lived fish, grows to a large size, and attains a
prodigious weight, There is a narrative extant about one that
was said to be.two centuries and a half old, which weighed:
three hundred and fifty pounds, and was seventeen feet long.
There is abundant evidence of the size of pike : ‘individuals
have been captured in Scotland, so we are told in the Scots
Magazine, that weighed seventy-nine pounds. In the London

104 THE CARP FAMILY.

newspapers of 1765 an account is given of the draining of a
pool, twenty-seven feet deep, at the Lilishall Limeworks, near
Newport, which had not been fished for many years, and from
which a gigantic pike was taken that weighed one hundred and
seventy pounds, being heavier than a man of twelve stone!
I have seen scores of pike which weighed upwards of half a
stone, and a good many double that weight, but the weight
is thought now to be on the descending ratio, the giants of
the tribe having been apparently all captured. Formerly
there used to be great hauls of this fish taken out of the
water. Whether or not a pike be good for food depends
greatly on where it has been fed, what it has eaten, and how
it has been cooked. In-fact, as I have already endeavoured to
show, the animals of the water are in respect of food not unlike
those of the land—their flavour is largely dependent on their
feeding ; and pike that have been luxuriating on Lochleven
trout, or feeding daintily for a few months on young salmon,
cannot be very bad fare.

s The carp family (Cyprinide) is very numerous, embracing
among its members the barbel, the gudgeon, the carp-bream, the
white-bream, the red-eye, the roach, the bleak, the dace, and
the well-known minnow. ‘There is one of the family which is
of a beautiful colour, and with which all are familiar—I mean
the golden carp, which may be seen floating in its crystal prison
in nearly every home of taste, and which swarms in the ponds
at Hampton Court, in the tropical waters of the Crystal Palace
at Sydenham, as also in all the great aquariums. The gold and
silver fish are natives of China, whence they were introduced
into this country by the Portuguese about the end of the seven-
teenth century, and have become, especially of late years, so
common as to be hawked about the streets for sale. In China,
as we can read, every person of fashion keeps gold-fish by way
of having a little amusement. They are contained either in the
small basins that decorate the courts of the Chinese houses, or
in porcelain vases made on purpose; and the most beautiful
kinds are taken from a small mountain lake in the province of
Che-Kyang, where they grow to a comparatively large size,
some attaining a length of eighteen inches and a comparative
bulk, the general run of them being equal in size to our herrings.
These lovely fish afford much delight to the Chinese ladies, who
tend and cultivate them with great care. They keep them in
very large basins, and a common earthen pan is generally placed

THE COMMON CARP. 105

at the bottom of these in a reversed position, and so perforated
with holes as to afford shelter to the fish from the heat and
glare of the sun. Green stuff of some kind is also thrown upon
the water to keep it cool, and it (the water) must be partially
changed every two days, and the fish, as a general rule, must
never be touched by the hand, Great quantities of gold-fish
are often bred in ponds adjacent to factories, where the waste
steam being let in the water is kept at a warmish temperature.
At the manufacturing town of Dundee they became at one time
a complete nuisance in some of the factories, having penetrated
into the steam and water pipes, occasionally bringing the
works to a complete standstill, In England the golden carp
usually spawns between May and July, the particular time
being greatly regulated by the warmth of the season. The
time of spawning may be known by the change of habit which
occurs in this fish. It sinks at once into deep water instead of
basking on the top, as usual; previous to which the fish are
restive and quick in their movements, throwing themselves out
of the water, etc. It may be stated here, to prevent disappoint-
ment, that golden carp seldom spawn in a transparent vessel.
A Mr. Mitchell of Edinburgh, however, brought out a hatching
in his shop aquarium, in the Lothian Road, but the fry escaped
by the waste pipe. When the spawn is hatched the fish are
very black in colour, some darker than others: these become
of a golden hue, while those of a lighter shade become silver-
coloured. It is some time before this change occurs, a portion
colouring at the end of one year, and others not till two or
three seasons have come and gone. These beautiful prisoners
seldom live long in their crystal cells, although the prison is
beautiful enough, one would fancy :—

“T ask, what warrant fixed them (like a spell
Of witchcraft fixed them) in the crystal cell ;
To wheel with languid motion round and round,
Beautiful, yet in mournful durance bound ie

Gold-fish ought not to be purchased except from some very re-
spectable dealer. I have known repeated cases where the
whole of the fish bought have died within an hour or two of
being taken home. These golden carp, which are reared for
sale, are usually spawned and bred in warmish water, and they
ought in consequence to be acclimatised or ‘‘ tempered” by the
dealer before they are parted with. Parties buying ought to be

106 CARP-BREEDING,

particular as to this, and ascertain if the fish they have bought
have been tempered.

Returning to the common carp, I can speak of it as being
a most useful pond-fish. It is a vegetarian, and may be classed
among the least. carnivorous fishes ; it feeds chiefly upon vege-
tables or decaying organic matter, and very few of them prey
upon their kind, while some, it is thought, pass the winter in a
torpid state. There is a rhyme which tells us that

Turkeys, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer,
Came into England aid in one year.

But this couplet must, I think, be wrong, as some of these
items were in use long before the carp was known ; indeed, it
is not at all certain when this fish was first introduced into
England, or where it was brought from, but I think it ex-
tremely possible that it was originally brought here from
Germany. In ancient times there used to be immense ponds
filled with carp in Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Mecklenburg, and
Holstein, and the fish was bred and brought to market with as
much regularity as if it had been a fruit or a vegetable. The
carp yields its spawn in great quantities, no fewer than 700,000
eggs having been found in a fish of moderate weight (ten
pounds); and, being a hardy fish, it is easily cultivated, so
that it would be profitable to breed in ponds for the fishmarkets
of populous places, and the fish-salesmen assure us that there
would be a large demand for good fresh carp. It is necessary,
according to the best authorities, to have the ponds in suites of
three—viz. a spawning-pond, a nursery, and a receptacle for
the large fish—and to regulate the numbers of breeding fish
according to the surface of water. It is not my intention to go
minutely into the construction of carp-ponds; but I may be
allowed to say that it is always best to select such a spot for
their site as will give the engineer as little trouble as possible.
Twelve acres of water divided into three parts would allow a
splendid series of portds—the first to be three acres in extent,
the second an acre more, and the third to be five acres; and
here it may be again observed that, with water as with land, a
given space can only yield a given amount of produce, therefore
the ponds must not be overstocked with brood. Two hundred
carp, twenty tench, and twenty jack per acre is an ample stock
to begin breeding with. A very profitable annual return would
be obtained from these twelve acres of water; and, as many

ENGLISH RIVER SCENERY. 107

country gentlemen have even larger sheets than twelve acres, I
recommend this plan of stocking them with carp to their at-
tention. There is only the expense of construction to look to,
as an under-keeper or gardener could do all that was necessary
in looking after the fish, A gentleman having a large estate in
Saxony, on which were situated no less than twenty ponds,
some of them as large as twenty-seven acres, found that his
stock of fish added greatly to his income. Some of the carp
weighed fifty pounds each, and upon the occasion of draining
one of his ponds, a supply of fish weighing five thousand pounds
was taken out; and for good carp it would be no exaggeration
to say that sixpence per pound weight could easily be obtained,
which, for a quantity like that of this Saxon gentleman, would
amount to a sum of £125 sterling, Now, I have the authority
of an eminent fish-salesman for stating that ten times the
quantity here indicated could be disposed of among the Jews
and Catholics of London in a week, and, could a regular supply
be obtained, an unlimited quantity might be sold.

I have been writing about Highland streams and northern
lochs ; but the river scenery of England is, in its way, equally
beautiful, and no river is more charming than the Thames. It
is a classic stream, and its praises have been sung by the poets
and celebrated by the historian. After Mrs, S. C. Hall and
Thorne, it were vain to repeat its praises :—

“Glide gently, thus for ever glide,
O Thames! that anglers all may see
As lovely visions by thy side,
As now, fair river, come to me.
Oh, glide, fair stream, for ever so
Thy quiet soul on all bestowing,
Till all our minds for ever flow
As thy deep waters are now flowing.”
The total length of the river Thames is 215 miles, and the area
of the country it waters is 6160 square miles. It has as afflu-
ents a great many fine streams, including the river Loddon,
as also"the Wey and the Mole. Iam not entitled to consider
it here in its picturesque aspects—my business with it is pisca-
torial, and I am able to certify that it is rich in fish of a certain
kind—
“The bright-eyed perch with fins of Tyrian dye,
The silver eel in shining volumes rolled,
The yellow carp in scales bedropp’d with gold,
Swift trout diversified with crimson stains,
And pike, the tyrants of the watery plains.”

108 THE THAMES.

Considering that all its best fishing points are accessible to
an immense population, many of whom are afflicted with a mania
for angling, it is quite wonderful that there is a single fish of
any description left in it; and yet there are several bands of
honest anglers who can fill occasional big baskets. I may be
allowed just to run over a few Thames localities, and note what
fish may be taken from them. Above Teddington at different
places an occasional trout may be pulled out, but, although the
finest trout in the world may be got in the Thames, they are,
unfortunately, so scarce in the meantime, that it is hardly worth
while to lose one’s time in the all but vain endeavour to lure
them from their home, Pike fishing or trolling will reward the
Thames angler better than trouting. There are famous pike to
be taken every here and there—in the deep pools and at the
weirs; and, as the pike is voracious, a moderately good angler,
with proper bait, is likely to have some sport with this fish.
But the specialty of the Thames, so far at least as most anglers
are concerned, is the quantity of fish of the carp kind which it
contains, as also perch. This latter fish may be taken with
great certainty about Maidenhead, Cookham, Pangbourne, Wal-
ton, Labham, and Wallingford Road; and a kindred fish, the
pope, in great plenty, may be sought for in the same localities.
Then the bearded barbel is found in greater plenty in the Thames
than anywhere else, and, as it is a fish of some size and of much
courage, it affords great sport to the angler, The best way to
take the barbel is with the “Ledger,” and the best places for
this kind of fishing are the deeps at Kingston Bridge, Sunbury
Lock, Halliford, Chertsey Weir, and in the deeps at Bray, where
many a time and oft have good hauls of barbel been taken.
The best times for the capture of this fish are late in the after-
noon or very early in the morning. Chub are also plentiful in
the Thames ; and Mr. Arthur Smith, who wrote a guide to
Thames anglers, specially recommended the island above Goring
for chub, also Marlow and the large island below Henley Bridge.
This fish can be taken with the fly, and gives tolerable sport.
The roach is a fish that abounds in all parts of the Thames,
especially between Windsor and Richmond ; and in the proper
season—September and October—it will be'found in Teddington
Weir, Sunbury, Blackwater, Walton Bridge, Shepperton Lock,
the Stank Pitch at Chertsey, and near Maidenhead, Marlow,
and Henley Bridges. At Teddington I may state that the dace
is abundant, and there is plenty of little fish of various kinds

THE THAMES. 109

that can be had as bait at most of the places we have named.
In fact, in the Thames there is a superabundance of sport of its
kind, and plenty of accommodation for anglers, with wise “ pro-
fessionals” to teach them the art; and although the best sport:
that can be enjoyed on this lovely stream is greatly different
from the trout-fishing of Wales or Scotland, it is good in its
degree, and tends to health and high spirits, and an anxiety to
excel in his craft, as one can easily see who ventures by the side
of the water about Kew and Richmond.

** With hurried steps,
The anxious angler paces on, nor looks aside,
Lest some brother of the angle, ere he arrive,
Possess his favourite swim.”

THAMES ANGLERS.“~FROM AN OLD PICTURE,

I come now tothe perch, a well-known because common
fish, about which a great deal has been written, and which is
easily taken by the angler. There are a great number of species
of this fish, from the common perch of our own canals and lochs
to the “lates” of the Nile, or the beautiful golden-tailed

110 PERCH.

mesoprion, which swims in the seas of Japan and India, and
flashes out brilliant rays of colour. The perch was assiduously
cultivated in ancient Italy, in the days when pisciculture was
an adjunct of gastronomy, and was thought to equal the mullet
in flavour. In Britain, the fish, left to its natural growth and
no care being taken to flavour it artificially, is surpassed for
table purposes by the salmon and the trout; but perch being
abundant afford plenty of good fishing. The perch usually
congregate in small shoals, and delight in streams, or water with
a clear bottom and with overhanging foliage to shelter them
from the overpowering heat of summer. These fish do not
attain any considerable weight, the one recorded as being taken
in the Serpentine, in Hyde Park, which weighed nine pounds,
being still the largest on record. Perch of three and four pounds
are by no means rare, and those of one pound or so are quite
common. The perch is astupid kind of fish, and easily captured.
Many of the foreign varieties of perch attain an immense weight.
Some of the ancient writers tell us that the “lates” of the Nile
attained a weight of three hundred pounds; and then there is
the vacti of the Ganges, which is often caught five feet long.
The perch, after it is three years old, spawns about May. It
may be described as rather a hardy fish, as we know it will live
along time out of water, and can be kept alive among wet moss,
so that it may be easily transferred from pond to pond. Its
hardy nature accounts for its being found in so many northern
lochs and rivers, as in the olden times of slow conveyances it
must have taken a long time to send the fish to the great dis-
tances we know it must have been carried to. On the Continent,
living perch are a feature of nearly all the fishmarkets, -The
fish, packed in moss and occasionally sprinkled with water, are
carried from the country to the cities, and if not sold are taken
home and replaced in the ponds. This particular fish, which is
very prolific, might be “cultivated” to any extent. Fish-
ponds, although not now common, used to be at one time as
much a food-giving portion of a country gentleman’s commis-
sariat as his kitchen-garden or his cow-paddock.

‘As I have said so much about the Scottish lochs, it would
be but fair to say a few words about those of England ; but in
good honest truth it would be superfluous to descant at the
present day on the beauties of Windermere, or the general lake
scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland: it has been described
by hundreds of tourists, and its praises have been sung by its

SEA-ANGLING, 111

own poets—the lake poets. It is with its fish that we have
business, and honesty compels us to give the charr a bad cha-
racter, It is not by any means a game fish, so far as sport is
concerned ; nor is it great in size or rich in flavour. But potted
charr is a rare breakfast delicacy. This fish, which is said by
Agassiz to be identical with the ombre chevalier of Switzerland,
is rarely found to weigh more than a pound; specimens are
sometimes taken exceeding that weight, but they are scarce.
The charr is found to be pretty general in its distribution, and
is found in many of the Scottish lochs. It spawns about the
end of the year, some of the varieties depositing their eges in
the shallow parts of the lake, while others proceed a short way
up some of the tributary streams. In November great shoals of
charr may be seen in the rivers Rothay and Brathay, particularly
the latter, with the view of spawning, The charr, we are told
by Yarrell, afford but scant amusement to the angler, and are
always to be found in the deepest parts of the water in the lochs
which they inhabit. ‘The best way to capture them is to trail
a very long line after a boat, using a minnow for a bait, with a
large bullet of lead two or three feet above the bait to sink it
deep in the water ; by this mode a few charr may be taken in
the beginning of summer, at which period they are in the height
of perfection both in colour and flavour.”

As I am on the subject of anglers’ fishes, the reader will
perhaps allow me to suggest that “‘no end of sport” may be ob-
tained in the sea; that capital sea-angling may be enjoyed all
the year round, and all round the British coasts ; and that there ‘
are fighting fishes in the waters of the great deep that will
occasionally try both the cunning and the nerve of the best
anglers. The greatest charm of sea-angling, however, lies in its
simplicity, and the readiness with which it can be engaged in,
together with the comparatively homely and inexpensive nature
of the instruments required. A party living at the seaside can
either fish off the rocks or hire a boat, and purchase, or obtain
on loan (for a slight consideration) such simple tackle as is
necessary ; though it must not be too simple, for even sea-fish
will not stand the insult of supposing they can be caught as a
matter of course with anything ; and as the larger kinds of hooks
are often scarce at mere fishing villages, it is better to carry a
few to the scene of action.

“Well then, what sport does the sea afford?” will most
likely be the first question put by those who are unacquainted

112 VARIETIES OF SEA-FISH.

with sea-angling. I answer, Anything and everything in the
shape of fish or sea-monster, from a sprat to a whale. This is
literally true. It is not an unfrequent occurrence for tourists in
Orkney, or other places in Scotland, to assist at a whale battue;
and some of my readers may remember a very graphic descrip-
tion of an Orcadian whale-hunt, given in Blackwood’s Magazine,
by the late Professor Aytoun, who was Sheriff and Admiral of
Orkney. The kind of sea-fish, however, that are most frequently
taken by the angler, both on the coasts of England and Scotland,
are the whiting, the common cod, the beautiful poor or power
cod, and the mackerel; there is also the abundant coal-fish, or
sea-salmon as I call it, from its handsome shape. This fish is
taken in amazing quantities, and in all its stages of growth. It
is known by various names, such as sillock, piltock, cudden,
poddly, etc. ; indeed most of our fishes have different names in
different localities ; but I shall keep to the proper name so as to
avoid mistakes. The merest children are able, by means of the
roughest machinery, to catch any quantity of young coal-fish ;
they can be taken in our harbours, and at the sea-end of our
piers and landing-places. The whiting is also very plentiful, so
far as angling is concerned, as indeed are most of the Gadide.
It feeds voraciously, and will seize upon anything in the shape
of bait; several full-grown pilchards have been more than once
taken from the stomach of a four-pound fish. Whiting can be.
caught at all periods of the year, but it is of course most plenti-
ful in the breeding season, when it approaches the shores for the
purpose of depositing its spawn—that is in January and February.
The common cod-fish is found on all parts of our coast, and the
sea-anglers, if they hit on a good locality—and this can be
rendered a certainty—-are sure to make a very heavy basket.
The pollack, or, as it is called in Scotland, lythe, also affords
capital sport ; and the mackerel-herring and conger-eel can be
captured in considerable quantities. I can strongly recommend
lythe-fishing to gentlemen who are blasés of salmon or pike,
or who do not find excitement even among the birds of lone St.
Kilda. Then, as will afterwards be described, there is the
extensive family of the flat fish, embracing brill, plaice, flounders,
soles, and turbot. The latter is quite a classic fish, and has
long been an object of worship among gastronomists ; it has been
known to attain an enormous size. Upon one occasion an
individual, which measured six feet across, and weighed one
hundred and ninety pounds, was caught near Whitby. The

¥

SEA-ANGLING TACKLE. 113

usual mode of capturing flat fish is by means of the trawl-net,
but many varieties of them may be caught with a hand-line. A
day’s sea-angling will be chequered by many little adventures.
There are various minor monsters of the deep that vary the
monotony of the day by occasionally devouring the bait. A
tadpole-fish, better known as the sea-devil or “‘ the angler,” may
be hooked, or the fisher may have a visit from a hammer-headed
shark or a pile-fish, which adds greatly to the excitement ; and
if “the dogs” should be at all plentiful, it is a chance if a single
fish be got out of the sea in its integrity. So voracious and
active are this species of the Squalide, that I have often enough
pulled a mere skeleton into the boat, instead of a plump cod of
ten or twelve pounds weight.

I shall now say a few words about the machinery of capture,
The tackle in use for handline sea-fishing is much the same
everywhere, and that which I describe
will suit almost any locality. It consists =
of a frame of four pieces of wood-work ™
about a foot and a half in length, fastened
together in the shape of such a machine
as ladies use for certain worsted work.
Round this is wound a thin cord, gene-
rally tanned, of from ten to twenty
fathoms in length. To the extreme end
of this line is attached a leaden sinker, the weight of which
varies according as the current of the tide is slow or rapid.

About two feet above the sinker is a
cross piece of whalebone or iron, to the
extremities of which the strings on which
the hooks are dressed are attached.
Sometimes a third hook is affixed to an
outrigger, about two feet above the other
hooks, The length of the cords to
which the lower hooks are attached
should be such as to allow them to
hang about six inches higher than the
bottom of the sinker. In some parts of the Western High-
lands a rod consisting of thin fir is used, but from the length
of line required it is rather a clumsy instrument, as after the
fish has been struck the rod has to be laid down in the boat,
and the line to be hauled in by hand.
As to bait it is quite impossible to lay down any strict
I

ry a

114 BAIT FOR SEA-FISH.

tule. The bait which is the favourite in one bay or bank is
scouted by the fish of other localities. At times almost any-
thing will do: numbers of mackerel have been taken with a
little bit of red cloth attached to the hook ; on certain occasions
the fish are so hungry that they will swallow the naked iron !
On the English coasts, and among the Western Islands of
Scotland, the most deadly bait that is used is boiled limpets,
which require to be partially chewed by the fisher before
placing them on the hooks; in other places mussels are the
favourites, and in others the worms procured among the mud
of the shore. The limpet has this one advantage, that it is
easily fixed on the hook, and keeps its hold tenaciously. A
very excellent bait for the larger kinds of fish is the soft parts
of the body of small crabs, which are gathered for that purpose
at low tide under the stones ; a good place for procuring them
is a mussel-bed. The best time for fishing is immediately
before ebb or flow. The hooks being baited, the line is run
over the side of the boat until the lead touches the bottom,
when it is drawn up a little, so as to keep the baits out of
reach of the crabs who gnaw and destroy both bait and tackle.
The line is held firmly and lightly outside the boat, the other
hand, inside the boat, also having a grip of the line.
The moment a fish is felt to strike, the line is jerked
down by the hand inside, thus bringing it sharply
across the gunwale and fixing the hook. A little
experience will soon enable the angler to determine the
weight of the fish, and according as it is light or heavy
must he quickly or slowly haul in his line, When
the fish reaches the surface, he should, if practicable,
seize it with his hand, as it is apt, on feeling itself
out of water, to wriggle off. A landing-clip or gaff,
such as is used in salmon-fishing, is useful, as, in the
event of hooking a conger or a ray, there is much
difficulty, and even some danger.

Tn fishing for lythe—the most exciting of all sea-
angling—a very strong cord is used, on which, in order
to prevent the fouling of the line, one or two stout
swivels are attached. The hooks also cannot be too
strong; those used for cod or ling fishing are very
suitable. The baits in general use are the body of a

small eel, about half a foot in length, skinned and tied to the
shaft ; or a strip of red cloth, or a red or white feather similarly

SEA FLY-FISHING. 115

attached, A piece of lead is fixed on the line at a short dis-
tance above the hook.

The boat must be rowed or sailed at a moderate rate, and
from five or ten fathoms of the line allowed to trail behind.
The boat end of the line should be turned once or twice round
the arm, and held tightly in the hand ; if the line were fastened
to the boat, there is every chance that a large lythe—and they
are frequently caught upwards of thirty pounds weight—would
snap the tackle. The fish, when hooked, gives considerable
play, and rather strongly objects to being lifted into the boat.
The clip or gaff is in this case always necessary. In fishing for
lythe, mackerel and dogfish are not unfrequently caught. The
best place for prosecuting this sport is in the neighbourhood of a
rocky shore ; and the best times of the day are the early morning
and evening. This fish will also take readily during any period
of a dull but not gloomy day.

The most amusing kind of sea-angling is fly-fishing for small
lythe and saithe (coal-fish). The tackle is exceedingly simple :
a rod consisting of a pliant branch about eight feet in length ;
a line of light cord ‘of the same length, and a little hook roughly
busked with a small white, red, or black feather. The fly is
dragged on the surface as the "boat is rowed along, and the
moment the fish is struck it is swung into the boat. The fry
of the lythe and saithe may also be fished for from rocks and
pier-heads, using the same tackle. A very ingenious plan for
securing a number of these little fish is carried on in the Firth
of Clyde and elsewhere. A boat similar in shape to a salmon-
coble, with a crew of two—one to row and one to fish—goes
out along the shore in the evening, when the sea is perfectly
calm or nearly so. The fisher has charge of half-a-dozen rods
or more, similar to the one already mentioned. These rods
project across the square stern of the boat, and their near ends
are inserted into the interstices of a seat of wattled boughs,
on which the fisher sits, not steadily, but bumping gently up
and down, communicating a trembling motion to the flies. The
course of ‘the coble is always close in shore, and, if the fish are
taking well, the same ground may be fished over many times
during the course of the evening.

As to set-line-fishing, it can only be practised in places
where the tide recedes to a considerable distance. The cord
used is of no defined length, and at certain distances along its
entire extent are affixed corks to prevent the hooks sinking in

116 SPEARING FLAT FISH.

the sand or mud. The shore-end is generally anchored to a
stone, and the further end fastened to the top of a stout staff
’ firmly fixed in the beach, and generally attached also to a stone
to prevent it drifting ashore in the event of being loosened
from its socket. From the staff almost to the shore, hooks are
tied along the line at distances of a yard. The hooks are
baited at low tide, and on the return of next low tide the line
is examined, This is neither a satisfactory nor sure method of
fishing, as many of the fish wriggle themselves free, and clear
the hook of the bait, and many, after being caught, fall a prey
to dogfish, etc., so that the disappointed fisher, on examining
his line, teo often finds a row of baitless hooks, alternating
with the half-devoured bodies of haddocks, fiounders, saithe,
and other shore fish.
I may just name another mode of ebtaining sport, which is
by spearing flat fish, such as flounders, dab, plaice, etc. No
tule can be laid down on this method of
fishing. It has been carried on success-
fully by means of a common pitchfork, but
some gentlemen go the length of having
fine spears made for the purpose, very long
and with very sharp prongs ; others, again,
y use a three-pronged farm-yard “ graip,”
which has been known to do as much real
work as more elaborate utensils specially contrived for the
purpose. The simplest directions I can give to those who try
this style of fishing are just to spear all the fish they can see,
but the general plan is to stab in the dark with the kind of
instrument delineated above. At the mouths of most of the
large English rivers there is usually abundance of all the minor
kinds of flat fish.

Lobsters and crabs can be taken at certain rocky places of
the coast ; mussels can be picked
from the rocks, and cockles can
be dug for in the sand. Shrimps |
can also be taken, and various BADK
other wonders of the sea and ki Ne
its shores may be picked up.
After a-storm a great number &
of curious fishes and shells may
be gathered, and some of these
are very valuable as specimens of natural history. The ap-

LOBSTER CATCHING. 117

paratus for capturing lobsters and crabs is like a cage, and
is generally made of wicker work, with an aperture at the
top or the side for the animal to enter by; it can be baited
with any sort of garbage that is at hand. Having been
so baited, the lobster-pot is sunk into the water, and left for
a season, till, tempted by the mess within, the game enters
and is caged. Those who would induce crabs to enter their
pots must set them with fresh bait; lobsters, on the other
hand, will look at nothing but garbage. Very frequently rock-
cod, saithe, and other fish, are found to have entered the pots,
intent both on foul and fresh food. Shell-fish for bait can be
taken by means of a wooden box or old wicker basket sunk
near a rocky place, and filled with garbage of some kind; the
whelks and small crabs are sure to patronise the mess ex-
tensively, and can thus be obtained at convenience. It is im-
possible to tell in the limits of a brief chapter one half of
the fishing wonders that can be accomplished during a sojourn .
at the seaside. A visit to some quaint old fishing town, on
the recurrence of “the year’s vacation sabbath,” as some of our
poets now call the annual month’s holiday, might be made
greatly productive of real knowledge ; there are ten thousand
wonders of the shore which can be studied besides those laid
down in books.

As will be noted, I have avoided as much as possible the
naming of localities, preferring to state the general practice. In
all seaside towns and fishing villages there are usually three or
four old fishermen who will be glad to do little favours for the
curious in fish lore—to hire out boats, give the use of tackle,
and point out good localities in which to fish. For such as
have a few weeks at their disposal, I would suggest the western
sea-lochs of Scotland as affording superb sport in all the varieties
of sea-angling. Fish of all kinds, great and small, are to be
found in tolerable quantity, and there is likewise the still
greater inducement of fine scenery, cheap lodgings, and moderate
living expenses. But the entire change of scene is the grand
medicine ; nothing would do an exhausted London or Manchester
man more good than a month on Lochfyne, where he could not
only angle in the great water for amusement, but also watch the
commercial fishers, and enjoy the finely-flavoured herring of that
loch as a portion of his daily food. If persons in search of sea-
angling wish to combine the enjoyment of picturesque scenery
with their pleasant labours on the water, they cannot do better

118 THE RIVER CLYDE.

than select the-rural village of Corry, on the Island of Arran, as
a centre from which to conduct their operations.

Our angler, having arrived at Glasgow, can go down the
Clyde by steamboat direct to Arran. There is another and a
quicker way—viz. by railway to Ardrossan and steamboat to
Brodick, but most strangers prefer the river; and let me say
here, without fear of contradiction, there is no pleasure river
equal to the Clyde, especially as regards accessibility. The
steamers from Glasgow peer at stated intervals into every nook
and cranny of the water, and, on the Saturdays especially,
deposit perfect armies of people at various towns and villages
below Greenock, who are thus enabled to pass the Sunday in
the bright open air by the clear waters of this great stream.
Any kind of lodging is put up with for the sake of being “down
the water ;” and all sorts of people—merchants even of high
degree, and “Glasgow bodies” of lower social standing—are
contented, chiefly’ no doubt at the instigation of their better
halves, to sojourn in places that when at home they would
think quite unsuitable for even the Matties of their households,
The banks of the Clyde have become wonderfully populous within
the last twenty-five years—villages have expanded into towns,
hamlets have grown into villages, and single cottages into
hamlets. Now the railway to Greenock is insufficient as a
daily travelling aid to persons whose half-hours are of large com-
mercial value; and as a consequence, a new line of rails has
been constructed to come upon the water at Wemyss Bay, about
twelve miles below Greenock. To your thorough business man
time is money, and if he is alternately able to leave his place of
business and his place of pleasure half-an-hour later each way,
he is all the better pleased with both. To speculators in want
of an idea I would say: Rush to the Clyde, and buy up every
inch of land that can be had within a mile of the water, build
upon it, and from the half million of human beings who tenant
Glasgow and the surrounding towns I will engage to find two
competing occupants for every house that can be put up.
Building has progressed even in Arran, and this too despite
the late Duke of Hamilton’s dislike to strangers, so that there
is now a population on the island of about 7000. A friend
of mine says that such an important entity as a duke has
no right to do as he likes with his own, and consequently
that Arran ought to be built upon, and blackeocks and other
game birds be left to take their chance. Even with such limited

THE ISLAND OF ARRAN. 119

accommodation as can be now obtained, Arran is a delightful
summer residence ; were it to be generally built upon, it would
realise from ground-rents alone an annual fortune to his Grace
the Duke of Hamilton, who owns the greater part of it, and he
might have capital shooting into the bargain.

Arran, I may state to all who are ignorant of the fact, is a
very paradise for geologists ; and amateur globe-makers—persons
who think they are better at constructing worlds than the
Great Architect who preceded them all—are particularly fond
of that island, being, as they suppose, quite able to find upon it
materiel sufficient for the erection of the largest possible
“theories.” Figures, it is said, can be made to prove either
side of a cause ; socan stones. Each geologist can build up his
own pet world from the same set of rocks; and so active
geologists proceed to stucco over with their own compositions—
“adumbrate” a friend calls the process—the sublime works of
the greatest of all designers. None of the sciences have given
rise to so much controversy as the science of geology. I make
no pretensions to much geologic knowledge, although I do know
a little more than the man who wondered if the granite boulders
which he saw on a brae-side were on their way up or down the
hill, and argued that it was a moot point. What I would like
to see would be a good work on geology, divested entirely of the
learned and scientific slang which usually makes such books
entirely useless to ninety-nine out of every hundred persons who
attempt to read them. I would like, moreover, a work that
would not bully us with a ready-made theory.

We had been landed from the steamboat on a massive grey
boulder, on the sides of which, thick as was the atmosphere, we
observed dozens: of limpets and crowds of “ buckies,” and other
sea-ware, giving us token of ample employment when we could
obtain leisure for a more minute survey of the rocks and stray
stones which sprinkle the sea-beach of Corry. In the meantime,
that is just after landing, the great, the momentous question on
this and every other Saturday night is—Is the inn full? A
hurried scramble over the jagged stones, and a rush past the
very picturesque residence of Mr. Douglas’ pigs, brought us to
the inn, and at once decided the question. Mrs. Jamison, the
landlady, shook her Jawn-bedizened head—the inn, alas, was
full, overflowing in fact, for a gentleman had engaged the coach-
house! It was feared, too, that every house in the village was
in a like predicament, and further inquiry soon confirmed this

120 THE MOMENTOUS QUESTION.

to us rather awful statement, and so I was left standing at the
inn-door, with a bitingly shrewd companion, to solve this pro-
blem—Given the barest possible accommodation throughout all
Corry for only forty-eight strangers, how to shake fifty into the
village, so that each might have somewhere to lay his head ?

CORRY HARBOUR.

This is a problem, I suspect, that few can answer. What was
to be done? The steamboat had gone! Were we then to
tramp on to Brodick, with more than a suspicion of a rainy
night in the moist atmosphere, or try a shake-down of clean
straw in a lime quarry? It might have come to that, and as
both of us had before then camped out for a night by the sheltered
side of a haystack, we might have arranged, fortified by the aid
of a dram, or perhaps two, to pass a tolerable night in the lime
cavern beside a very canny-looking horse-of-all-work that we
caught a glimpse of through the gloom of the place while
peeping into it.

PRIMITIVE QUARTERS. 121

It fortunately occurred that a modest maiden lady, a very
“ civil-spoken” woman indeed, by name Grace Macalister, had
been disappointed of two Glasgow gentlemen, who had engaged
her whole house, and so the two benighted travellers from the east
were accepted, at the instigation of the late Mr. Douglas, a well-
known man in Corry, in lieu of them. Taking possession of our
lodgings at once, we formed ourselves into a committee of supply,
which resulted ina prompt expenditure of a sum of six shillings
and threepence, the particulars of which, for the benefit of my
readers, and to show how primitive we had all at once become,
I beg to subjoin—namely, bread, 7d. ; mutton, 2s. 4d. ; butter,
64d. ; tea, 6d.; sugar, 3d.; milk, 4d.; herring, 2d. This
sum, with eighteenpence added for whisky, threepence for
potatoes, and one penny for a candle, represented the total com-
missariat expenses of two persons in Corry for five wholesome
but homely meals. Our bed cost us one shilling each per night,
and our attendance and washing were charged at the rate of a
shilling a day, so long as we used the Hotel Macalister, but
even this did not very much swell the grand total of the
bill, which, at such rates, was by no means heavy at the end of
our holiday ramble over Arran, especially when it is considered
that the Arran season does not very greatly exceed one hundred
days. Our quarters were certainly primitive enough—namely,
half of a thatched cottage, or rather hut we may call it, con-
sisting of one apartment containing two beds, four chairs, a
small table, and a little cupboard. The beds were curtained by
a series of blue striped cotton fragments of three different
patterns of an old Scotch kind, and the walls were papered with
five different kinds of paper ; but the low roof was the greatest
treat of all—it was covered with old numbers of the Witness
newspaper, at the time when it was edited by Hugh Miller, and
these had, no doubt, been left in the cottage by previous
travellers. The floor was covered with fragments of canvas laid
down as a carpet. Many tourists would perhaps turn up their
noses at this humble cottage, but to my friend and myself it
was a delightful change.

I have not space in which to particularise all the beauties of
Arran, but I must say a word or two about Glen Sannox. Near
the golden beach of Sannox Bay is situated the solitary church-
yard of Corry, with its long grass waving rank over the graves,
and its borders of fuchsias laden with brilliant blossoms. There
was, we observed, on peeping over the wall, a new-made grave,

122 GLEN SANNOX,.

that of an orphan girl who had been drowned while bathing.
Passing the churchyard—there was once a church at the place,
but all trace of it, save one stone built into the wall of the
churchyard, has long passed away—we came upon a brawling
stream, which led us up to the ruins of what had been a Barytes-
mill. The stones lay around in great masses, as if they had
been suddenly undermined by the passing stream, and had fallen
cemented as they stood. In a year or two they will be grown
over with weeds, and in a century hence some persons may in-
geniously speculate on the ruins, and give a learned disquisition
as to the building that once stood there, and its uses. My friend
and I wondered what it had been, but an old man told us all
about it; and strange to say, in the course of conversation, we
found this old resident reciting scraps of Ossian’s poems. He
told us, too, that the bard had died in the very parish in
which we were standing. He believed Ossian to have been a
priest and teacher of the people, and this was an idea that was
quite new to us. We had heard before, or rather read, that
the poet was by some esteemed a great warrior, and by others a
necromancer—perhaps to esteem him a teacher is right enough ;
his poems, at any rate, were at one time as familiar in the
mouths of the West Highlanders as household words.
The scenery of Arran would certainly inspire a poet. As we
penetrated into Glen Sannox it became most interesting, whether
we noted the brawling and bubbling brook, or the rich carpet of
heath and wild flowers upon which we trod. The luxuriance of
its wild flowers is remarkable, and of its rabbits equally so. As
we proceed up the glen, the lofty hills with their granitic scars
frown down upon us, and one with a coroneted brow looks kingly
among the others, as the mists float upon their shoulders, like
a waving mantle, and with their bold and rugged precipices they
seem as. if they had just been suddenly shot out from the bosom
of the earth. Glen Sannox is sublime indeed ; its magnitude
is remarkable, and it is so hemmed in with hills as to look at
once, even without any details, or the aid of history, a fitting
hiding-place for the gallant Bruce and his devoted followers,
About three miles north from this glen we can view—and, we
venture to say, not without astonishment — the falling frag-
ments of the broken mountain; a stream of large stones
that lie crowded on the declivity of the hill, till they in
one long trail reach the ocean. But to enumerate a tithe
even of the scenic and antiquarian beauties of the island would

ARRAN SIGHTS AND SCENES. 123

require—nay, it has obtained, and more than once—a volume.
I could dwell upon the blue rock near Corry, and picture the
overhanging cliffs of the neighbourhood mantled o’er with ivy.
The visitor might enter some of the caves which have been
scooped out by the sea, or wander among the rock pools of the
indented shore, rich with treasures wherewith to feed the greedy
eye of the naturalist, and view the ladies, with kilted coats, doing
their daily lessons from Glaucus, collecting pretty shells, bottling
anemones, or gathering sea-weeds wherewith to ornament their
botanic albums. At last, after a long day’s work of wandering
and climbing, we long for a quiet seat and a refreshing cup of
tea, and by and by, when the night shuts us out from active
labour, we hie us to our box bed, in order to stretch our wearied
limbs in Miss Macalister’s well-lavendered sheets; and, as we
are just attempting to coax the balmy goddess to close our eyes
with her soft fingers, we hear the landlady in her garret reading
her nightly chapter from a Gaelic Bible, with that droning
sound incidental to the West Highland voice.

T have more than once after nightfall passed a quiet: half-hour
at our cottage door inhaling the saline breath of the mighty sea.
The look-out at midnight is beautiful: the Cumbrae light
looks like a monitor telling us that even at that dread hour we
are watched over. On the opposite coast of Ayr a huge iron-
work throws a lurid glare upon the bosom of the sea, and
almost at my feet the restless waves play a mournful dirge on
the boulder-crowded beach. I could see along the water to
Holy Island, and almost feel the silence which at that moment
would render the cave of old Saint Molio a wondrous place for
holding a feast of the imagination, the viands brought forward
from a far-back time, and the island being again peopled
with the quaint races that had passed a brief span of life
upon its shores—who had been warmed by the same sun as had
that day shone upon me, and whose nights had been illumined
by the moon now shimmering its soft radiance upon the liquid
bosom of the glittering waters.

CHAPTER VI.

——
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SALMON.

The Salmon our best-known Fish—Controversies and Anomalies—Food of
Salmon—The Parr Controversy—Experiments by Shaw, Young, and
Hogg—Grilse : its Rate of Growth—Do Salmon make Two Voyages
to the Sea in each Year?—-The Best Way of Marking Young
Salmon.

So many books have been written about this beautiful and valu-
able animal that I do not require to occupy a very large portion
of my work with either its natural or economic history ; for
of the two hundred and fifty kinds of fish which inhabit the
rivers and seas of Britain, the salmon (Salmo salar) is the one
about which we know more than any other, and chiefly for these
reasons :—-It is of greater value as property than any other fish ;
its large size better admits of observation than smaller members
of the fish tribe ; and, in consequence of its migratory instinct,
we have access to it at those seasons of its life when to observe
its habits is the certain road to information. And yet, with
all these advantages, or rather in consequence of them, there
has been a vast amount of controversy, oral and written, as to
the birth, breeding, and growth of the salmon. There have been
controversies as to the impregnation of its eggs, as to the growth
of the fish from the parr to the smolt stage; also as to the kind
of food it eats, how long it remains in the salt water, and whether
it makes one or two voyages to the sea per annum. There has
likewise been a grilse controversy, as well as a rate-of-growth
quarrel, These scientific and literary combats have been fought
at intervals, and, to speak generally, have exhibited the temper
and the learning of the combatants in about equal proportions.
The dates of these controversies are not so easily fixed as might

SALMON FRY. 125

be desired, seeing that they are either scattered at intervals
throughout the Transactions of learned societies, buried in heavy
encyclopsedias, or altogether lost in the columns of newspapers.
It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that during the past quarter
of a century there has been a committee of inquiry either in the
House of Lords and Commons, a royal commission, a blue book,
or an Act of Parliament, every year on behalf of the salmon,
besides several publications by private individuals,

Although no person now believes the assertion of the Billings-
gate naturalist, that salmon eggs come to maturity in a period
of forty-eight hours, or that other authority who told the
world that as soon as the fish burst from the ovum —a
smolt six inches long coming out of a pea !—it was conducted
to the sea by its parents, there is much of the romantic in the
history of this monarch of the brook, and about the manner in
which the varied disputed points have been solved, if indeed
some of these points be yet completely settled,

I shall not again enter into the impregnation theory, having
said as much as was necessary about that portion of my subject
in a previous division of this work, but proceed at once to give
a summary of the parr controversy, and a few statements about
the grilse and the full-grown fish as well.

According to the state of knowledge forty years ago—and I
need not go farther back at present—the smolt was said to be
the first stage of salmon-life, and the abounding pair was
thought to be a distinct fish, Now we know better, and are
able to regulate our salmon-fisheries accord-
ingly. The spawn deposited by the parent
fish in October, November, and December,
lies in the river till about April or May,
when it quickens into life. I have already described the changes
apparent in the salmon-egg from the time of its fructification
till the birth of the fish. The infant
fry are of course very helpless, and
are seldom seen during the first
week or two of their existence, when
they carry about with them as a provision for food a portion of
the egg from whence they emanated. At that time the fish is
about half-an-inch in size, and presents such a very singular
appearance that no person seeing it would ever believe that it
would grow into a fine grilse or salmon. About fifty days is
required for the animal to assume the shape of a perfect fish ;

Ee

126 GROWTH OF THE SALMON.

before that time it might be taken for anything else than a
young salmon. Our engravings, which are exactly half the

size of life, show the progress of the salmon during the first
two years of its existence, at the end of which time it will,
most likely, have changed into a smolt. After eating up
its umbilical bag, which it takes a period of from twenty to
forty days to accomplish, the young salmon may be seen
about its birthplace, timid and weak, hiding among the stones,
and always apparently of the same colour as the surround-
ings of its sheltering place. The transverse bars of the parr
very early become apparent, and the fish begins to grow
with considerable rapidity, especially if it is to be a twelve-
months’ smolt, and this is very speedily seen at such a good
point of observation as the Stormontfield ponds. The smallest
of the specimens given in the preceding page represents a parr at
the age of two months ; the next in size shows the same fish two
months older; and the remaining fish is six months old. The
young fish continue to grow for a little longer than two years
before the whole number make the change from parr to smolt and
seek the salt water. Half of the quantity of any one hatching,
however, begin to change at a little over twelve months from
the date of their coming to life; and thus there is the extra-
ordinary anomaly, as I shall by and by show, of fish of the same
hatching being at one and the same time parr of half-an-ounce
in weight and grilse weighing four pounds. The smolts of the
first year return from the sea whilst their brothers and sisters
are timidly disporting in the breeding shallows of the upper
streams, having no desire for change, and totally unable to
endure the salt water, which would at once kill them. The sea-
feeding must be favourable, and the condition of the fish well
suited to the salt water, to ensure such rapid growth—a rapidity
which every visit of the fish to the ocean serves but to confirm.
Various fish, while in the grilse stage, have been marked to
prove this; and at every migration they returned to their

MYSTERIES OF SALMON GROWTH. 127

breeding stream with added weight and improved health. What
the salmon feeds upon while in the salt water is not well known,
as the digestion of that fish is so rapid as to prevent the dis-
covery of food in their stomachs when they are captured and
opened. Guesses have been made, and it is likely that these
approximate to the truth ; but the old story of the rapid voyage
of the salmon to the North Pole and back again turns out, like
the theory upon which was built up the herring-migration
romance, to be a mere myth.

None of our naturalists have yet attempted to elucidate
that mystery of salmon life which converts one-half of the fish
into sea-going smolts, while as yet the other moiety remain as
parr. It has been investigated so far at the breeding-ponds at
Stormontfield, but without resolving the question. There is
another point of doubt as to salmon life which I shall also
have a word to say about—namely, whether or not that fish
makes two visits annually to the sea; likewise whether it be
probable that a smolt remains in the salt water for nearly a
year before it becomes a grilse. A salmon only stays, as it is
popularly supposed, a very short time in the salt water, and as it
is one of the quickest swimming fishes we have, it is able to
reach a distant river in a very short space of time, therefore it is
most desirable that we should know what it does with itself
when it is not migrating from one water to the other ; because,
according to the opinion of some naturalists, it would speedily
become so deteriorated in the river as to be unequal to the
slightest exertion.

The mere facts in the biography of the salmon are not
very numerous ; it is the fiction and mystery with which the
life of this particular fish have been invested by those ignorant of
its history that have made it a greater object of interest than it
would otherwise have become. This will be obvious as I briefly
trace the amount of controversy and state the arguments which
have been expended on the three divisions of its life.

Tue Parr ContRoversy.—None of the controversies con-
cerning the growth of the salmon have been so hotly carried on
or have proved so fertile in argument as the parr dispute. At
certain seasons of the year, most notably in the months of spring
and early summer, our salmon streams and their tributaries
become crowded, as if by magic, with a pretty little fish, known
in Scotland as the parr, and in England as the brandling, the

128 THE PARR CONTROVERSY.

peel, the samlet, etc. The parr was at one time so wonderfully
plentiful, that farmers and cottars who resided near a salmon
river used not unfrequently, after filling the family frying-pan,
to feed their pigs with the dainty little fish! Countless thou-
sands were annually killed by juvenile anglers, and even so
lately as thirty years ago it never occurred either to country
gentlemen or their cottars that these parr were young salmon.
Indeed, the young of the salmon, as then recognised, was only
known as a smolt or smout. Parr were thought, as I have
already said, to be distinct fish of the minor or dwarf kind.
Some large-headed anglers, however, had their doubts about the
little parr, and naturalists found it difficult to procure specimens

PARR ONE YEAR OLD.

Half the natural size.

of the fish with ova or milt in them. Dr. Knox, the anatomist,
asserted that the parr was a hybrid belonging to no particular
species of fish, but a mixture of many ; and it is curious enough
that although this fish was declared over and over again to be
a separate species, no one ever found a female parr containing
roe. The universal exclamation of naturalists for many a long
year was always : It is a quite distinct species, and not the young
of any larger fish, The above drawing represents a parr, the
engraving being exactly half the size of life.

This “ distinct-species” dogma might have been still pre-
valent, had not the question been taken in hand and solved by
practical men. Before mentioning the experiments of Shaw and
Young, it will be curious to note the varieties of opinion which
were evoked during the parr controversy, which has existed in
one shape or another for something like two hundred years, As
a proof of the difficulty of arriving at a correct conclusion amidst
the conflict of evidence, I may cite the opinion of Yarrell, who
held the parr to be a distinct fish. ‘That the parr,” he says,
“is not the young of the salmon, or, indeed, of any other of the

JAMES HOGG’S EXPERIMENTS. 129

large species of Salmonide, as still considered by some, is
sufficiently obvious, from the circumstance that parr by hundreds
may be taken in the rivers all the summer, long after the fry of
the year of the larger migratory species have gone down to the
sea.” Mr. Yarrell also says, ‘The smolt or young salmon is
by the fishermen of some rivers called ‘a laspring ;’” and
explains, “‘ The laspring of some rivers is the young of the true
salmon ; but in others, as I know from having had specimens
sent me, the laspring is really only a parr.” Mr. Yarrell further
states the prevalence of an opinion “that parrs were hybrids,
and all of them males.” Many gentlemen who would not
admit that parr were salmon in their first stage have lived to
change their opinion.

The first person who “ took a thought about the matter”—
i.¢., a8 to whether the parr was or was not the young of the
salmon—and arrived at a solid conclusion, was James Hogg,
the Ettrick Shepherd, who, in his usual impulsive way, pro-
ceeded to verify his opinions. He had, while herding sheep,
many opportunities of watching the fishing-streams, and, like
most of his class, he wielded his fishing-rod with consider-
able dexterity.' While angling in the tributaries of some of the
Border salmon-streams he had often caught the parr as it was
changing into the smolt, and had, after close observation, come
to the conclusion that the little parr was none other than
the infant'salmon. Mr. Hogg did not keep his discovery a secret,
and the more his facts were controverted by the naturalists of the
day the louder became his proclamations. He had suspected all
his life that parr were salmon in their first stage. He would
catch a parr with a few straggling scales upon it; he would
look at this fish and think it queer ; instantly he would catch
another a little better covered with silver scales, but all loose,
and not adhering to the body. Again he would catch a smolt,
manifestly a smolt, all covered with the white silver scales, yet
still rather loose upon its skin, which would come off in his
hand. Removing these scales he found the parr, with the blue
finger-marks below them, and that the fish were young salmon
then became as manifest to the Shepherd as that a lamb,
if suffered to live, would become a sheep. Wondering at this,
he marked a great number of the lesser fish, and offered rewards
(characteristically enough of whisky) to the peasantry to bring
him such as had evidently undergone the change predicted
by him. Whenever this conclusion was settled in his mind, the

K

130 A SHEPHERD'S PROBLEM.

Shepherd at once proclaimed his new-gained knowledge. “ What
will the fishermen of Scotland think,” said he, “ when I assure
them, on the faith of long experience and observation, and on
the word of one who can have no interest in instilling an untruth
into their minds, that every insignificant parr with which the
Cockney fisher fills his basket is a salmon lost?” These crude
attempts of the impulsive shepherd of Ettrick—and heiwas
hotly opposed by the late Mr. Buist of Stormontfield—were not
without their fruits ; indeed they were so successful as quite to
convince him that parr were young salmon in their first stage.

As I have had occasion to mention the opinions of James
Hogg on the salmon question, I may be allowed to state here
that the following amusing bit of dialogue on the habits of the
salmon once took place between the Ettrick Shepherd and a
friend :—

Shepherd—“ I maintain that ilka saumon comes aye back
again frae the sea till spawn in its ain water.”

Friend—“ Toots, toots, Jamie! hoo can it manage till do
that? hoo, in the name o’ wonder, can a fish, travelling up a
turbid water frae the sea, know when it reaches the entrance
to its birthplace, or that it has arrived at the tribituary that
was its cradle ?”

Shepherd—‘ Man, the great wonder to me is no hoo the fish
get back, but hoo they find their way till the sea first ava, seein’
that they’ve never been there afore!”

The parr question, however, was determined in a rather
more formal mode than that adopted by the author of ‘ Bonny
Kilmenny.” The late Mr. Shaw, a forester in the employment
of the Duke of Buccleuch, took up the case of the parr in 1833,
and succeeded in solving the problem. In order that he might
watch the progressive growth of the parr, Mr. Shaw began by
capturing seven of these little fishes on the 11th of July 1833 ;
these he placed in a pond supplied by a stream of excellent
water, where they grew and flourished apace till early in April
1834, between which date and the 17th of the following May
they became smolts ; and all who saw them on that day when
they were caught by Mr. Shaw were thoroughly convinced that
they were true salmon smolts. In March 1835 Mr. Shaw re-
peated his experiments with twelve parrs of a larger size, taken
also from the river. On being transferred to the pond, these
so speedily acquired the scales of the smolt that Mr. Shaw
assumed a period of two years as being the time at which the

SHAW’S EXPERIMENTS. 131

change took place from the parr to the smolt, The late Mr.
Young of Invershin, a well-known authority on salmon life, was
experimenting at the same time as Mr. Shaw, and for the
same purpose—namely, to determine if parr were young salmon,
and, if so, at what period they became smolts and proceeded
to the sea. Mr. Shaw said two years, and Mr. Young, who
was then manager of the Duke of Sutherland’s fisheries,
said the change took place in twelve months ; others, again,
who took an interest in the controversy, said that three years
elapsed before the change was made. The various parties
interested held each their own opinion, and it may even be
said that the disputation still goes on; for although a numer-
ous array of facts bearing on the migration have been gathered,
we are still in ignorance of any regulating principle on which
the migratory change is based, or to account for the impulse
which impels a brood of fish to proceed to sea divided into
two moieties. Mr. Shaw watched his young’ fry with un-
ceasing care, and described their growth with great minute-
ness, for a period extending over two years, when his parrs
became smolts. Mr. Young, in a letter from Invershin, dated
January 1853, says, pointedly enough—“ The fry remain in
the river one whole year, from the time they are hatched to
the time they assume their silvery coat and take their first
departure for the sea, All the experiments we have made on
the ova and fry of the salmon have exactly corresponded to the
same effects, and none of them have taken longer in arriving at
the smolt than the first year.”

The late Mr. Buist, in one of his letters on the progress of
artificial breeding at the Stormontfield ponds, says: ‘‘ There is
at present a mystery as regards the progress of the young
salmon. There can be no doubt that all in our ponds are really
and truly the offspring of salmon; no other fish, not even the
seed of them, could by any possibility get into the ponds, Now
we see that about one half have gone off as smolts, returning in
their season as grilses ; the other half remain as parrs, and the
milt in the males is as much developed, in proportion to the
size of the fish, as their brethren of the same age seven to ten
pounds weight, whilst these same parrs in the ponds do not
exceed one ounce in weight. This is an anomaly in nature
which I fear cannot be cleared up at present. I hope, however,
by proper attention, some light may be thrown upon it from our
experiments next spring. The female parrs in the pond have

132 INSTINCT OF THE SALMON FOR CHANGE.

their ova so undeveloped that the granulations can scarcely be
discovered by a lens of some power. It is strange that hoth
Young’s and Shaw’s theories are likely to prove correct, though
seemingly so contradictory, and the much-disputed point settled,
that parrs (such as ours at least) are truly the young of the
salmon.”

It is quite certain that parr are young salmon, and that a
parr becomes a smolt and goes to the sea, although there are
still to be found, no doubt, a few wrong-headed people who
refuse to be convinced on the point, but pridefully maintain all
the old salmon theories and prejudices, With them the parr
is still a distinct fish, the smolt is the true young of Salmo salar
in its first stage, and a grilse is just a grilse and nothing
more. However, these old-world people will in time pass away
(there is no hope of converting them), and then the modern
views of salmon biography, founded as they are on laborious
personal investigation, will ultimately prevail.

Tue Smott and GritszE.—But the great parr mystery is
still unsolved—that is to say, no one knows on what principle
the transformation is accomplished ; why it is that only half
of a brood ripen into smolts at the end of a year, the other
moiety taking double that period to arrive at the same stage
of progress. Some scientific visitors to the Stormontfield ponds
say that this anomaly is natural enough, and that similar
ratios of growth may be observed among all animals ; but it is
curious that just exactly the half of a brood—and the eggs, be
it remembered, all from adult salmon, and therefore similar in
ripeness and other conditions—should change into smolts at
the end of a year, leaving a moiety in the ponds as parr for
another twelvemonth.

The most remarkable phase in the life of the salmon is its
extraordinary instinct for change. After the parr has become
a smolt, it is found that the desire to visit the sea is so intense,
especially in pond-bred fish, as to cause them to leap from
their place of confinement, in the hope of attaining at once
their salt-water goal; and of course the instinct of river-bred
fish is equally strong on this point—they all rush to the sea at
their proper season. There are various opinions as to the cause
of this migratory instinct in the salmon. Some people say it
finds in the sea those rich feeding-grounds which enable it to
add so rapidly to its weight. It is quite certain that the fish
attains its primest condition while it is in the salt water ;

THE SMOLT MIGRATION. 133

those caught in the estuaries by means of stake or bag nets
being richer in quality and finer in flavour than the river fish :
the moment the salmon enters the fresh water it begins to
decrease in weight and fall from its high condition. It is a
curious fact, and a wise provision of nature, that the eel, which
is also a migratory fish, descends to spawn in the sea as the
salmon is ascending to the river-head for the same purpose ;
were the fact different, and both fish to spawn in the river, the
roe of the salmon would be completely eaten up. In due time
then, we find the silver-coated host leaving the rippling cradle
of its birth, and adventuring on the more powerful stream, by
which it is borne to the sea-fed estuary, or the briny ocean
itself. And this picturesque tour is repeated year after year,
being apparently the grand essential of salmon life.

It is pleasant, rod in hand, on a breezy spring day, while
trying to coax “the monarch of the brook” from his shelter-
ing pool, to watch this annual migration, and to note the
passage of the bright-mailed army adown the majestic river,
that hurries on by busy corn-mill, and sweeps with a murmur-
ing sound past hoar and ruined towers, washing the pleasant
lawns of country magnates or laving the cowslips on the

SMOLT TWO YEARS OLD.
Half the natural size.

village meadow, and as it rolls ceaselessly ocean-ward, giving
a more picturesque aspect to the quaint agricultural villages
and farm homesteads which it passes in its course. During
the whole length of its pilgrimage the army of smolts pays a
tribute to its enemies in gradual decimation’ it is attacked at
every point of vantage; at one place the smolts are taken
prisoners by the hundred in some well-contrived net, at another
picked off singly by some juvenile angler. The smolt is
greedily devoured by the trout, the pike, and various other
enemies, which lie constantly in waiting for it, sure of a rich

134 VISITS OF THE SMOLTS TO THE SEA,

feast at this annually-recurring migration. But the giant and
fierce battle which this infantile tribe has to fight is at the
point where the salt water begins to mingle with the stream,
where are assembled hosts of greedy monsters of the deep of all
shapes and sizes, from the porpoise and seal down to the young
coal-fish, who dart with inconceivable rapidity upon the defence-
less shoal, and play havoc with the numbers.

Many naturalists dispute most lustily the assertién that the
smolt returns to the parental waters as a grilse the same year
that it visits the sea; and some writers have maintained that

the young fish makes a grand tour to the North Pole before it

makes up its mind to “hark back.’ It has been pretty well
proved, however, that the grilse may have been the young smolt
of the same year. A most remarkable fact in the history of
grilse is, that we kill them in thousands before they have an
opportunity of perpetuating their kind ; indeed on some rivers
the annual slaughter of grilse is so enormous as palpably to
affect the “takes” of the big fish, It has been asserted, like-
wise, that the grilse is a distinct fish, and not the young of the
salmon in its early stage. There has been a controversy as to
the rate at which the salmon increases in weight ; and there
have been numerous disputes about what its instinct had taught
it to “ eat, drink, and avoid.”

It has been authoritatively settled, however, that grilse be-
come salmon ; and, notwithstanding a ‘recent opening up of this
old sore, I hold the experiments conducted by his Grace the
Duke of Athole and the late Mr. Young of Invershin to be
quite conclusive. Thé latter gentleman, in his little work on
the salmon, after alluding to various points in the growth of
the fish, says—‘‘ My next attempt was to ascertain the rate of
their growth during their short stay in salt water, and for this
purpose we marked spawned grilses, as near as we could get
to four pounds weight; these we had no trouble in getting
with a net in the pools below the spawning-beds, where they
had congregated together to rest, after the fatigues of deposit-
ing their seed. All the fish above four pounds weight, as well
as any under that size, were returned to the river unmarked,
and the others marked by inserting copper wire rings into
certain parts of their fins: this was done in a manner so as
not to interrupt the fish ‘in their swimming operations, nor be
troublesome to them in any way. _ After their journey to sea
and back again, we found that the four-pound grilses had grown

GRILSE-GROWTH. 135

into beautiful salmon, varying from nine to fourteen pounds
weight. I repeated this experiment for several years, and on
the whole found the results the same, and, as in the former
marking, found the majority returning in about eight weeks ;
and we have never among our markings found a marked grilse
go to sea and return a grilse, for they have invariably returned
salmon,”

The late Duke of Athole took considerable interest in the
grilse question, and kept a complete record of all the fish that
he had caused to be marked ; and in his Journal there is a
striking instance of rapidity of growth. A fish marked by his
Grace was caught ata place forty miles distant from the sea;
it travelled to the salt water, fed, and returned in the short
space of thirty-seven days. The following is his entry regarding
this particular fish :—“ On referring to my Journal, I find that
I caught this fish as a kelt this year, on the 31st of March, with
the rod, about two miles above Dunkeld Bridge, at which time
it weighed exactly ten pounds; so that, in the short space of
five weeks and two days, it had gained the almost incredible
increase of eleven pounds and a quarter; for, when weighed
here on its arrival, it was twenty-one pounds and a quarter.”
There could be no doubt, Mr. Young thinks, of the accuracy of
this statement, for his Grace was most correct in his observa-
tions, having tickets made for the purpose, and numbered from
one upwards, and the number and date appertaining to each fish
was carefully registered for reference.

As the fish grew so rapidly during their visit to the salt
water, people began to wonder what they fed on, and where they
went. A hypothesis was started of their visiting the North
Pole ; but it was certain, from the short duration of their visit
to the salt water that they could proceed to no great distance
from the mouth of the river which admitted them to the sea,
Hundreds of fish were dissected in order to ascertain what they
fed upon ; but only on very rare occasions could any traces of
food be found in their stomachs, What, then, do salmon live
upon? was asked. It is quite clear that salmon obtain in
the sea some kind of food for which they have a peculiar liking,
and upon which they rapidly grow fat; and it is very well
known that after they return to the fresh water they begin to
lose flesh and fall off in condition. The rapid growth of the
fish seems to imply that its digestion must be rapid, and may
perhaps account for food never being in its stomach when found ;

136 THE DOUBLE MIGRATION OF SALMON.

although I am bound to mention that one gentleman who writes
on this subject accounts for the emptiness of the stomach by
asserting that salmon vomit at the moment of being taken.
The codfish again is frequently found with its stomach crowded ;
in fact, I have seen the stomach of a large cod which formed
quite a small museum, having a large variety of articles “on
board,” as the fisherman said who caught it.

It is supposed by some writers that salmon make two voyages
in each year to the sea, and this is quite possible, as we may
judge from data already given on this point; but sometimes
the salmon, although it can swim withjgreat rapidity, takes many
weeks to accomplish its journey, because of the state of the river.
If there be not sufficient water to flood the course,the fish must
remain in various pools till the state of the water admits of their
proceeding on their journey either to or from the sea, The
salmon, like all other fish, is faithful to its old haunts ; and it is
known, in cases where more than one salmon-stream falls into the
same firth, that the fish of one stream will: not enter another,
and where the stream has various tributaries suitable for breeding
purposes, the fish breeding in a particular tributary invariably
return to it. ;

But, in reference to the idea of a double visit to the salt
water, may we not ask—particularly as we have the dates of
marked fish for our guidance—what a salmon that is known
to be only five weeks away on its sea visit does with itself the
rest of the year? A salmon, for instance, spawning about “the
den of Airlie,” on the Isla, some way beyond Perth, has not to
make a very long journey before it reaches the salt water, and
travelling at a rapid rate would soon accomplish it ; but suppos-
ing the fish took thirty days for its passage there and back, and
allowing a period of four weeks for spawning and rest, there are
still many months of its annual life unaccounted for. It cannot
remain in the river forty-seven weeks, because it would become
so low in condition from the want of a proper supply of nourish-
ing food that it would die; and it is this fact that has led to the
supposition of a double journey to the sea. The Rev. Dugald
Williamson, who wrote a pamphlet on this subject, entertains
no doubt about the double journey. “Salmon migrate twice in
the course of the year, and the instinct which drives them from
the sea in summer impels them to the sea in spring. Let the
vernal direction of the propensity be opposed, let a salmon be
seized as it descends and confined in a fresh-water pond or lake,

REV. MR, WILLIAMSON’S OPINION. 137

and what is its fate? Before preparing to quit the river it had
suffered severely in strength, bulk, and general health, and, im-
prisoned in an atmosphere which had become unwholesome, it
soon begins to languish, and in the course of the season expires :
the experiment has been tried, and the result is well known.
This being an ascertained and unquestionable fact, is it a violent
or unfair inference that a similar result obtains in the case of
those salmon that are forced back, from whatever cause, to the
sea, that the salt-water element is as fatal to the pregnant fish
of autumn as the fresh-water element is to the spent fish in
spring? . . . If there is any truth in these conjectures,
they suggest the most powerful reasons for resisting or removing
obstructions in the estuary of ariver.” The riddle of this double
migration of the salmon is likely still to puzzle us. It is said
that the impelling force of the migratory instinct is, that the
fish is preyed upon in the salt water by a species of crustaceous
insect, which forces it to seek the fresh waters of its native
Tiver ; again that while the fresh water destroys these sea-lice
a parasite infests it in the river, thus necessitating its return to
the sea. My own experience leads me to believe that salmon
can exist in the fresh water for a considerable time, and suffer
but little deterioration in weight, but they never, so far as I
could ascertain, grow while in the fresh streams. It is a well-
known fact that parr cannot live in salt water. I have both
tried the experiment myself and seen it tried by others; the
parr invariably die when placed in contact with the sea-water.
Mr. William Brown, in his painstaking account of The
Natural History of the Salmon, also bears his testimony on this
part of the salmon question :—“ Until the parr takes on the
smolt scales, it shows no inclination to leave the fresh water.
It cannot live in salt water. This fact was-put to the test at
the ponds, by placing some parrs in salt water—the water being
brought fresh from the sea at Carnoustie; and immediately on
being immersed in it the fish appeared distressed, the fins stand-
ing stiff out, the parr-marks becoming a brilliant ultramarine
colour, and the belly and sides of a bright orange. The water
was often renewed, but they all died, the last that died living
nearly five hours. After being an hour in the salt water, they
appeared very weak and unable to rise from the bottom of the
vessel which contained them, the body of the fish swelling to a
considerable extent. This change of colour in the fish could not
be attributed to the colour of the vessel which held them, for

138 RAPIDITY OF SALMON-GROWTH.

on being taken out they still retained the same brilliant
colours,”

All controversies relating to the growth of salmon may now
be held as settled. It has been proved that the parr is the
young of the salmon; the various changes which it undergoes
during its growth have been ascertained, and the increase of
bulk and weight which accrues in a given period is now well
understood. But we still require much information as to the
“habits” of fish of the salmon kind.

In a recent conversation with Mr, Marshall of Stormontfield,
while comparing notes on some of the disputed points of salmon
growth, we both came to the conclusion that the following dates,
founded on the experiments conducted at Stormontfield, might
be taken as marking the -chief stages in the life of a salmon.
An egg deposited in the breeding-boxes in December 1869
yielded a fish in April 1870; that fish remained as a parr till a
little later than the same period of 1871, when, being seized
with its migratory instinct, and having upon it the protecting
scales of the smolt, it departed from the pond into the river Tay
on its way to the sea, having previously had conferred upon it
a certain mark by which it could be known if recaptured on its
return. It was recaptured as a grilse within less than three
months of its departure (July), and weighed about four pounds.
Being marked once more, it was again sent away to endure the
dangers of the deep; and lo! was once more taken, this time a
salmon of the goodly weight of ten pounds! But there comes
in here the question if it was the same fish, for it is said that
the smolt in some cases remains a whole winter in the sea, and
therefore that the fish I have been alluding to was a smolt that
had never come back as a grilse. I have a theory that half of
the brood of smolts sent to sea do remain over the winter and
come back as salmon, while the others come back almost im-
mediately as grilse. It is possible, however, that any particular
fish may lose its river for a season, and be in some other water
for a time as a grilse, and then finding its birth-stream come
once again to its “ procreant cradle.” The rapidity of salmon-
growth, however, I consider to be undoubtedly proved.

A good deal has been said in various quarters about the best
way of marking a young salmon, so that at some future stage of
its life it may be easily identified. Cutting off the dead fin is
not thought a good plan of marking, because such a mark may
be accidentally imitated, and so mislead those interested, or it

MARKED FISH. 139

may be wilfully imitated by persons wishing to mislead. Of
the smolts sent away from the Stormontfield ponds during May
1855, 1300 were marked in a rather common way—viz. by
cutting off the second dorsal fin—and twenty-two of these
marked fish were taken as grilse during that same summer, the
first being caught on the 7th of July, when it weighed three
pounds. The late Mr. Buist, who took charge of the experi-
ments, was quite convinced that a much larger number of the
marked fish than twenty-two was caught, but many of the fish-
ermen, having an aversion to the system of pond-breeding, took
no pains to discover whether or not the grilse they caught had
the pond-mark, and so the chance of still further verifying the
rate of salmon growth was lost. A reward offered by Mr. Buist.
of 2s. per pound weight for each grilse that might be brought
to his office, led to an imitation of the mark and the perpetration
of several petty frauds in order to get the money. The mark
was frequently imitated, and one or two fish were brought to
Mr. Buist which almost deceived him into the belief of their
being some of the real marked fish. As Mr. Buist said—‘ So
cunningly had this deception been gone about, that a casual
observer might have been deceived. When the fin was cut off
the recent wound was far too palpable; and to hide this the
man cut a piece of skin from another fish and fixed it upon the
wounded part. I examined this fish, which was lying alongside
of an undoubted pond-marked fish, which had the skin and scales
grown over the cut, and I am satisfied that it would be impos-
sible to imitate the true mark by any process except by marking
the fish while young.”* Peter Marshall, the intelligent keeper
of the ponds, agrees with me in saying that the number of fish
taken, each being minus the dead fin, was a sufficient proof that

* In a very old number of the Scots Magazine I find the following :—
“T was told by a gentleman who was present at a boat’s fishing on Spey
near Gordor Castle in'the month of April, that in hauling, the weight of
the net brought out a great number of smouts which the fishers were not
willing to part with ; but that a gentleman, who knew the natural propen-
sity of the salmon to return to their native river, persuaded them to slip
them back again into the water, assuring them that in two months they
would catch most of them full-grown grilses, which would be of much
greater value. He at the same time laid a bet of five guineas with another
gentleman present, who was somewhat dubious, that he should not fail in
his prediction. The fishers agreed. He accordingly clipt off a part of the
tail-fins from a number of them before he dropped them into the river ;
and within the time limited the fishers actually caught upwards of a
hundred grilses thus marked, and soon after many more.

140 MEMBERS OF THE SALMON FAMILY.

these fish were really the pond-bred ones returned as grilse. It
is impossible that twenty or thirty grilse could have all been acci-
dentally maimed within a few weeks, and each present the same
—the very same appearance. Various other plans of marking
were tried by the authorities at Stormontfield, some of which
were partially successful, and added another link to the chain of
evidence, which proves at any rate that many individual fish
have grown from the smolt to the grilse state in the course of a
very few weeks,

FISHES _OF THE SALMON FAMILY.

x. Salmon, z Grilse, 3. Sea-trout. 4. Herling.

CHAPTER VII

——

THE ECONOMY OF A SALMON RIVER.

The Salmon as an article of Commerce—Fecundity of the Fish—Mr.
Stoddart’s Calculations — Dangers of Over-fishing—Growth of our
Salmon-Fisheries—The Golden Age of the Fisheries—Grilse-Killing—
The River Tay: Statistics of its Produce—The English Salmon-
Fisheries—Upper and Lower Proprietors,

Lavine the salmon as an object of natural history, I shall
now look at it as an article of commerce. The “‘ breeches-pocket”
view of the question some years ago became of considerable im-
portance, in consequence of failing supplies ; for the commerce
carried on in this particular fish is very large ; and although our
salmon-fisheries are not nearly equal in value to the herring and
white fisheries, still the individual salmon is our most tangible
fish, and brings to its owner a larger sum of money than any
other member of the fish family. Indeed, of late years this
“monarch of the brook” has become emphatically the rich
man’s fish ; its price for table purposes, at certain seasons of
the year, being only compatible with a large income ; and liberty
to ply one’s rod on a salmon river is a privilege paid for at a
high figure per annum, Such facts at once elevate Salmo salar
to the highest regions of luxury : certainly, salmon can no longer
find a place on the tables of the poor ; for we shall never again
hear of its selling at twopence per pound weight, or of farm
servants bargaining not to be compelled to eat it oftener than
twice a week.

At every stage of its career the salmon is surrounded by
enemies. At the very moment of spawning, the female is
watched by a horde of devourers, who instinctively flock to the
breeding-grounds in order to feast on the ova. The hungry pike,
the lethargic perch, the greedy trout, the very salmon itself, are
lying in wait, all agape for the palatable roe, and greedily swallow-

142 “ PARR-ICIDE.”
es

ing whatever quantity the current carries down. Then the water-
fowl eagerly pounces on the precious deposit the moment it has
been forsaken by the fish ; and if it escape being gobbled up by
such cormorants, the spawn may be washed away by a flood, or
the position of the bed may be altered, and the ova be destroyed
perhaps for want of water. As an instance of the loss incidental
to salmon-spawning in the natural way, I may just mention that
a whitling of about three-quarters of a pound weight’ has been
taken in the Tay with three hundred impregnated salmon ova
in its stomach! If this fish had been allowed to dine and
breakfast at this rate during the whole of the spawning season
it would have been difficult to estimate the loss our fisheries
sustained by his voracity. No sooner do the eggs ripen, and the
young fish come to life, than they are exposed, in their defence-
less state, to be preyed upon by all the enemies already enumer-
ated ; while as parr they have been taken out of our streams
in such quantities as to be available for the purposes of pig-
feeding and as manure! Some economists estimate that only
one egg out of every thousand ever becomes a full-grown salmon.
Mr. Thomas Tod Stoddart calculated that one hundred and fifty
millions of salmon ova are annually deposited in the river Tay ;
of which only fifty millions, or one-third, come to life and attain
the parr stage, that twenty millions of these parrs in time become
smolts, and that their number is ultimately diminished to
100,000 ; of which 70,000 are caught, the other 30,000 being
left for breeding purposes. Sir Humphrey Davy calculates that
if a salmon produce 17,000 roe, only 800 of thése will arrive at
maturity. It is well, therefore, that the female fish yields
1000 eggs for each pound of her weight ; for a lesser degree of
fecundity, keeping in view the enormous waste of life indicated
by these figures, would long since—especially taking into account
the destructive modes of fishing that used a few years ago to be
in use—have resulted in the utter extinction of this valuable fish.

The increased value of all kinds of fish food during late
years has engendered in lessees a degree of avarice that leads
to the capture and sale of almost everything that bears the
shape of fish, The tenant of a salmon-fishery has but one
desire, and that is to earn his rent and get as much profit as he
can. To achieve this end he takes all the fish that come to his
net, no matter of what size they may be. It is not his interest
to let a single one escape, because if he did so his neighbour
above or below him on the water would in all probability

THE SALMON-WATCHER. 143

capture it. As a general rule, the tenant has no care for future
years, and has no personal interest in stocking the upper waters
with breeding fish. He is forced by the competition of his
rivals to do all he can in the way of slaughter; and were
‘there not a legal pause of so many hours in the course of the
week, and a close-time of so many days in the year, it is ques-
tionable if a score of fish would make their way past the engines
devoted to their capture. A watcher can stand on the bridge

SALMON-WATCHER’S TOWER ON THE RHINE.

of Perth, and at certain seasons signal or count every fish that
passes in the water below him, and every fish passing can be
caught by those on the look out; and I have seen the same
watch kept on the Rhine,* and on other salmon rivers. The

* The Rhine is an excellent salmon stream, and yields a large number
of fish. The five fishing stations at Rotterdam are very productive, each
of them yielding about 40,000 salmon per annum; and it would not be
extravagant to estimate the produce of these fisheries as of the value of
£25,000 per annum.

144 GROWTH OF THE SALMON-FISHERIES.

accompanying sketch of a salmon-watcher’s tower on the great
German river may interest those of my readers who have never
been on that beautiful water.

This unhealthy competition will always continue till some
new system be adopted, such as converting each river into a°
joint-stock property, when the united interests of the proprietors,
both upper and lower, would be considered. The trade in fresh
salmon, which culminated in the almost total extermination of
the fish in some rivers, dates from the time of Mr. Dempster’s
discovery of packing in ice. Half-a-century ago, when we had
no railways, and when even fast coaches were too slow for the
transmission of sea-produce, the markets were exceedingly local.
Then salmon was so very cheap as to be thought of no value as
food, and was only looked upon by the population with an eye of
good-humoured toleration—nobody ever expected to hear of it as
a luxury at ten shillings a pound weight. No Parisian market
existed then for foul fish, and fifty years ago people only poached
for amusement. But in the excessive poaching which now goes
on during close-time we have a minor cause nearly as productive
of evil as the primary and legal one ; for of course it is legal for
the tacksman of the station to kill all the fish he can. Add to
these causes the extraordinary quantities of infant fish which
are annually killed, coupled with that phase of insanity which
leads to the capture of grilse (salmon that have never spawned),
and we obtain a rough idea of the progress of destruction as it
goes on in our salmon rivers. Fifty or sixty years ago men
caught a salmon or shot a pheasant for mere sport, or at most
for the supply of an individual want. Now poaching is a trade
or business entered into as a means of securing a weekly or
annual income ; it has its complex machinery—its nets, guns,
and other implements. There are men who earn large wages
at this illicit work, who take to “ the birds” in autumn and “ the
fish” in winter with the utmost regularity ; and there are middle-
men and others who encourage them and aid them in disposing
of the stolen goods,

In former times, as at present, there were more ways of
killing a salmon than by angling for it. Parties used to be
made up for the purpose of “burning the water,” a practice
which prevailed largely on the Tweed, and which afforded good
rough sport. The burning took place a little after sunset, when
an old boat was commissioned for the purpose, and flaming
torches of pinewood were lighted to lure the fish to their destruc-

SALMON-POACHING, 145

tion, The leister, a sharp iron fork, was used on these occasions
with deadly power ; rude mirth and song were usually the order
of the night ; and the practice being illegal was not without a
spice of danger, or at least the chance of a ducking. Burning the
water, it must, however, be confessed, was more a picturesque
way of poaching than a means of adding legitimately to the pro-
duce of the fisheries as a branch of commere. It would have
been well for the salmon-fisheries had the arts of poaching never
extended beyond the rude practice here alluded to; but now
poaching, as I have endeavoured to show, has become a business,
and countless thousands of the fish are still swept off the breed-
ing-beds and sold to dealers, Legislation on the salmon ques-
tion has of late been greatly extended, some powerful Acts of
Parliament having been passed for the better regulation of, the
various British salmon-fisheries, and it is satisfactory to think
that much good has been achieved in consequence.

It is recorded that at one time great hauls of salmon could
be taken either in the rivers of Scotland or Ireland, and that in
England salmon were also quite plentiful. One miraculous
draught is mentioned as having been taken out of the river
Thurso, on which occasion the enormous number of two thousand:
five hundred fish were captured. The discovery that fish packed
in ice would carry a long way without decaying, led, as was
to be expected, to so large a trade in fresh salmon between
Scotland and England, that it at once effected a great rise in the
price of the fish. High prices had their usual consequence with
the producer. Every device was put in requisition to catch fish
for London and the continent; and if this was the case at the
beginning, it will be readily understood how rapidly the fish-trade
rose in importance as new modes of transit became common At
one time there were famous salmon in the Thames, and hopes
are entertained of fish being successfully cultivated in that river.
It is certain that much deleterious matter has been allowed to
get into that stream, and also into that famous salmon river the
Severn ; and in the rivers of Cornwall I believe the hope of
breeding salmon is faint in consequence of the poisonous matters
which flow from the mines, Many rivers which were known to
contain salmon in abundance in the golden age of the fisheries
are now less prolific, from matter by which they are polluted,
such as the refuse of gasworks, paper-mills, etc.

Stake and bag nets in Scotland are known to have been very
destructive, as have the putchers, butts, and trumpets of the

L

146 SIZE AND WEIGHT OF SALMON.

English and Welsh rivers. It would be tedious to describe the
different fixed engines invented for the capture of salmon ; what
I desire to show is that they injured the fisheries, A striking
example of the effect of bag-nets occurred with regard to the Tay.
The system having been at one time extended to that river, the
productiveness of the upper portions of the stream was very
speedily affected ; and shortly after their removal, the fisheries
became greatly more productive, as will be seen by and by when
it becomes necessary to deal with the figures denoting the rental
of that river.

At the date of the first publication of this work the size and
weight of salmon were diminishing, and, as some fishermen
thought, their condition and flavour also; but now there is a
change for the better, and our salmon are growing in size again,
so that we shall soon find fish as large as those of the olden
time, notably the fish mentioned by Yarrell, which was exhi-
bited by Mr. Groves, and weighed eighty-three pounds; or that
alluded to by Pennant, which was only ten pounds lighter.
It is within the memory of anglers that fish of forty-five pounds
weight were by no means rare in the Scottish rivers: that
‘salmon of thirty pounds and thirty-five pounds weight were
quite common ; and that the general run of fish were in the
ageregate many pounds heavier than those of ten or twelve
years ago. Mr. Anderson, the lessee of the best salmon-
fisheries on the Firth of Forth, a gentleman who is master of
his business, is of opinion that the average weight of fish was
reduced at the time indicated to about sixteen pounds ; and by
the Tweed Tables of the period, the average weight of those
killed, though apparently on the increase, in no month exceeded
fifteen pounds. I asked, in the first edition of this work,
“ How is it, then, that we have no giants of the river in these
days? The answer, I think, is simple and convincing. Let
us suppose, for example, that the fish grows at the rate of
five pounds per annum: it would, therefore, take ten years to
achieve a growth of fifty pounds. Now it is needless to say
that, in British waters at any rate, we never either see or hear
. of a fish of that weight. The fact is, we do not give our salmon
time to grow to that size. The greater portion of the fish that
we kill are two years old, or at the most three—fish running
from eight pounds to sixteen pounds in weight. It is clear
that, if we go on for a year or two longer at the rate of
slaughter we have been indulging of late years, there will

GRILSE-KILLING. 147

speedily not be even a three-year-old fish to pull out of the
water. It is very suggestive of the state of the salmon-fisheries
that we have now eaten down to our three-year-olds.” Happily
recent wise legislation on behalf of the fisheries has checked a «
great number of the evils which prevailed eight or ten years

STAKE-NETS ON THE RIVER SOLWAY.

ago; the salmon is again increasing in weight, and the fisheries
have once more become comparatively prosperous.

A fertile source of salmon destruction is the killing of grilse ;
the grilse being a virgin fish, its slaughter is just analogous to
the killing of lambs, without due regulation as to quantity. In
this respect, ‘the conduct of salmon proprietors is as rational
as high-farming with the help of tile-drains, liquid manure,
and steam-power, would be for the purpose of eating corn in
the, blade.” As many as 100,000 grilses have been taken fron’
one river in a year—a notable example of killing the goose for
the golden egg. If we had an Act of Parliament to prevent
the capture of grilse, we should never want salmon. The parr

148 STAKE AND BAG NETS.

and smolt are protected. Why? Because they are the young
of the salmon, Well, are not grilse the young of the salmon also ?

Various debates in the House of Commons on the English
and Scottish Salmon Fisheries Bills brought out very distinctly
the worst phase of the salmon question—viz. the prevalence of
stake and bag nets. These machines exercised a baneful in-
fluence on the fisheries, and in numerous instances intercepted
about one-half of the salmon of particular rivers, before they
could reach their own waters. These nets are erected in the
tideways, not far from the shore, and as the fish are coasting
along towards their own particular spawning-ground, they are
intercepted either in the chambers of the bag-net, or in the
meshes of the stake-net. It being held that fish taken in the
tidal estuaries are in finer condition than those caught in the
fresh-water division of the large salmon rivers, they are of
course in greater demand, and bring a slightly better price. There
is, as we have already noted—but the fact needs iteration—
no consideration among tacksmen of river fishings for the pre-
servation of the fish ; it seems to be a rule with these gentle-
men to kill all they can. It is obvious that, if the upper-
water proprietors were to act in the same spirit, and kill all
salmon which reached the breeding-grounds, that fine fish, not
unaptly called the “ venison of the waters,” would very speedily
become extinct,

As may be known to most of my readers, the chief British
salmon streams, so far at least as productiveness is concerned,
are the Tay, the Spey, the Tweed, and the Esk. I have not
space in which to describe each of these rivers, but I desire, on

- behalf of English readers particularly, to say a few words about
the Tay and the Spey.

The Tay is equal to a basin of 2250 square miles, and it
discharges, after a run of about 150 miles, a greater volume of
water than any other Scottish river. ‘As ascertained by Dr.
Anderson, the quantity which is carried forward per second ”
opposite the city of Perth, averages no less than 3640 cubic
feet.” The main river and its affluents, and their varied tri-
butaries, afford splendid breeding-ground for salmon. As an
instance take the Earn. .It flows from Loch Earn in the far
west of Perthshire, and is, when it leaves the Lake, a con-
siderable river, and over the greater part of its course its current
is very rapid. A slight drawback to its capabilities as a fish-
breeding river is the fact of its sometimes overflowing its banks ;

THE RIVER TAY. 149

but its tributaries afford plenty of excellent ground for salmon-
breeding. Indeed, in all its tributaries the Tay contains ample
accommodation for fish. I have in my mind’s eye some excellent
salmon-beds near Airlie Castle, on the Isla. The banks of the
river are overhung by foliage, and salmon sport industriously in
deep pools, resorting to the gravel at the proper season in order
to dig beds in which to deposit their eggs, and when in due
time these are vivified and grow from the fry to the parr state,
I have seen the youthful “natives” catching them in scores.

‘SALMON-FISHING STATION AT WOODHAVEN ON TAY-

The Tay deserves special honour, for it must rank as the
king of Scottish rivers, receiving as it does the tribute of so
many streams, and running its course through such a variety
of fine scenery. Loch Tay is generally accounted the source
of this river, but if it be considered that the loch is chiefly fed
by the river Dochart, the source of this latter river is actually
the fountain-head of the Tay. The Dochart rises in the extreme

150 RENTAL AND PRODUCE OF TAY FISHERIES.

west of Perthshire, and, after striking the base of the “ mighty
Ben More” and the Dochart hills, falls into Loch Tay at the
village of Killin, before reaching which place it assumes the
dimensions of a considerable river. There is fine angling to be
had in the vicinity of Killin ; indeed, the salmon rod-fisheries
there are of some value, and trout can be taken in great plenty
both in the Dochart and the Lochay. Loch Tay contains
abundance of fish, and, as that sheet of water is of considerable
size, there is ample room to ply the angle, either for salmon,
trout, or charr. A few local inquiries as to angling on the Tay
will elicit more valuable information than I can give here. At
some places on the lower portion of the water the aid of a boat
(a Tay boat) is necessary, as the best pools are otherwise inac-
cessible to the angler. The cost of a boat and man is about
eight shillings, and on most parts of the river two men
are required for attendance. Some parts of the Tay are
quite free to anglers, especially about Kinfauns; and, if I
mistake not, at other places as well. Perth forms a capital
centre for the angler: it is a good place in which to obtain in-
formation or tackle, and it is easy to get away from the “ Fair
City” to places and streams of note. And if the angler wants
to “harl” the Tay itself, Perth is the very best place to obtain
instructions in the art of “harling,” which is very attractive.
The commercial fishings may be seen in operation at and below
Perth : they are carried on by means of the net and coble. A
boat sails out with the net, and taking a sweep of the water
returns : in its progress enclosing any of the salmon kind that
may be in that part of the river. The operation is usually
repeated several times each day at every fishing station.

The Tay salmon-fisheries are owned by various noblemen,
gentlemen, and corporations ; and they yield a gross annual rent
of nearly £17,000.

The present. season [1873] has been most productive as
regards the Tay as well as other rivers, the fish having been
plentiful, and a fair average price has been obtained for the catch
in the wholesale markets. During the first eight days of Feb-
ruary—that is, from the 6th, when the first supplies reached the
salesmen, to the 15th—the wholesale price in London averaged
2s, 2d. per Ib., but for the next twelve days prices ruled low,
lower than is usual in February, ranging from 1s, 4d. to 1s. per
1b, During March the highest price reached was 2s. 1d., and
the lowest 1s. 6d., but the average obtained during both months

ESTIMATE OF THE YIELD OF FISH. 151

was the same, a fraction over 1s, 9d. per Ib. The fish taken in
these two months were of a good size, averaging about 20 Ib.
weight. During April and May the fish did not weigh so
heavy, as a run of smaller fish sets in during these months, and,
as the season progresses, the quotations, of course, become lower,
because in the early part of the year corporation banquets and
private dinner parties cause a persistent demand just at the time
when, in ordinary places, salmon are least plentiful. This year,
however, has been in many respects exceptional, more especially
as regards the plentifulness of the supply. In the earlier weeks
of the London season fancy prices are obtained by West End
fishmongers for their choicest cuts, half a guinea a pound
weight having on many occasions been charged. After a little
time, when the novelty of a slice of early salmon wears off,
and the fish from late rivers, and the famous Scotch grilse,
begin to reach the London salesmen, the price falls considerably,
if the supply be at all equal to the demand: it would not be
safe to name a higher average price than 1s. 3d. per pound
weight.

It is necessary to be somewhat particular in ascertaining the
sales and averaging the price, because it is the only way in
which an estimate of the probable number of salmon taken from
any particular river can be arrived at. But, even taking the
money value of the fish caught as a criterion, an estimate can only
at best be a mere guess, although such an estimate is better
than none at all, as no reliable statistics of the total number of
fish captured in the Tay can be otherwise obtained. It is not the
tacksman’s interest to proclaim to his neighbours or his landlord
the exact value of his particular bit of water ; but, by knowing
the rental of a particular fishery and the average price which
the fish bring in the wholesale markets, where most of them are
sold, a pretty safe conclusion may be arrived at, One other
element is necessary to the calculation, and that is the size of
the fish. Salmon, it is gratifying to know, may now be taken
all over at a heavier weight than they could ten or fifteen years
ago. Last year and the year before many very heavy fish were
caught in the Tay, some being over 50 lb. weight, and this
season also very heavy fish have been obtained. Although
a, plentiful run of grilse, ranging from 3 lb. to 7 Ib. weight,
in the course of the summer tends to reduce the average,
more especially as about five grilse for each salmon are taken in
the course of the year, it may, for the purpose of an estimate,

152 i THE RESULT.

be accepted as a tolerable approximation to the true average of
Tay fish as brought to market if they are set down individually
at 12 lb. The question to be decided then is this,—Given the
rental paid, the price of the fish and their average weight, how
many salmon must be captured in order to cover the sum paid
to the landlord, as well as the expenses of fishing and a fair
profit to the tacksman? Supposing a particular fishery to be
rented at £1000 for the season, it would require the capture of
1334 fish at 15s. each (that is, salmon of 12 Ib, at 1s. 3d. per
Ib.) to pay the rent ; and as it is given out that the expenses of
a fishery are equal to the rent, other 1334 fish would require
to be taken from the water to reimburse the tenant for his out-
lay. Then the lessee, or, as he is called in Scotland, “ the
tacksman,” must have his profit, and that cannot be put at less,
estimating that he may have some “ pickings” out of the ex-
penses, than an additional 400 fish, or say for each £1000 of
rental a total of 3000 salmon, grilse, and sea-trout must annually
be taken from the water. Therefore, as the rental of the Tay
salmon-fisheries may be set down for the present season as being
at least £17,000 (last year [1872] the assessed rental was
£16,382:6:4), 51,000 fish will require to be captured to
yield the rental demanded by the “salmon lairds,” and cover
the working expenses and profit of the tacksmen.

During some years the lessees will bag, perhaps, twice the
number of fish which has been quoted; this season the chances
are that all or most of the lessees on the Tay secured in the early
part of the year as many fish as paid their rent and other
expenses. But in some seasons it requires hard work to make
‘two ends meet, for the fishery is much of a lottery. On some
stations large profits are obtained ; on others occasional great
losses must be endured. Judging of rents and profits on the
plan laid down, and going on authentic information of the
number of fish taken, the following statement of the Beauly
salmon fisheries may prove of interest :—The average rental of
these fishings for the seven years from 1863 to 1869 (both
inclusive) was £768:16:9, and the average quantities of fish
caught were—1304 salmon, 4261 grilse, and 350 trout. Taking
these at the price arrived at—namely, 1s. 3d. per Ib., and allow-
ing, as the grilse are numerous, the average weight of the fish to
be 8 Ib, each, which is at the rate of 10s. for each fish, the
number captured would therefore yield at that price the sum of
£2957 : 10s., or a balance over the rent of £2188:13:3. On

THE SALMON-MINES OF TAY. 153

the Duke of Sutherland’s fisheries, in his own county, and in
seven different rivers, the total number of fish captured in 1870
was 19,689 salmon and 29,899 grilse. These figures are quoted
to show the value of the salmon as rent-yielding fish.

As has already been stated, the rental of the Tay may be
set down this season at £17,000. That sum is made up from
over 50 different “lets,” and these again are divided into many
different fishing-stations or “shots,” There are, in all, about
267 of these, including 50 bag and stake net stations on the
coast district, which extends from Redhead in Forfarshire to
Fifeness in Fifeshire. Above Perth bridge there are 45 net
and coble stations; on the Earn, a tributary, there are 15,
besides two cruives ; and from Perth to Newburgh there are no
less than 132 shots; and in the estuary—that is, below the
town of Newburgh—there are 23. One man, Mr. Speedie of
Perth, is lessee of nearly half of the river, judging by the rent he
pays, which amounts to about £8000 per annum. The salmon
wealth of the river Tay is certainly found between the city of
Perth and the town of Newburgh, but no “laird” can say how
long such wealth may endure, as floods on the river frequently
alter its bed and change the run of the salmon, so that fisheries
which 30 or 40 years ago were of considerable value are to-day
of no value at all. Others, again, have risen with magic
rapidity to be sources of considerable wealth to their owners.
Fishings yielding aff annual rental of £250, 12 or 15 years ago,
do not now let for as many shillings. Such changes have
occurred chiefly in the estuary of the river. The chief “salmon-
mine” of the Tay is called the “throat of the river,” a stretch
of water about three miles in length, which is very fruitful in
fish and yields a heavy rental. It is thought that the breeding
operations at Stormontfield have slightly augmented the produce, —
and, of course, the rental of the river, which about the time
they began was at its lowest point, the total rents in 1852
‘amounting to £7973 :5s., and in 1853 to £8715:17:6. In
the next year they had increased by £500, and by £700 in the
following season; and in 1858, when the young fish were
beginning to tell on the supply, the rental had attained the
grand total of nearly £11,487: 2:5, being an increase of over
£3000 per annum.

The economy of a salmon river is as yet but dimly under-
stood, A time must come, however, when the “salmon lairds”
will co-operate each with the other, instead of doing as they do

154 TAY ECONOMY AND REAL ECONOMY.

at present—namely, compete each against his fellow. The waste
of fishing power involved in the maintenance of the number of
stations already quoted as belonging to the river Tay is lament-
able. If the river were formed into a joint-stock company, the
shares being allotted, say, on the average rentals of the last five
years, the salmon could be captured and sent to market at about
a fifth of the expense which is now incurred. The observance
of a proper close time on all salmon streams is of great import-
ance—indeed, the key-note of their prosperity. Most salmon
rivers indicate their condition as truly as a thermometer in-
dicates heat or cold ; a change in their economy at once affects
the supply of fish, and can at once be detected. A proof of this
sensitiveness was afforded by the introduction of bag-nets in the
estuary of the Tay. The quantity of salmon taken in the ten
years during which the stake-nets existed at Kinfauns fisheries
was diminished to 46,663; but after the removal of these nets
the quantity increased to 90,101 salmon. The take of grilse
diminished and was augmented in similar proportions. The
Tay has over and over again afforded a striking example of the
effects of mal-economy, and of the good results of wise legislation,
conscientiously carried into effect. In the year 1828, at which
time the rental of the Tay was above £14,000 a year, an Act of
Parliament came into operation which lengthened the fishing
season of every salmon river in Scotland, and, as a matter of
course, shortened the close season. That* Act inflicted great
injury on the Tay fisheries, The income derived from the river
at that date gradually dwindled down from the sum named to
less than half the amount. By a voluntary arrangement, the
proprietary, with one or two exceptions, restored in 1852 the
status quo, and stopped net fishing on the 26th of August instead
of the 14th of September. The fisheries soon began to respond
by increased supplies. But this golden age did not last. In
three years the agreement was broken through, and the reckless,
although perfectly legal, system of fishing was again resumed for
ayear or two. At length a local Act was obtained, which greatly
improved the fisheries and augmented the rents, though, in fact,
the extra rest which had been afforded to the fish in the three
years during which the voluntary system was in force had already
done so much good that the bad system which was again resorted
to had not prevented the rental from beginning to rise, as has
been already shown in connection with the Stormontfield breed-
ing experiments. It is still thought by one or two of the Tay

A MONSTER SALMON, 155

proprietors that the annual close-time is too long (it extends from
August 20 to February 5), and that the net season, in some
years, might be advantageously lengthened if a permissive
clause were added to the present Act, in order to suit certain
contingencies which in some years influence the takes of fish ;
but it is perhaps best to leave well alone, especially where the
proprietary is numerous, and not likely to be all of one mind on
the subject of close time. The Tay is now in a flourishing con-
dition, and so far as can be foreseen at present its salmon-fish-
eries are likely to go on increasing in value for many years to
come, showing that the Acts of Parliament passed during late
years have operated beneficially. The Tay is a salmon river par
excellence, and the breeding power of the stream is now allowed
to be better developed, and the fish have chances of obtaining a
longer lease of life than was the case long ago; consequently
salmon have become of more value both in a commercial and
sporting sense. Indeed it is obviously better that the spawn-
ing “‘redds” of a river should be occupied by fish yielding 30,000
eggs than by others which would only yield half the number.
It is not only the number of fish which are annually caught,
but the number which escapes the net and reaches the breeding
grounds that renders a salmon stream truly valuable. Nothing ©
is more certain than that if no seed be sown no harvest can be
gathered, and only one salmon egg out of a thousand, it is said,
yields a fish for the dinner table. ;

As regards the Tay fisheries, the present season [1873]
which has just closed as these sheets go through the press, may
be said to have ended in a blaze of triumph. It was signalised
by the taking of some very large fish—one of 60 and another of
64 lbs, weight. I measured the 60 1b, salmon: in length it was
4 feet 3 inches, and in girth 2 feet 84 inches ; its circumfer-
ence at the narrowest part of the tail was 114 inches, and the
breadth of the fan was 13 inches. I did not see the 64 lb.
salmon, nor the fish of 58 Ib. that had been taken a few days
before at one of Mr. Speedie’s shots, but I saw at one time
about 300 fish that had been all taken from the Tay, among
which were a great number of heavy salmon. A few days
before my visit, Mr. Speedie’s boats brought to his fish-packing
house.a haul of over 900 fish ! :

The river Spey is an excellent salmon-producing stream ;
in fact, size considered, it is the richest in Scotland, the fishings
at Speymouth being worth £12,000 per annum. The Spey

156 THE SPEY.

runs about a hundred and twenty miles before it falls into the
sea, and some parts of the river are very picturesque.

‘* Dipple, Dundurcus, Dandaleith, and Dalvey
Are the bonniest haughs on the run of the Spey.

The stream is very rapid, having in its course a fall of twelve
hundred feet ; it rushes on in one continuous gallop from its
mountain well to the sea, giving rise to the local proverb of
there being “‘no standing water in Spey,” although there are
pools thirty feet deep. Still, as a rule, the river is shallow,
having generally a depth of about three feet ; and there are
places which, when the water is a little low, may be crossed
by a man on foot. ;

T have seen rafts of wood coming down from the hills at the
rate of ten miles an hour; and the Spey is not only the most
rapid, but also the widest of our large Scottish rivers. “The
cause of this is easily explained. The river drains thirteen
hundred miles of mountains, many of whose bases are more than
a thousand feet above the level of the sea. The Dulnain,
draining the southern part of the Monagh-Lea Mountains, runs
more than forty miles before entering Spey ; and the Avon, with
a course as long, brings down the waters of Glenavon, which
lies between the most majestic mountains in Britain. Besides
these great tributaries, the Spey has the Truim, the Tromie,
the Feshie, the Fiddoch, and other affluents, swelling her
volume with the rapidly-descending waters of a mountainous
country.” The river Spey is an example of a well-managed
stream, producing a very handsome revenue. It is well managed,
because the Duke of Richmond fishes it himself ; and, of course,
it is his interest to have it well protected, and to keep a proper
stock of breeding fish, On the Spey, however, there is no con-
fusion of upper and lower proprietors to fight against and take
umbrage at each other, the river belonging mostly to one pro-
prietor. Other Scottish rivers also yield, or did at one time yield,
large annual sums in the shape of rental; and on the karger
salmon rivers of Scotland the income derived by many of the
“lairds” from salmon-shots forms a very welcome addition to
their land revenues. Mr. Johnstone, the lessee of the Esk fisheries
at Montrose, stated ata public meeting held in Edinburgh to
protest against the removal of stake-nets that he estimated
the Duke of Sutherland’s fisheries at £6000 a year, and quoted
his own rents as £4000 per annum, giving him the privilege to

RESULTS OF THE TWEED ACTS. 157

fish on two different rivers, on one of which he had eight miles
of water, on the other six. Princely rentals have been drawn
from the salmon rivers of Scotland. The Tweed alone at one
period gave to its proprietors an annual income of £20,000;
but although the price of fish has greatly increased of late years,
the rental of that river fell at one time to about a fifth part of
that sum, and the take of fish sank from 40,000 to 4000, _

Much curiosity has existed as to the results achieved by
the Tweed Acts, the first really stringent code enforced on any
British river ; and although statistics in such matters, unless
taken over very extended periods, are not to be too implicitly relied
on, and much allowance must be made for the variations caused
by weather and unfavourable seasons during so short a period.
as has elapsed, yet it is well worth while to ascertain what can
be learned concerning this experiment. With this view I have
consulted the very valuable and interesting series of tables which
has been compiled and printed for private circulation by Alex-
ander Robertson, Esq., one of the Tweed Commissioners, and a
director of the Berwick Shipping Company. A brief reference
to the figures in these tables shows at once whether or not there
has been an improvement in the fishing. The total capture of
salmon, grilse, and trout, in Tweed for the six years preceding 1857
was 50,209 salmon, 153,515 grilse, and 294,418 trout ; mak-
ing a yearly average of 8368 salmon, 25,586 grilse, and 49,069
trout. In the six years succeeding the Act—viz. 1858 to 1863
—the total capture was 60,726 salmon, 124,182 grilse, and
175,538 trout; being an average of 10,121, salmon, 20,697
grilse, and 29,256 trout. These are improving figures, taking
into account that the fishing season had been curtailed by a
period of four weeks. The total rent of the river in 1857 was
about £5000 ; the rents during the last five years, as stated
for assessment of the Tweed tax, have been as follows :—In
1868, £9224 ; 1869, £9284 ; 1870, £9598 ; 1871, £9785 ;
1872, £9945. The average wholesale prices for the same
period have been 1s. 5d. per pound for salmon ; 1s, per pound
for grilse ; and 1s. 24d. per pound for trout.

The English salmon-fisheries, generally speaking, were
allowed to fall into so low a state that it will be impossible to
recruit them in a moderate period of time without foreign aid.
It is difficult to select an English river that will in all respects
compare with the Tay, but the Severn produces the finest salmon
of any of the English salmon rivers ; and it is a noble stream,

158 AS TO THE SEVERN,

containing many kinds of fish, which afford sport to the angler.
If the river flowed in a direct course from its source to the
sea, it would be eighty miles in length: as it is, by various
windings, it flows for two hundred miles. It has many fine
affluents, and in its course passes through some beautiful scenery.
It rises in Wales, high up the eastern side of Plinlimmon,
at a place in the moors called Maes Hafren, which gave at one
time its title to the river, Hafren being its ancient name. After
flowing through several counties it falls into the sea at Bristol
Channel. Had the fisheries of the Severn been as free from
obstacles and as well preserved as those on the river Tay, they
would still have been of immense value, as it possesses some very
fine breeding-grounds, The Severn could be speedily restored
to its primary condition as one of our finest salmon streams ;
that is, if the various interests could be consolidated, and arti-
ficial breeding be extensively carried on for a few years. The
Severn still possesses a tolerable stock of breeding-fish, which
might be turned to good account in a way similar to those at
Stormontfield on the Tay.

Mr. Tod Stoddart, who is an authority particularly on mat-
ters relating to angling, says that a river like the Tay or the
Tweed requires 15,000 pairs of breeding-fish to keep it in stock,
the average weight of the breeders to be ten pounds each.
Proceeding on these data, and taking the period of growth of
the fish as previously stated, it may be interesting if we inquire
how soon a fine river like the Severn could be made a property.
Allowing that there is at present a considerable stock of breed-
ing-fish in that river—say 10,000 pairs—and that for.a period
of two years these should be allowed a jubilee, the river during
that time to be carefully watched ; that plan alone would soon
work a favourable change ; but if supplemented by an extensive
resort to artificial nurture and protection, in the course of three
years the Severn would be, speaking roundly, a mine of fish
wealth. A series of ponds capable of breeding 1,000,000 fish
might, I think, be constructed for a sum of £2000; there
ought of course to be two reception ponds, and an adult salmon
pond as well, for fish about to spawn. Thus, in a year’s time,
half a million of well-grown smolts would be thrown into the
river from the ponds, a moiety of which would in the course of
ten weeks be saleable grilse! The following year that number
would be doubled, and added to the quantity naturally bred:
would soon stock even a larger river than the Severn, There:

ENGLISH SALMON RIVERS. 159

can be no doubt of the practicability of such a scheme : what has
been achieved in Ireland and at Stormontfield might surely be
accomplished in England. An ample return would be obtained
for the capital sunk, and in all probability a large profit besides.

A recent report of the Inspectors of the English Salmon
Fisheries [1872| contains some interesting particulars of the
numbers of fish taken in one or two of the English rivers.
Thirty-five salmon rivers were put under question by Mr. Buck-
land, but replies were received from only eighteen of these. It
is difficult to obtain correct statistics from net fishermen, they
are so unwilling to reveal the secrets of the prison-house. The
Tyne, according to the printed returns, is the best fished water,
more than 129,000 fish having been captured by the nets ;
the Ribble follows with over 8000 salmon, and the Severn
with 6500. In all, 150,936 salmon were entered as taken
from the few rivers which have answered, As to the destina-
tion of the fish taken from English waters, the returns show
that they are chiefly sent to those great seats of population,
London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Bristol.
Many tons of salmon are likewise sent every year to Paris and
some parts of Germany. “It will thus be seen,” says Mr.
Buckland, “ that not only the inhabitants of London, but of all
our large and populous cities, have a direct interest in the pro-
gress and development of the salmon-fisheries, as they affect the
pockets of all classes of society. The flesh of the salmon is in
one respect cheaper than butcher’s meat, for when a joint of
meat is bought, the bone is paid for, whereas in salmon there is
little or no bone.”

Mr. Buckland makes a contribution to the economy of
salmon rivers: he says—“In many rivers, I feel convinced—
though it may seem a great heresy—that there are too many
breeding fish, for a river may be overstocked just as a sheep-
farm may be overstocked.” This is an opinion that is held by
several practical salmon-fishers, and it indicates a most welcome
change of circumstances. Ten years ago nearly all salmon
rivers were suffering from the scarcity of breeding fish, and the
cry all over the country was, We are exterminating the salmon !
On this point, Mr. Buckland says—“ In most cases the stock of
fish is so ample that we may now venture to draw a larger
dividend from our fish capital than we have heretofore, and, in
any case, it is advisable to breed as many tons of salmon for the
markets as possible.”

160 THE SALMON SUPPLY OF 1872,

The following table is offered as a guide to the salmon

+ productiveness of the different divisions of the three kingdoms :

it has been courteously furnished by Messrs, Wm. Forbes Stuart

and Co., of 104 Lower Thames Street, London, and shows the

quantity of salmon (i. the number of boxes weighing one
hundred and twelve pounds each) sent to London in 1872 :—

DELIVERIES OF SALMON AT BILLINGSGATE MARKET DURING 1872.
No. of Boxes,

Scotch ; ‘ ; ‘ ‘ 23,028
Trish F 4 : : . 5,298
English and Welsh ‘ ‘ : 2,706
Dutch ‘4 3 i ‘ ‘ 952
Norwegian . . ° - . 352
Swedish . : : 3 a 964
Total . : 83,300

Totalin 1871. ‘ 85,275

«Decrease. * 1,975

[At the time this work is going through the press it is impossible to
obtain the returns for 1873, but that they will be large is certain, and
that the fish will be far above the average in weight has already been
ascertained ; fish above thirty pounds weight having been quite common,
As an additional index to the take of 1878, Mr. John Anderson, the lessee
of the Firth of Forth fisheries, tells me he took fourteen hundred salmon
and grilse in the last eight days of his season, and as he ceased to cap-
ture per force of the Act of Parliament, the fish were coming up the
water in large quantities. Mr. Anderson predicts that in a year or
two fifty and sixty pound salmon will be quite common ; and he does not
despair of some day showing us a fish that shall weigh a hundred
pounds !]

One of the least understood, although one of the most hotly-
contested parts of the salmon question, is the relation between
upper and lower proprietors. A great salmon river may

pass through the estates or mark the property boundaries of a
number of gentlemen’; and portions of this river are sure
to be much more valuable than others. As has been already
stated, some of the proprietors on the river Tay derive a large
revenue from their fisheries; while others only obtain a little
angling, although they very likely furnish the breeding-ground
for the thousands of fish which aid in producing the large rentals
lower down. ‘This part of the salmon question has been well
argued by Mr. Donald Bain, a gentleman who understood the

CO-OPERATION BETTER THAN COMPETITION. 161

economy of a salmon river very well. He said, in a letter on
the subject—

“Considering that the only chance of having fish in the
rivers depends upon the excellence and care of the breeding-
grounds at the river-heads, while the river-head proprietors, by
disturbing the shingle (which should be protected) at the period
of depositing and hatching the roe, could destroy all chance, and
yet be legally unchallengeable, these river-head proprietors are
hardly recognised as proprietors at all, which therefore should
be altered. I propose that a river, from its highest breed-
ing-ground to its mouth, and so far into the sea as. private
or public interests can extend, should be made a common pro-
perty and a common care; improved where improvable, at the
general expense of the whole proprietors along its banks ; fished,
not savagely, and as if extermination were a laudable object,
but prudently, and with a view to permanent interests ; the fish
allowed to go unmolested to the breeding-grounds, at least so
far as to secure a full brood, and protected against destruction
in returning when unfit for food ; and the expense and the profit
to be divided pro rata, according to the mileage along the banks ;
unless, in the judgment of intelligent and equitable men, a degree
of preference should be given in the case of grounds of acknow-
ledged excellence for breeding or feeding. It may be said it
would be malicious in the proprietors of breeding-grounds to
consider it necessary to repair their gravel-walks with shingle
from the river at the very time when depositing or hatching
the roe was going on; but could it be prevented /—and would it
be more inequitable than anticipating every fish worth catching
at the mouth of the river or along their course, and allowing the
proprietors of the head-waters no share ?”

There must of course be a limit to the productiveness of even
the most prolific salmon river ; and if this be overpassed and
the capital stock be broken upon, it is clear that a decrease will
at once begin, and that the production must annually become
weaker, till the fish are in course of time completely exter-
minated. Happily the prospects of our salmon-fishery proprie-
tors never were so bright as they are at present, and as Mr.
Jamieson, the intelligent fishmonger of Edinburgh, says, “ it is
best to let well alone.”

CHAPTER VIIL -

—+—
THE NATURAL HiSTORY OF THE HERRING.

Overfishing of the Herring—The Old Theory of Migration—Geographical
Distribution of the Herring—Mr. John Cleghorn’s Ideas of ‘ithe
Natural History of the Herring—Mr. Mitchell on the National
‘Importance of that Fish—Commission of Inquiry into the Herring-
Fishery—Growth of the Herring—The Sprat—Should there be a
Close-time ?—Caprice of the Herring.

THE common herring is one of our most beautiful and abundant
fishes. It is taken throughout the year in vast quantities, thus
affording a plentiful supply of cheap and wholesome food to all
classes, whilst its capture and cure afford remunerative employ-
ment to a large body of industrious people. It is greatly to be
regretted, therefore, that recent fluctuations in the quantity
caught have given occasion for well-grounded fears of an
ultimate exhaustion of some of our largest shoals, or at all events
of so great a diminution of their producing power as probably
to render one or two of the best fisheries unproductive. This
is nothing new, however, in the history of the herring-fishery :
various places can be pointed out, which, although now barren
of herrings, were formerly frequented by large shoals, that, from
overfishing or other causes, have been dispersed.

This supposed overfishing of the herring has resulted chiefly
from our ignorance of the natural history of that fish—ignorance
which has long prevailed, and which we are only now beginning
to overcome. Indeed, much as the subject has been discussed
during the last ten years, and great as the light is that has been
thrown on the natural and economic history of our fish, consider-
ing the elemental difficulty which stands in the way of perfect
observation, there are yet persons who insist upon believing all:
the old theories and romances pertaining to the lives of sea
animals, We occasionally hear of the great sea-serpent ; the

THE MIGRATION THEORY. 163

impression of St. Peter’s thumb is still to be seen on the haddock ;
“Moby Dick,” a Tom Sayers among fighting whales, still ranges |
through the squid fields of the Pacific Ocean; and I know an
old fisherman who once borrowed a comb from a polite mermaid !

Not very long ago, for instance, the old theory of the migra-
tion of the herring to and from the Arctic Regions was gravely
revived in an unexpected quarter, as if that romance of fish-life
was still believed by modern naturalists to be the chief episode
in the natural history of Clupea harengus, The original migration
story—which was invented by Pennant, or rather was constructed
by him from the theories of fishermen—old as it is, is worthy
of being briefly recapitulated, as affording a good point of view
for a consideration of the natural and economic history of the
herring as now ascertained : it was to the effect that in the in-
accessible seas of the high northern latitudes herrings were found
in overwhelming abundance, securing within the icy Arctic Circle
a bounteous feeding-ground, and at the same time a quiet and
safe retreat from their numerous enemies. At the proper season,
inspired by some commanding impulse, vast bodies of this fish
gathered themselves together into one great army, and in numbers
far exceeding the power of imagination to picture departed for
the waters of Europe and America. The particular division of
this great heer, which was destined annually to repopulate the
British seas, and afford a plenteous food-store for the people, was
said to arrive at Iceland about March, and to be of such amaz-
ing extent as to occupy a surface more than equal to the dimen-
sions of Great Britain and Ireland, but subdivided, by a happy
instinct, into battalions five or six miles in length and three or
four in breadth, each line or column being led, according to the
ideas of fishermen, by herrings (probably the Alice and Twatte
shad) of more than ordinary size and sagacity, These heaven-
directed strangers were next supposed to strike on the Shetland
Islands, where they divided of themselves, as we are told; one
division taking along the west side of Britain, whilst the other
took the east side, the result being an adequate and well-divided
supply of this fine fish in all our larger seas and rivers, as the
herrings penetrated into every bay, and filled all our inland lochs
from Wick to Yarmouth. Mr. Pennant was not contented with
the development of this myth, but evidently felt constrained to
give éclat to his invention by inditing a few moral remarks just
by way of a tag. ‘Were we,” he says, “inclined to consider
this migration of the herring in a moral light, we might reflect

164 THE HERRING A LOCAL FISH.

with veneration and awe on the mighty power which originally
impressed on this useful body of His creatures the instinct that
directs and points out the course that blesses and enriches these
islands, which causes them at certain and invariable times to
quit the vast polar depths, and offer themselves to our expectant
fleets. This impression was given them that they might remove
for the sake of depositing their spawn in warmer seas, that
would mature and vivify it more assuredly than those of the
frigid zone. It is not from defect of food that they set them-
selves in motion, for they come to us full and fat, and on their
return are almost universally observed to be lean and miserable.”

Happily, the naturalists of the present day know a vast deal
more of the natural history of the herring than Mr. Pennant.
ever knew, and on the authority of the most. able inquirers it
may be taken for granted that the herring is.a local and not a
migratory fish, It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the
herring is a native of our immediate seas, and can be caught all
the year round on the coasts of the three kingdoms. The fishing
begins at the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, in the month of
May, and goes on as the year advances, till in July it is being
prosecuted off the coast of Caithness; while in autumn and
winter we find large supplies of herrings at Yarmouth; and
there is a winter fishery in the Firth of Forth: moreover, this
fish is found in the south long before it ought to be there, if we
were to believe in Pennant’s theory. It has been deduced, from
a consideration of the figures of the annual takes of many years,
that the herring exists in distinct races, which arrive at maturity
month after month; and it is well known that the herrings
taken at Wick in July are quite different from those caught at
Dunbar in August or September: indeed, I would go further,
and say that even at Wick each month has its changing shoal,
and that as one race ripens for capture another disappears, having
fulfilled its mission of procreation. It is certain that the
herrings of these different seasons vary considerably in size and
appearance; and it is very well known that the herrings of
different localities are marked by distinctive features. Thus,
the well-known Lochfyne herring is essentially different in its
flavour from that of the Firth of Forth, and those taken in the
Firth of Forth differ again in many particulars from those caught.
off Yarmouth.

In fact, the herring never ventures far from the spot where
it is taken, and its condition, when it is caught, is just an index

DIFFERENCES OF FLAVOUR. 165

of the feeding it has enjoyed in its particular locality. The
superiority in flavour of the herring taken in our great land-locked
salt-water lochs is undoubted. Whether or not it results from
the depth and body of water, from more plentiful marine
vegetation, or from the greater variety of land food washed into
these inland seas, has not yet been determined; but it is
certain that the herrings of our western sea-lochs are infinitely
superior to those captured in the more open sea. , It is natural
that the animals of one feeding locality should differ from those
of another ; land animals, it is well known, are easily affected
by change of food and place; and fish, I have no doubt, are
governed by the same laws. But on this part of the herring
question I need scarcely waste any argument.

Moreover, it is now known, from the inquiries of the late
Mr. Mitchell and other authorities on the geographical distribu-
tion of the herring, that that fish has never been noticed as being
at all abundant in the Arctic Regions; and the knowledge
accumulated from recent investigations has dispelled many of
what may be termed the minor illusions once so prevalent about
the life of the herring and-other fish. People, however, have
been very slow to believe that fish were subject to the same
natural laws as other animals, In short, seeing that the
natural history of all kinds of fish has been'largely mixed up
with tradition or romance, it is no wonder that many have been
slow to discard Pennant’s pretty story about the migratory
instinct of the herring, and the wonderful power of sustained
and rapid travelling by which it reached and returned from our
coasts. Even Yarrell wrote in a weak uncertain tone about this
fish ; indeed his account of it is not entitled to very much con-
sideration, being a mere compilation, or rather a series of ex-
tracts, from other writers.

It was not till the year 1854 that anything like an authentic
contradiction to Pennant’s theory was obtained. Before that
time one or two bold people asserted that they had doubts about
the migration story, and thought that the herring must be a
local animal, from the fact of its being found on the British
coasts all the year round ; while one daring man said authorita-
tively, from personal knowledge, that there were no herrings in
the Arctic seas, During the year I have mentioned, a paper,
which was communicated to-the Liverpool Meeting of the
British Association by Mr. Cleghorn of Wick, directed an amount
of public attention to the herring-fishery, which still continues,

166 MR. CLEGHORN’S VIEWS.

and which, at the time, was thought sure ultimately to result in
an authentic inquiry into the natural and economic history of
that fish. Such an investigation has since been made by persons
qualified to undertake the task, and the result of their inquiries
summed up in a most interesting report, which, along with
the evidence taken by the Commissioners, I shall have occa-
sion to refer to in another part of the present chapter; the
labours of Cleghorn, Mitchell, and others, claiming priority of
notice, as the ideas promulgated by these gentlemen, although
often hotly opposed and combated, have gone a great way to
guide public opinion on the subject, and have evidently helped
to influence recent investigators. ;

In his paper communicated to the British Association at
Liverpool, Mr. Cleghorn stated that, living at Wick, the chief
seat of the fishery—“ the Amsterdam of Scotland” in fact—his
attention had been directed to the herring-fishery by the fluctua-
tions in the annual take. Mr. Cleghorn believes the fluctua-
tions in the capture to be caused by “ overfishing,” as in the
case of the salmon, the haddock, and other fish. The points
brought forward by Mr. Cleghorn in order to prove his case were
the following :—1. That the herring is a native of waters in
which it is found, and never migrates, 2. That distinct races
of it exist at different places, 3. That twenty-seven years ago
the extent of netting employed in the capture of the fish was
much less than what is now used, while the quantity of herrings
caught was, generally speaking, much greater. 4. There were
fishing stations extant some years ago which are now exhausted ;
a steady increase having taken place in their produce up toa
certain point, then violent fluctuations, and then final extinction.
5. The races of herrings nearest our large cities have disappeared
first ; and in districts where the tides are rapid, as among islands
and in lochs, where the fishing grounds are circumscribed, the
fishings are precarious and brief; while on the other hand ex-
tensive seaboards having slack tides, with little accommodation
for boats, are surer and of longer continuance as fishing stations.
6.. From these premises it follows that the extinction of districts,
and the fluctuations in the fisheries generally, are attributable to
overfishing. In the portion of this work bearing on the fishery
I shall again have occasion to refer to Mr. Cleghorn’s investiga-
tions on the subject of the netting employed, but it occurred to me
to state Mr. Cleghorn’s theory at this place, as it has been the
key-note to much of the recent discussion on the subject of the

DISTRIBUTION OF THE HERRING. 167

natural history of the herring. Before the reading of Mr.
Cleghorn’s statistics" the natural history of the herring was not
-well understood even by naturalists ; so difficult is it to make
observations in the laboratories of the sea. Only a few persons,
till recently, were intimate with the history of this fish, and
knew that, instead of being a migratory animal, as had been
asserted by Anderson and Pennant, the herring was as local to
particular coasts as the salmon to particular rivers,

The late Mr. J. M. Mitchell, in a paper which he read before
the British Association at Oxford, settled with much care and
very effectually the geographical part of the herring question.
"His idea also is that the herring is a native of the coast on which
it is found, and that immediately after spawning the full-sized
herrings make at once for the deep waters of their own neigh-
bourhood, where they feed till the spawning season again induces
them to seek the shallow water. Mr. Mitchell gives his reasons,
and states that the herrings resorting to the various localities
have marked differences in size, shape, or quality ; those of each
particular coast having a distinct and specific character which
cannot be mistaken ; and so well determined are those particu-
lars, that practical men, on seeing the herrings, can at once hit
upon the locality from whence they come; as, indeed, is the
case with salmon, turbot, and many other fishes and crustaceans.

On the southern coast of Greenland the herring is a rare fish ;
and, according to Crantz, only a small variety is found on the
northern shore, nor has it been observed in any number in the
proper icy seas—as it would undoubtedly have been had it re-
sorted thither in such innumerable quantities as was imagined
by the naturalists of the last century. Another proof that the
herring is local to the coasts of Britain lies in the fact of the
different varieties brought to our own markets. As expert
fishers know the salmon of particular rivers, so do some men
know the different localities of our herring from merely glancing
at the fish. Experienced fishmongers can tell the different
localities of the same kinds of fish as easily as a farmer can tell
a Cheviot sheep from a Southdown. Thus they can at once
distinguish a Severn salmon from one caught in the Tweed or
the Spey, and they can tell at a glance a Lochfyne matie from a
Firth of Forth one.

Turning now to the report of the Commissioners already
referred to, we obtain some interesting information as to the
spawning and growth of the herring. Upon these branches of

168 PERIODS OF SPAWNING.

the subject the public have hitherto been very ill informed,
Yarrell’s account of this particular fish is a mere compilation
from Dr. M‘Culloch, W, H. Maxwell, Dr. Parnell, and others,
and is thus very disappointing. Again, the account in the
Naturalist’s Library is compressed into five small pages, referring
chiefly to authorities on the subject, with quotations from
Yarrell! It is only by searching in Blue Books, by perusing
much newspaper writing of a controversial kind, and by arduous
personal inquiry, as well as by making a minute study of the fish,
that I have been able to complete anything like an accurate précis
of the natural and economic-history of this very plentiful fish,

As to the periods at which herrings spawn, the Commissioners |
inform us that they met with “singularly contradictory ” state-
ments, and after having collected a large amount of valuable
evidence, they arrived at the conclusion that herrings spawn at
two seasons of the year—viz. in the spring and autumn. They
have no evidence of a spawning during the solstitial months—
viz. June and December ; but in nearly all the other month»
pravid herrings are found, and the Commissioners assert that a
spring spawning certainly occurs in the latter part of January, as
also in the three following months, and the autumn spawning in
the latter end of July, and likewise in the following months up
to November, “Taking all parts of the British coast together,
February and March are the great months for the spring
spawning, and August and September for the autumn spawning.”
The spawn, it may be stated in passing, is deposited on the
surface of the stones, shingle, and gravel, and on old shells, at
the various spawning places, and it adheres tenaciously to what-
ever it happens to fall upon. This, as will be seen, brings us
exactly back to Mr. Cleghorn’s ideas of the herring existing in
races at different places and in separate bodies, and thereby
rendering the fluctuations of the great series of shoals at Wick
more and more intelligible, especially when we take into account
the fact that winter shoals are now found at that place, giving
rise to what may ultimately prove a considerable addition to the
great autumn fishery yet carried on there.

As to the question of how long herrings take to grow, from
the period of the deposition of the egg, there are various opinions,
for no naturalist or practical fisherman has been able definitely
to fix the time. There is reason to believe, we are told in the
report, that the eggs of herrings are hatched in, at most, from
two to three weeks after deposition, This is very rapid work

GROWTH OF THE HERRING. 169

when we consider’ that the eggs of the salmon require to be left
for a period of ninety or a hundred days, even in favourable
seasons, before they quicken into life, and that the eggs of a
considerable number of fish are known to take a much longer
period than three weeks to ripen. The rate of growth of the
herring, and the time at which it begins to reproduce itself, are
not yet well understood ; indeed, it seems particularly difficult to
fix the period at which it reaches the reproductive stage. As
an example of the numerous absurd statements that have been
circulated about fish, the reader may study the following para-
graph :—“ Old fishermen” about Dunbar say the way herring
spawn is —first, the female herrings deposit their roe at some
convenient part on sand or shingly bottom ; second, the male
fish then spread their milt all over the roe to protect it from
enemies, and the influence of the tide and waves from moving it
about. The fishermen also say that when the young herrings
are hatched they can see and swim; the milt covering bursts
open, and they are free to roam about. Some naturalists think
the roes and milts of herring are all mixed together promiscu-
ously, and left on the sands to bud and flourish. The fisher-
men’s idea seems to be the most likely of the two opinions.”

I have had young herrings of all sizes in my possession, from
those of an inch long upwards, The following are the measure-
ments of a few of my specimens which were procured about the
end of February, and not one of which had any appearance of
either roe or milt, while some (the smaller fish) were strongly
serrated in the abdominal line, and others, as they advanced in
size, lost that distinguishing mark, and were only very slightly
serrated, The largest of these fish—-and they must all have
been caught at one time—was eight inches long, nearly four
inches in circumference at the thickest part of the body, and
weighed a little over two ounces. The smallest of these
herring-fry did not weigh a quarter of an ounce, and was not
quite three inches in length. One of them, again, that was six
inches long, only weighed three-quarters of an ounce ; whilst
another of the same lot, four and a half inches long, weighed a
quarter of an ounce exactly. I do not propose at present to
enter at great length into the sprat controversy ; but, if the
sprat be the young of some one of the different species of herring,
as I take leave to think it is, then the question of its growth
and natural economy will become highly important. Some
people say that the herring must have attained the age of seven

170 SOME FACTS ABOUT THE SHOAL.

years before it can yield milt or roe, whtilst a period of three
years has been also named as the ultimate time of this event ;
but there are persons who think that the herring attains its
reproductive power in eighteen months, while others affirm
that the fish grows to maturity in little more than half that
time. If the average size of a herring may be stated as eleven
and a half inches, individual fish of Clupea harengus have been
found measuring seventeen inches, and full fish have been taken
only ten inches in length, when should the example, noted
above as being eight inches long, reach its full growth? and
how old was it at-the time of its capture? And, again, were
the fish—all taken out of the same boat, be it observed, and
caught in the same shoal—all of one particular year’s hatching ?
Is this the story of the parr over again, or is it the case that
the fishermen had found a shoal of mixed herrings—some being
of one year’s spawning, some of another? I confess to being
puzzled, and may again remind the reader that my largest fish
had never spawned, and had not the faintest trace of milt or
roe within it. Then, again, as to the time when herrings
spawn, I have over and over again asserted in various quarters
that they spawn in nearly every month of the year—an assertion
which has been proved by official inquiry.

As to the place of spawning, development of the ova, and
other circumstances attendant on the increase of the herring,
I promulgated the following opinions some years ago, and I
see no reason to alter them:—The herring shoal keeps well
together till the time of spawning, whatever the fish may do
after that event. Some naturalists think that the shoal breaks
up after it spawns, and that the herring then live an indivi-
dual life, till again instinctively moved together for the grand
purpose of procreating their kind. It is quite clear, I think,
that herring move into shallow water because of its increased
temperature, and its being more fitted in consequence for the
speedy vivifying of their spawn. The same shoal will always
gather over the same spawning ground, and the fish will keep
their position till they fulfil the chief object of their life. The
herrings will rise buoyantly to the surface of the water after they
have spawned ; before that they swim deep and hug the ground.
The herring, in my opinion, must have a rocky place to spawn
upon, with a vegetable growth of some kind to receive the roe ;
shoals may of course accidentally spawn on soft ground. It is
not accurately known how long a period elapses till the spawn

THE SPRAT. 171

ripens into life. I think, however, that herring spawn requires
a period of about ten weeks to ripen. It is known that young
herrings have appeared on a spawning ground in myriads within
fifty days after the departure of a shoal, and fishermen say
that no spawn can be found on the ground after the lapse of a
few weeks from the visit of the gravid shoal—that the eggs in
fact have come to life, and that the fish are swimming about,
Tt is generally known that the sprat (Clupea sprattus) is a
most abundant fish, The fact of its great abundance has in-
duced a belief that it is not a distinct species of fish, but is, in
reality, the young of the herring. It is true that many dis-
tinguishing marks are pointed out as belonging only to the sprat
-—such as its serrated belly, the relative position of the fins, etc.
But there remains, on the other side, the very striking fact of
the sprat being rarely found with either milt or roe ; indeed, the
only case I know of this fish having been found in a condi-
tion to perpetuate its species was detailed by the late Mr.
Mitchell, who exhibited before one of the learned societies of
Edinburgh a pair of sprats having the roe and milt fully de-
veloped. Dr. Dod, an ancient anatomist, says: “It is evident
that sprats are young herrings. They appear immediately after
the herrings are gone, and seem to be the spawn just vivified,
if I may use the expression. A more undeniable proof of their
being so is in their anatomy ; since, on the closest search, no
difference but size can be found between them.” After the
nonsense which was at one time written about the parr, and con-
sidering the anomalies of salmon-growth, it would be unsafe to
dogmatise on the sprat question. As to the serrated belly, we
might look upon it as we do the tucks of a child’s frock—viz. as
a provision for growth. The fin-rays of this fish have also been
cited in evidence as not being the same in number as those of
the herring, but as I can testify from actual counting, the fin-
rays of the latter fish vary considerably, therefore the number of
fin-rays is not evidence in the case. The slaughter of sprats
which is annually carried on in our seas is, I suspect, as decided
a killing of the goose for the sake of the golden eggs as the grilse-
slaughter which is annually carried on in our salmon rivers.
The herring is found under four different conditions :— 1st,
Fry or sill; 2d, Mattes or fat herring; 3d, Full herring ; 4th,
Shotten or spent herring. All herrings under five or six inches
in length come under the first denomination. The matze is the
finest condition in which a herring can be used for food pur-

172. WHEN THE HERRING IS BEST.

poses ; and if the fishery could be so arranged, that is the time
at which it should be caught for consumption. At that period
it is very fat, its feeding-power being all developed on its body ;
the spawn is small, the growth of the roe or milt not having
yet demanded the whole of the nutriment taken by the fish, A
full herring is one in which the milt or roe is fully developed.
The maties develop into spawning herring with great rapidity—
in the course of three months, it is said. The herrings at the
spawning season come together in vast numbers, and proceed to
their spawning places in the shallower and consequently warmer
parts of the sea. As Gilbert White says, “ The two great motives
which regulate the brute creation are love and hunger ; the one
incites them to perpetuate their kind, the latter induces them
to preserve individuals.” In obedience to these laws the
herring congregate on our coast, for there only they find an
abundant supply of food to mature with the necessary rapidity
their milt and roe, as well as a sea-bottom fitted to receive
their spawn; and they are thus brought within the reach of
man at what many persons consider the wrong time of their life,

As to this division of the question, it has been said that it
matters not at what period you take a herring, whether it be
old or young, without or with spawn; that fish cannot again
be caught, and will never spawn again; and it is argued,
therefore, that the taking of fish in “the family way” no more
prevents it from reproducing than if it had been killed in. the
condition of a matie, The same argument was used in the
case of the young salmon; and it was asked : If you kill all
your grilse, where are you to find your salmon }

The herring breeds, then, and is caught in greater or lesser
quantities, during every month of the year. There is no
general close-time for the herring in Scotland. How is it that
the time selected by fishermen for the capture of this fish corre-
sponds with the period when it is a crime to take a salmon?
If a gravid salmon be unwholesome, is a gravid herring good for
food? Do not the same physical laws affect both of these fish ?
There cannot be.a doubt that at the period of spawning, this
fish, as well as all other fish, is in its worst condition so far as
its food-yielding qualities are concerned, because at that time of
its life its whole nutritive power is exerted on behalf of its seed,
and its flesh is consequently lean and unpalatable. Yet it is a
great fact that the time which the herring selects to fulfil the
grandest instingt of its nature is the very time appointed by

ABOUT A CLOSE-TIME. 173

man for its capture! In fact, that is the period when herrings
are at a premium; they must be “full fish,” or they cannot
obtain the official brand ; in other words, shotten herrings—i.e.
fish that have spawned—are not of much more than half the
value of the others, When it is taken into account that each
pair of full fish (male and female) are killed just as they are
about to give us the chance of obtaining an increase of the stock
to the extent say of thirty thousand, the ultimate effect must
be to disturb and cripple the producing powers of the shoal to
such a degree that it will break up and find a new breeding-
ground, safe for a time perhaps from the spoliation of the greedy
fishermen. The Lochfyne Commissioners gave as a reason for
their non-recommendation of a close-time the fact, that were there
to be a cessation from labour, the enemies of the herring would
so increase that the jubilee given would be nugatory. But
surely there is a great want of logic in this argument! How
is it that a close-time operates so favourably in the case of the
salmon—not only a seasonal close-time, but a weekly one as
well? Would not the herring, with its almost miraculous
breeding-power, increase in the same ratio, or even in a greater
ratio than its enemies, especially, if, as the Commissioners tell
us, and we believe, it is engaged in multiplying its-kind during
ten months of the year? Are not the enemies of the herring at
work during the fishing season as well as at other periods? I
could understand the logic of denying a close-time on the ground
that, as the herring never ceases breeding, it is impossible to
fix a correct period. But, according to the deliverance of the
Commissioners, a close-time is possible. I have ever been of
opinion, notwithstanding the practical difficulties that would
have to be encountered in carrying it out, that the want of a
close-time, especially for the larger kinds of sea-fish, is one of
the causes which are so obviously affecting the supplies. It is
certain also, from chemical and sanitary investigation, that all
fish are unwholesome at the period of spawning ; the salmon at
that time of its life is looked upon as being little better than
carrion. But, without dwelling on this phase of the question,
or considering the effect of unwholesome fish’on the public
health, I must point out most strongly that the want of a well-
defined close-time is one of the greatest and severest of our fish-
destroying agencies. We give our grouse a breathing space ;
nay, we sometimes afford to that bird a whole jubilee year ; we
do not shoot our hares during certain months of the year, nor

174 FOOD OF THE HERRING.

do we select their breeding season as the proper time to kill
our oxen or our sheep ; but we do not at dinner-time object to
an entrée composed of cod-roe, and we evidently rather believe in
the propriety of killing only our seed-laden herrings !_ This lavish
destruction of fish-life has arisen in great part from the well-
known fecundity of all kinds of sea-fish, which has given rise to
the idea that it is impossible to exhaust the shoals, But when it
_is considered that this wonderful fecundity is met by an unparal-
leled destruction of the seed and also of the young fish, we need
not be astonished at the ever-recurring complaint of scarcity.
An old and probably exaggerated complaint has been lately re-
vived that the beam-trawl is one of the most destructive engines
employed in the sea, five hundred tons of spawn being destroyed
by trawlers in twenty-four hours! There can be no doubt that
there is annually an enormous waste of fish-life through the
accidental destruction of very large quantities of spawn,—
herring-spawn as well as all other kinds,

As to the food of the herring, the report already alluded to
tells us that it “consists of crustacea, varying in size from micro-
scopic dimensions to those of a shrimp, and of small fish, parti-
cularly sand-eels. While in the matie condition they feed
voraciously,-and not unfrequently their stomachs are found
immensely distended with crustacea and sand-eels, in a more
or less digested condition.” I have personally examined the
stomachs of many herrings, and have found in them the remains
of all kinds of food procurable in the place frequented by the
particular animal examined—including herring-roe, young
herrings, sprats, etc. ; but the sand-eel seems to be its favourite
food.

One of the wonders connected with the natural history of
the herring is the capricious nature of the fish. It is always
changing its habitat, and, according to vulgar belief, from the
most curious circumstances. J need not add to the necessary
length of this chapter by giving a great number of instances of
the capricious nature of the herring; but I must cite a few, in
order to make my recapitulation of herring history as complete
as possible, and’ at the same time it is proper to mention that
superstition is brought to bear on this point. The fishermen of
St. Monance, in Fife, used to remove their church-bell during
the fishing season, as they affirmed that its ringing scared away
the shoals of herring from the bay! It has long been a favourite
and popular idea that they were driven away by the noise of

CAPRICE OF THE HERRING. 175

gun-firing. The Swedes say that the frequent firings of the
British ships in the neighbourhood of Gothenburg frightened
the fish away from the place. In a similar manner and with
equal truth it was said that they had been driven away from the
Baltic by the firing of guns at the battle of Copenhagen!
“Ordinary philosophy is never satisfied,” says Dr. M‘Culloch,
“unless it can find a solution for everything ; and it is satisfied
for this reason with imaginary ones.” Thus in Long Island, one
of the Hebrides, it was asserted that the fish had been driven
away by the kelp-manufacture, some imaginary coincidence having
been found between their disappearance and the establishment
of that business. But the kelp fires did not drive them away
from other shores, which they frequent and abandon indifferently,
without regard to that work. A member of the House of
Commons, in a debate on a Tithe Bill in 1835, stated that a
clergyman, having obtained a living on the coast of Ireland,
signified his intention of taking the tithe of fish, which was,
however, considered to be so utterly repugnant to their privi-
leges and feelings, that not a single herring had ever since
visited that part of the shore !

The most prominent members of the Clupedie are the
common herring (Clupea harengus) ; the sprat, or garvie (Clupea
spratius) ; and the pilchard, or gipsy herring (Clupea pilchardus),
The other members of this family are the anchovy, and the Alice
and Twaite shad; but these, although affording material for
speculation to naturalists, are not of great commercial importance,

Before concluding this chapter I wish to say a few words
about a point of herring economy, which has been already
alluded to in connection with the special commission appointed
to inquire into the trawling system—viz. as to the natural
enemies of the herring, the most ruthless of which are un-
doubtedly of the fish kind, and whose destructive power, some
people assert, dwarfs into insignificance all that man can do
against the fish :—‘“ Consider,” say the Commissioners, “the
destruction of large herring by cod and ling alone, It is a very
common thing to find a codfish with six or seven large herrings,
‘of which not one has remained long enough to be digested, in
his stomach. If, in order to be safe, we allow a codfish only:
two herrings per diem, and let him feed on herrings for only
seven months in the year, then we have 420 herrings as his
allowance during that time; and fifty codfish will equal one
fisherman in destructive pewer. But the quantity of cod and

176 NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE HERRING.”

ling taken in 1861, and registered by the Fishery Board, was.
over 80,000 cwts. On an average thirty codfish go to one ewt.
of dried fish. Hence, at least 2,400,000 will equal 48,000
fishermen. In other words, the cod and ling caught on the
Scotch coasts in 1861, if they had been left in the water, would
have caught as many herring as a number of fishermen equal to
all those in Scotland, and six thousand more, in the same year ;
and as the cod and ling caught were certainly not one tithe part
of those left behind, we may fairly estimate the destruction of

MEMBERS OF THE HERRING FAMILY.
x. Herring. z. Sprat. 3. Pilchard,

herring by these voracious fish alone as at least ten times as
great as that effected by all the fishermen put together.” As to
only one of the numerous land enemies of the herring, the late Mr.
Wilson, in his Tour round Scotland, calculated that the gannets
or solan geese frequenting one island alone—St. Kilda—picked -
out of the water for their food 214 millions of herrings every
summer! The shoals that can withstand these destructive.
agencies must indeed be vast, especially when taken in con-
nection with the millions of herrings that are accidentally killed
by the nets, and never brought ashore for food purposes. The

EFFECTS OF WEAKENING THE SHOALS, 177

‘work accomplished - by these natural enemies of the herring,
which has been going on during all time, does not however
affect my argument, that by the concentration on one shoal of
a thousand boats per annum, with an annually-increasing net-

ower, we both so weaken and frighten the shoal that it becomes
in time unproductive, As the late Mr. Methuen said in one of
his addresses: ‘We have been told that we are to have
dominion over the fish of the sea, but. dominion does not mean
extermination.”

CHAPTER IX.
— oo
THE HERRING FISHERY.

The Herring Fisheries—The Lochfyne Fishery—The Pilchard—Herring
Commerce—Mr.. Methuen—-The Brand—The Herring Harvest—A
Night at the Fishing—The Cure—The Curers—Herring Boats—lIn-
crease of Netting—Are we Overfishing !—Proposal for more Statistics.

Tae fisheries for the common herring, the pilchard, and the
sprat, are carried on, with a brief interval, all the year round ;
but the great herring season is during the autumn—from
August to October—when the sea is covered with boats in pur-
suit of that fine fish, and im some of its phases the herring-fishery
assumes an aspect that is decidedly picturesque. Every little
bay all round the island has its tiny fleet ; the mountain-closed
lochs of the Western Highlands have each a fishery; while at
some of the more important fishing stations there are very large
fleets assembled—as at Wick, Dunbar, Ardrishaig, Stornoway,
Peterhead, and Anstruther. The chief curers have places of
business in these towns, where they keep a large store of curing
materials, and a competent staff of coopers and others to aid them
in their business. Such boats as do not carry on a local fishery
proceed from the smaller fishing-villages to one or other of the
centres of the herring trade. In fact, wherever an enterprising
curer sets up his stand, there the boats will gather round him;
and beside him will collect a crowd of all kinds of miscellaneous
people—dealers in salt, sellers of barrel-staves, vendors of “cutch,”
Prussian herring-buyers, comely girls from the inland districts to
gut, and men from the Highlands anxious to officiate as “hired
hands.” Itinerant ministers and revivalists also come on the
scene and preach occasional sermons to the hundreds of devout
Scotch people who are assembled ; and thus arises many a pros-
perous little town, or at least towns that might be prosperous
were the finny treasures of the sea always plentiful, As the

PREPARATIONS FOR “THE FISHING.” 179

chief herring season comes on a kind of madness seizes on all en-
. gaged, ever so remotely, in the trade; as for those more imme-
diately concerned, they seem to go completely “ daft,” especially
the younger hands. The old men, too, come outside to view the
annual preparations, and talk, with revived enthusiasm, to their
sons and grandsons about what they did tweaty years agone ;
the young men spread out the shoulder-of-mutton sails of their
boats to view and repair defects ; and the wives and sweethearts,
by patching and darning, contrive to make old nets “ look amaist
as weel as new ;” boilers bubble with the brown catechu, locally
called “ cutch,” which is used as a preservative for the nets and
sails ; while all along the coasts old boats are being cobbled up,
and new ones are being built and launched.

The scene along the Scotch seaboard from Buckhaven to
Buckie is one of active preparation, and all concerned are hoping
for a “lucky” fishing ; “ winsome” young lassies are praying
for the success of their sweethearts’ boats, because if the season
turns out well they will be married women at its close. Curers
look sanguine, and the owners of free boats seem happy. The
little children too—those wonderful little children one always
finds in a fishing village, striving so manfully to fill up
“daddy's” old clothes—participate in the excitement: they
have their winter's “shoon” and “Sunday breeks” in perspec-
tive. At the quaint village of Gamrie, at Macduff, or Buckie,
the talk of old and young, on coach or rail, from morning to
night, is of herrings, ‘There are comparisons and calculations
about “crans” and barrels, and “ broke” and “ splitbellies,” and
full fish” and “lanks,” and reminiscences of great hauls of
former years, and much figurative talk about prices and freights,
and the cost of telegraphie messages. Then, if the present fishery .
be dull, hopes are expressed that the next one may be better,
* Ony fish this mornin’ ?” is the first salutation of one neighbour
to another: the very infants talk about “herrin’ ;” schoolboys
steal them from the boats for the purpose of aiding their negotia-
tions with the gooseberry woman ; while wandering paupers are
rewarded with one or two broken fish by good-natured fishers,
when “the take” has been so satisfactory as to warrant such
largess. At Wick the native population, augmented by four
thousand strangers, wakens into renewed life; it is like Doncas-
ter on the approach of the St. Leger. The summer-time of
Wick’s existence begins with the fishery: the shops are painted
gn their outsides and are replenished within ; the milliner and

180 THE MACHINERY OF CAPTURE.

the tailor exhibit their newest fashions ; the hardware merchant
flourishes his most attractive frying-pans ; the grocer amplifies
his stock ; and so for a brief period all is coulewr de rose.

They are not all practical fishermen who go down to the sea
for herring during the great autumnal fishing season. By far
the larger portion of those engaged in the capture of this fish—
particularly at the chief stations—are what are called “hired
hands,” a mixture of the farmer, the mechanic, and the sailor ;
and this fact may account in some degree for a portion of the
accidents which are sure to occur in stormy seasons. Many of
these men are mere labourers at the herring fishery, and have
little skill in handling a boat; they are many of them farmers
in the Lewis, or small crofters in the Isle of Skye. The real
orthodox fisherman is a different being, and he is the same every-
where. If you travel from Banff to Bayonne you find that fish-
ermen are unchangeable.

The men’s work is all performed at sea, and, so far as the
capture of the herring is concerned, there is no display of either
skill or cunning. The legal mode of capturing the herring is to
take it by means of what is called a drift-net. The herring-
fishery, it must be borne in mind, is regulated by Act of Parlia-
ment, by which the exact means and mode of capture are expli-
citly laid down. A drift-net is an instrument made of fine twine
worked into a series of squares, each of which is an inch, so as
to allow plenty of room for the escape of young herrings, Nets
for herring are measured by the barrel-bulk, and each barrel will
hold two nets, each net being fifty yards long and thirty-two
feet deep. The larger fishing-boats carry something like a mile
of these nets ; some, at any rate, carry a drift which will extend
two thousand yards in length, These drifts are composed of
many separate nets, fastened together by means of what is called
a back-rope, and each separate net of the series is marked off by
a buoy or bladder which is attached to it, the whole being sunk
in the sea by means of a leaden or other weight, and fastened to
the boat by a longer or shorter trail-rope, according to the depth
in the water at which it is expected to find the herrings, This
formidable apparatus, which forms a great perforated wall, being
let into the sea immediately after sunset, floats or drifts with
the tide, so as to afford the herring an opportunity of striking
against it, and so becoming captured—in fact they are drowned
in the nets. The boats engaged in the drift-net fishing are of
various sizes, and are strongly and carefully built: the largest, °

z LOCHFYNE. 181

being upwards of thirty-five feet keel, with a large drift of nets
and good sail and mast, will cost something like a sum of £200.

The other mode of fishing for herrings, which has existed
for about a quarter of a century, is known as trawling, In the
west of Scotland, on Lochfyne in particular, where it is prac-

VIEW OF LOCHFYNE,.

tised, it is called “trawling ;” but the instrument of capture
is in reality a “seine” net; and, so far as the size of the mesh
is concerned, is all right.

The pilchard is generally captured by means of the seine-
net, and we never hear of its being injured thereby. It is also
cured in large quantities, the same as the herring, although the
modus operand: is somewhat different. The pilchard was at
one time, like the herring, thought to be a migratory fish, but
it has been found, as in the case of the common herring, to be
a native of our own seas, In some years the pilchard has been
known to shed its spawn in May, but the usual time is October.

182 THE PILCHARD HERRING. ~

Their food is small crustaceous animals, as their stomachs are
frequently crammed with a small kind of shrimp, and the
supply of this kind of food is thought to be enormous, When
on the coast, the assemblage of pilchards assumes an arrange-
ment like that of a great army, and the vast shoal is known to
be made up by the coming together of smaller bodies of that
fish, and these frequently separate and rejoin, and are constantly
shifting their position. The pilchard is not now so numerous
as it was a few years ago, but very large hauls are still
occasionally obtained,

Great excitement prevails on the coast of Cornwall during
the pilchard season. Persons watch the water from the coast,
and signal to those who are in search of the fish the moment
they perceive indications of a shoal, These watchers are
locally called “huers,” and they are provided with signals of
white calico or branches of trees, with which to direct the
course of the boat, and to inform those in charge when they
are upon the fish—the shoal being best seen from the cliffs,
The pilchards are captured by the seine-net—that is, the shoal,
or spot of a shoal, that has risen, is completely surrounded by
a wall of netting, the principal boat and its satellites the volyer
and the lurker, with the “stop-nets,” having so worked as
quite to overlap each other’s wall of canvas. The place where
the joining of the two nets is formed is carefully watched, to
see that none of the fish escape at that place, and if it be too
open, the fish are beaten back with the oars of some of the
persons attending—about eighteen in all. In due time the
seine is worked or hauled into shallow water for the convenience
of getting out the fish, and it may perhaps contain pilchards
sufficient to fill two thousand hogsheads. Generally speaking,
four or five seines will be at work together, giving employment
to a great number of the people, who may have been watching
for the chance during many days. When the tide falls the
men commence to bring ashore the fish, a tuck-net worked
inside of the seine being used for safety ; and the large shallow
dipper boats required for bringing the fish to the beach may be
seen sunk to the water’s edge with their burden, as successive
bucketfuls are taken out of the nets and emptied into these
conveyance vessels. To give the reader an idea of quantity,
as connected with pilchard-fishing, I may state that it takes
nearly three thousand fish to fill a hogshead. I have heard of
a shoal being captured that took a fortnight to bring ashore.

CURING THE PILCHARD. 183

Ten thousand hogsheads of pilchards have been known to bé
taken in one port in a day’s time, The convenience of keeping
the shoal in the water is obvious, as the fish need not be
withdrawn from it till it is convenient to salt them. The
fish are salted in curing-houses, great quantities of them being
piled up into huge stacks, alternate layers of salt and fish.
During the process of curing a large quantity of useful oil
exudes from the heaps. The salting process is called “ bulking,”
and the fish are built up into stacks with great regularity,
where they are allowed to remain for four weeks, after which
they are washed and freed from the oil, then packed into hogs-
heads, and sent to Spain and Italy, to be extensively consumed
during Lent, as well as at other fasting times. The hurry and
bustle at any of the little Cornwall ports during the manipula-
tion of a few shoals of pilchards must be seen, the excitement
cannot be very well described. The pilchard is, or rather it
ought to be, the Sardinia of commerce, but its place is usurped
by the sprat, or garvie as we call it in Scotland, and thousands
of tin boxes of that fish are annually made up and sold as
sardines. I have already alluded to the sprat, so far as its
natural history is concerned. It is a fish that is very abundant
in Scotland, especially in the Firth of Forth, where for many
years there has been a good sprat-fishery. We do not now
require to go to France for our sardines, as we can eure them
at home in the French style.

Sprats, whether they be young herrings or no, are very
plentiful in the winter months, and afford a supply of whole-
some food of the fish kind to many who are unable to procure
more expensive kinds. When the fishing for garvies (sprats)
was stopped a few years ago by order of the Board of White
Fisheries, there was quite a sensation in Edinburgh; and an
agitation was got up that has resulted in a partial resumption
of the fishing, which is of considerable value—about £50,000
in the Firth of Forth alone,

Commerce in herring is entirely different from commerce in
any other article, particularly in Scotland. In fact the fishery,
as at present conducted, is just another way of gambling. The
home “ curers” and foreign buyers are the persons who at present
keep the herring-fishery from stagnating, and the goods (7.e. the
fish) are generally all bought and sold long before they are cap-
tured. The way of dealing in herring is pretty much as follows :
—Owners of boats are engaged to fish by curers, the bargains

184 HERRING COMMERCE.

being usually that the curer will take two hundred crans of
herring—and a cran, it may be stated, is forty-five gallons of
ungutted fish ; for these two hundred crans a certain sum per
cran is paid according to arrangement, the bargain including as
well a definite sum of ready money by way of bounty, perhaps
also an allowance of spirits, and the use of ground for the drying
of the nets. On the other hand, the boat-owner provides a boat,
nets, buoys, and all the apparatus of the fishery, and engages a
crew to fish ; his crew may, perhaps, be relatives and part-owners
sharing the venture with him, but usually the crew consists of
hired men who get so much wages at the end of the season, and
have no risk or profit. This is the plan followed by free and
independent fishermen who are really owners of their own boats
and apparatus. It will thus be seen that the curer is bargain-
ing for two hundred crans of fish months before he knows that
a single herring will be captured ; for the bargain of next season
is always made at the close of the present one, and he has to
pay out at once a large sum by way of bounty, and provide
barrels, salt, and other necessaries for the cure before he knows
even if the catch of the season just expiring will all be sold, or
how the markets will pulsate next year. On the other hand,
the fisherman has received his pay for his season’s fish, and very
likely pocketed a sum of from ten to thirty pounds as earnest-
money for next year’s work. Then, again, a certain number of
curers, who are men of capital, will advance money to young
fishermen in order that they may purchase a boat and the neces-
sary quantity of netting to enable them to engage in the fishery
—thus thirling the boat to their service, very probably fixing
an advantageous price per cran for the herrings to be fished and
supplied. Curers, again, who are not capitalists, have to borrow '
from the buyers, because to compete with their fellows they
must be able to lend money for the purchase of boats and nets,
or to advance sums by way of bounty to the free boats ; and thus
a rotten unwholesome system goes the round—fishermen, boat-
builders, curers, and merchants, all hanging on each other, and
evidencing that there is as much gambling in herring-fishing as
in horse-racing. The whole system of commerce connected with
this trade is decidedly unhealthy, and ought at once to be
checked and reconstructed if there be any logical method of
doing it. At a port of three hundred boats a sum of £145 was
paid by the curers for “arles,” and spent in the public-houses !
More than £4000 was paid in bounties, and an advance of nearly

THE BOUNTY SYSTEM. 185

‘£7000 made on the various contracts, and all this money was
paid eight months before the fishing began. When the season
is a favourable one, and plenty of fish are taken, then all goes
well, and the evil day is postponed ; but if, as in one or two
Tecent seasons, the take is poor, then there comes a crash. One
falls, and, like a row of bricks, the others all follow. At the
large fishing stations there are comparatively few of the boats
that are thoroughly free ; they are tied up in some way between
the buyers and curers, or they are in pawn to some merchant who
“backs” the nominal owner, The principal, or at least the
immediate sufferers by these arrangements are the hired men.

This “ bounty,” as it is called, is a most reprehensible feature
of herring commerce, and although still the prevalent mode of
doing business, has been loudly declaimed against by all who
have the real good of the fishermen at heart. Often enough
men who have obtained boats and nets on credit, and hired
persons to assist them during the fishery, are so unfortunate as
not to catch enough of herrings to pay their expenses. The
curers for whom they engagéd to fish having retained most of
the bounty money on account of boats and nets, consequently
the hired servants have frequently in such cases to go home—
sometimes to a great distance—-penniless, It would be much
better if the old system of a share were re-introduced : in that
case the hired men would at least participate to the extent of the
fishing, whether it were good or bad, Boat-owners try of course
to get as good terms as possible, as well in the shape of price for
herrings as in bounty and perquisites. My idea is that there
ought to be no “engagements,” no bounty, and no perquisites,
As each fishing comes round let the boats catch, and the curers
buy day by day as the fish arrive at the quay. This plan has
already been adopted at some fishing-towns, and is an obvious
improvement on the prevailing plan of gambling by means of
“ engagements ” in advance.

In fact, this fishery is best described when it is called a
lottery. No person knows what the yield will be till the last
moment: it may be abundant, or it may be a total failure,
Agriculturists are aware long before the reaping season whether
their crops are light or heavy, and they arrange accordingly ;
but if we are to believe the fishermen, his harvest is entirely a
matter of “luck.” It is this belief in “luck” which is, in a
great degree, the cause of our fisher-folk not keeping pace with
the times: they are greatly behind in all matters of progress ;

186 VALUE OF THE EARLY FISH.

our fishing towns look as if they were, so to speak, stereotyped,
It is a woeful time for the fisher-folk when the herrings fail
them ; for this great harvest of the sea, which needs no tillage
of the husbandman, the fruits of which are reaped without
either sowing seed or paying rent, is the chief industry that the
bulk of the coast population depend upon for a good sum of
money. The fishing is the bank, in which they have opened,
and perhaps exhausted, a cash-credit ; for often enough the
balance ig on the wrong side of the ledger, even after the
fishing season has come and gone, In other words, new boats
have to be paid for out of the fishing ; new clothes, new houses,
additional nets, and even weddings, are all dependent on the
herring-fishery, It is notable that after a favourable season
the weddings among the fishing populations are very numerous,
The anxiety for a good season may be noted all along the British
coasts, from Newhaven to Yarmouth, or from Crail to Wick.

The highest prices are paid for the early fish, contracts for
these in a cured state being sometimes fixed as high as forty-five
shillings per barrel. These are at'once despatched to Germany,
in the inland towns of which a prime salt herring of the early cure
is considered a great luxury, fetching sometimes the handsome
price of one shilling! Great quantities of cured herrings are
sent to Stettin or other German ports, and so eager are some of
the merchants for an early supply that in the beginning of the
season they purchase quantities unbranded, through; the agency
of the telegraph. On those parts of the coast where the com-
munication with large towns is easy, considerable quantities of
herring are purchased fresh, for transmission to Birmingham,
Manchester, and other inland cities, Buyers attend for that
purpose, and send them off frequently in an open truck, with
only a slight covering to protect them from the sun. It is
needless to say that a fresh herring is looked upon as a luxury
in such places, and a demand exists that would exhaust any
supply that could be sent.

Having explained the relation of the curers to the trade, I
must now speak of the cure-—the greater number of the herrings
caught on the coast of Scotland being pickled in salt ; a result
originally, no doubt, of the want of speedy modes of transit to
large seats of population, where herrings would be largely con-
sumed if they could arrive in a sufficiently fresh state to be
palatable, At stations about Wick the quantity of herrings
disposed of fresh is comparatively small, so that by far the larger

THE CURING YARD. 187

portion of the daily catch has to be salted. This process during
a good season ‘employs a very large number of persons, chiefly
as coopers and gutters ; and, as the barrels have to be branded,
by way of certificate of the quality of their contents, it is neces-
sary that the salting should be carefully done.. As soon as the

= ——————
See

VIEW OF A CURING YARD.

boats reach the harbour—and as the fishing is appointed to be
carried on after sunset they arrive very early in the morning—
the various crews commence to carry their fish to the reception-
troughs of the curers by whom they have been engaged. A
person in the interest of the curer checks the number of crans
brought in, and sprinkles the fish from time to time with con-
siderable quantities of salt. As soon as a score or two of baskets
have been emptied, the gutters set earnestly to do their portion
of the work, which is dirty and disagreeable in the extreme.
The gutters usually work in companies of about five—one or two
gutting, one or two carrying, and another packing, Basketfuls

188 “OFF TO THE HERRING.”

of the fish, so soon as they are gutted, are carried to the back of
the yard, and plunged into a large tub, there to be roused and
mixed up with salt ; then the adroit and active packer seizes a
handful and arranges them with the greatest precision in a
barrel, a handful of salt being thrown over each layer as it is
put in, so that, in the short space of a few minutes, the large
barrel is crammed full with many hundred fish, all gutted,
roused, and packed, in a period of not more than ten minutes. As
the fish settle down in the barrel, more are added from day to
day till it is thoroughly full and ready for the brand. On the
proper performance of these parts of the business the quality
of the cured fish very much depends.

The following detailed description of the “ herring-harvest,”
as gathered in the Moray Firth, may be of interest to the
general reader. It is reprinted, by permission, from a paper
contributed by the author to the Cornhil? Magazine :—

‘The boats usually start for the fishing-ground an hour or
two before sunset, and are generally manned by four men and a
boy, in addition to the owner or skipper. The nets, which
have been carried inland in the morning, in order that they
might be thoroughly dried, have been brought to the boat in a
cart or waggon. On board there is a keg of water and a bag of
bread or hard biscuit ; and in addition to these simple neces-
saries, our boat contains a bottle of whisky which we have pre-
sented by way of paying our footing. The name of our skipper
is Francis Sinclair, and a very gallant-looking fellow he is ; and
as to his dress—why, his boots alone would ensure the success
of a Surrey melodrama ; and neither Truefit nor Ross could
satisfactorily imitate his beard and whiskers. Having got safely
on board—a rather difficult matter in a crowded harbour, where
the boats are elbowing each other for room—we contrive, with
some labour, to work our way out of the narrow-necked harbour
into the bay, along with the nine hundred and ninety-nine boats
that are to accompany us in our night’s avocation. The heights
of Pulteneytown, which commands the quays, are covered with
spectators admiring the pour-out of the herring fleet and wishing
with all their hearts “God speed” to the venturers ; old salts
who have long retired from active seamanship are counting their
“takes” over again; and the curer is mentally reckoning up
the morrow’s catch. Janet and Jeanie are smiling a kindly
good-bye to “ faither,” and hoping for the safe return of Donald
or Murdoch ; and crowds of people are scattered on the heights,

SHOOTING THE NETS. 189

all taking various degrees of interest in the scene, which is
stirringly picturesque to the eye of the tourist, and suggestive
to the thoughtful observer.

Bounding gaily over the waves, which are crisping and
curling their crests under the influence of the land-breeze, our
shoulder-of-mutton sail filled with a good capful of wind, we
hug the rocky coast, passing the ruined tower known as “the
Old Man of Wick,” which serves as a capital landmark for the
fleet. Soon the red sun begins to dip into the golden west,
burnishing the waves with lustrous crimson and silver, and
against the darkening eastern sky the thousand sails of the
herring-fleet blaze like sheets of flame. The shore becomes
more and more indistinct, and the beetling cliffs assume fantastic
and weird shapes, whilst the moaning waters rush into deep
cavernous recesses with a wild and monotonous sough, that falls
on the ear with a deeper and a deeper melancholy, broken only
by the shrill wail of the herring-gull. A dull hot haze settles
on the scene, through which the coppery rays of the sun penetrate,
powerless to cast a shadow. The scene grows more and more
picturesque as the glowing sails of the fleet fade into grey specks
dimly seen. Anon the breeze freshens and our boat cleaves the
water with redoubled speed: we seem to sail farther and
farther into the gloom, until the boundary-line between sea and
shore becomes lost to the sight.

We ought to have shot our nets before it became so dark,
but our skipper, being anxious to hit upon the right place, so
as to save a second shooting, tacked up and down, uncertain
where to take up his station. We had studied the movements
of certain “‘ wise men” of the fishery—men who are always
lucky, and who find out the fish when others fail ; but our crew
became impatient when they began to smell the water, which
had an oily gleam upon it indicative of herring, and sent out
from the bows of the boat bright phosphorescent sparkles of
light. The men several times thought they were right over
the fish, but the skipper knew better. At last, after a lengthened
cruise, our commander, who had been silent for half-an-hour,
jumped up and called to action, ‘Up, men, and at ’em,” was
then the order of the night. The preparations for shooting the
nets at once began by our lowering sail. Surrounding us on all
sides was to be seen a moving world of boats ; many with their
sails down, their nets floating in the water, and their crews at
rest, indulging in fitful snatches of sleep. Other boats again

190 HAULING IN THE NETS.

were still flitting uneasily about ; their skippers, like our own,
anxious to shoot in the best place, but as yet uncertain where
to cast: they wait till they see indications of fish in other nets.
By and by we are ourselves ready, the sinker goes splash into
the water, the “dog” (a large bladder, or inflated skin of some
kind, to mark the far end of the train) is heaved overboard, and
the nets, breadth after breadth, follow as fast as the men can
pay them out (each division being marked by a large painted
bladder), till the immense train sinks into the water, forming a
perforated wall a mile long and many feet in depth ; the “dog”
and the marking bladders floating and dipping in a long zigzag
line, reminding one of the imaginary coils of the great sea-
serpent.

Wrapped in the folds of a sail and rocked by the heaving
waves we tried in vain to snatch a brief nap, though those who
are accustomed to such beds can sleep: well enough in a herring-
boat. The skipper, too, slept with one eye open; for the boat
being his property, and thefrisk all his, he required to look about
him, as the nets are apt to become entangled with those belong-
ing to other fishermen, or to be torn away by surrounding boats.
After three hours’ quietude, beneath a beautiful sky, the
stars—

“Those eternal orbs that beautify the night”— *

began to pale their fires, and the grey dawn appearing indicated
that it was time to take stock, On reckoning up we found that
we had floated gently with the tide till we were a long distance
away from the harbour, The skipper had a presentiment that
there were fish in his nets ; indeed the bobbing down of a few of
the bladders had made it almost a certainty; at any rate we re-
solved to examine the drift, and see if there were any fish, It
was a moment of suspense, while, by means of the swing-rope, the
boat was hauled up to the nets. “ Hurrah!” at last exclaimed
Murdoch of the Isle of Skye, “ there’s a lot of fish, skipper, and
no mistake.” Murdoch’s news -was true; our nets were silvery
with herrings-—so laden, in fact, that it took a long time to
haul them in, It was a beautiful sight to see the shimmering’
fish as they came up like a sheet of silver from the water, each
uttering a weak death-chirp as it was flung to the bottom of the
boat. Formerly the fish were left in the meshes of the nets till
the boat arrived in the harbour; but now, as the net is hauled.
on board, they are at once shaken out. As our silvery treasure

HOMEWARD BOUND. 191

showers into the boat we roughly guess our capture at fifty crans
—a capital night’s work.

The herrings being all on board, our duty is now to “up
sail” and get home: the herrings cannot be too soon among the
salt, As we make for the harbour, we discern at once how
rightly the term lottery has been applied to the herring-fishery.
Boats which fished quite near our own were empty ; while others
again greatly exceeded our catch. ‘It is entirely chance work,”
said our skipper; “and although there may sometimes be
millions of fish in the bay, the whole fleet may not divide a
hundred crans between them.” On some occasions, however,
the shoal is hit so exactly that the fleet may bring into the
harbour a quantity of fish that in the gross would be an ample
fortune. So heavy are the “takes” occasionally, that we have
known the nets of many boats to be torn away and lost through
the sheer weight of the fish which were enmeshed in them.

The favouring breeze soon carried us to the quay, where the
boats were already arriving in hundreds, and where we were
warmly welcomed by the wife of our skipper, who bestowed on
us, as the lucky cause of the miraculous draught, a very pleasant
smile, When we arrived the cure was going on with startling
rapidity. The night had been a golden one for the fishers—
calm and beautiful, the water being merely rippled by the land-
breeze. But it is not always so in the Bay of Wick; the
herring-fleet has been more than once overtaken by a fierce
storm, when valuable lives have been lost, and thousands of
pounds’ worth of netting and boats destroyed. On such occasions
the gladdening sights of the herring-fishery are changed to wail-
ing and sorrow. It is no wonder that the heavens are eagerly
scanned as the boats marshal their way out of the harbour, and
the speck on the distant horizon keenly watched as it grows into
a mass of gloomy clouds, As the song says, ‘“ Caller herrin’”
represent the lives of men; and many a despairing* wife and
mother can tell a sad tale of the havoc created by the summer
gales on our exposed northern coast.

From the heights of Pulteneytown, overlooking the quays
and. curers’ stations, one has before him, as it were, an extended
plain, covered with thousands and tens of thousands of barrels,
interspersed at short distances with the busy scene of delivery, of
packing, and of salting, and all the bustle and detail attendant on
the cure, It is a scene difficult to describe, and has ever struck
those witnessing it for the first time with wonder and surprise.

4

192 NOTHING BUT HERRING.

Having visited Wick in the very heat of the season, and for
the express purpose of gaining correct information about this im-
portant branch of our national industry, I am enabled to offer a
slight description of the place and its appurtenances. Travellers
by the steamboat usually arrive at the very time the “ herring-
drave” is making for the harbour ; and a beautiful sight it is to
see the magnificent fleet of boats belonging to the district, radiant
in the light of the rising sun, all steadily steering to the one
point, ready to add a large quota to the wealth of industrial
Scotland. As we wend our way from the little jagged rock at
which we are landed by the small boat attendant on the steamer,
we obtain a glimpse of the one distinguishing feature of the
town—the herring commerce. On all sides we are surrounded
by herring, On our left hand countless basketfuls are being
poured into the immense gutting-troughs, and on the right hand
there are countless basketfuls being carried from the three or
four hundred boats which are ranged on that particular side of
the harbour ; and behind the troughs more basketfuls are being
carried to the packers, The very infants are seen studying the
“gentle art ;” and a little mob of breechless boys are busy
hooking up the silly “ poddlies.” All around the atmosphere is
humid ; the sailors are dripping, the herring-gutters and packers
are dripping, and every thing and person appears wet and
comfortless ; and as you pace along you are nearly ankle-deep in
brine. Meantime the herrings are being shovelled about in the
large shallow troughs with immense wooden spades, and with
very little ceremony, Brawny men pour them from baskets
on their shoulders into the aforesaid troughs, and other brawny
men dash them about with more wooden spades, and then sprinkle
salt over each new parcel as it is poured in, till there is a suffi-
cient quantity to warrant the commencement of the important
operation of gutting and packing, Men are rushing wildly about
with note‘books, making mysterious-looking entries. Carts are
being filled with dripping nets ready to hurry them off to the
fields to dry. The screeching of saws among billet-wood, and
the plashing of the neighbouring water-wheel, add to the great
babel of sound that deafens you on every side, Flying about,
blood-bespattered and hideously picturesque, we observe the
gutters; and on all hands we may note thousands of herring-
barrels, and piles of billet-wood ready to convert into staves
At first sight every person looks mad—some appear so from
their costume, others from their manner—and the confusion seems

$

THE PROCESS OF GUTTING, 193

inextricable ; but there is method in their madness, and even
out of the chaos of Wick harbour comes regularity, as I have en-
deavoured to show.

So soon as a sufficient quantity of fish has been brought from
the boats and emptied into the gutting troughs, another of the
great scenes commences—viz. the process of evisceration, This
is performed by females, hundreds of whom annually find well-
paid occupation at the gutting-troughs, It is a bloody business ;
and the gaily-dressed and dashing females whom we had observed
lounging about the curing-yards, waiting for the arrival of the
fish, are soon most wonderfully transmogrified. They of course
put on a suit of apparel adapted to the business they have in
hand—generally of oil-skin, and often much worn. Behold them,
then, about ten or eleven o’clock in the forenoon, when the
gutting scene is at its height, and after they have been at work
for an hour or so: their hands, their necks, their busts, their

** Dreadful faces throng’d, and fiery arms ”—

their every bit about them, fore and aft, are spotted and be-
sprinkled o’er with little scarlet clots of gills and guts; or, as
Southey says of Don Roderick, after the last and fatal fight—

“Their flanks incarnadined,
Their poitral smear’d with blood ”—

See yonder trough, surrounded by a score of fierce eviscerators,
two of them wearing the badge of widowhood! How deftly they
ply the knife! It is ever a bob down to seize a herring, and a
bob up to throw it into the basket, and the operation is over.
It is performed with lightning-like rapidity by a mere turn of
the hand, and thirty or forty fish are operated upon before you
have time to note sixty ticks of your watch. These ruthless
widows seize upon the dead herrings with such a fierceness as
almost to denote revenge for their husbands’ deaths ; ‘for they,
alas! fell victims to the herring lottery, and the widows scatter
about the gills and guts as if they had no bowels of compassion.
In addition to herrings that are pickled and those sold in a
fresh state, great numbers are made into what are called
“)Dloaters,” or transformed into “reds.” At Yarmouth, im-
mense quantities of bloaters and reds are annually prepared for
the English markets, The bloaters are very slightly cured and
as slightly smoked, being prepared for immediate sale; but the
herrings brought into Yarmouth are cured in various ways: the

0

194 : YARMOUTH.

bloaters are for quick sale and speedy consumption ; then there
is a special cure for fish sent to the Mediterranean—“ Straits-
men” I think these are called ; then there are the black herrings,
which have a really fine flavour. In fact the Yarmouth herrings
are so cured as to be suitable to particular markets. It may
interest the general reader to know that the name of “ bloater”
is derived from the herring beginning to swell or bloat during
the process of curing. Small logs of oak are burned to. produce
the smoke, and the fish are all put on “spits” which are run
through the gills, The “spitters” of Yarmouth are quite as
dexterous as the gutters of Wick, a woman being able to spit a
last per day. Like the gutters and packers of Wick, the spitters
of Yarmouth work in gangs. The fish, after being hung and
smoked, are packed in barrels, each containing seven hundred
and fifty fish.

The Yarmouth boats do not return to harbour every morning,
like the Scotch boats ; being decked vessels of some size, from
fifty to eighty tons, costing about £1000, and having stowage
for about fifty lasts of herrings, they are enabled to remain at sea
for some days, usually from three to six, and of course they are
able to use their small boats in the fishery, a man or two being
left in charge of the large vessel, while the majority of the hands
are out in the boats fishing. There has always been a busy
herring-fishery at the port of Yarmouth. A century ago upwards
of two hundred vessels were fitted out for the herring-fishery,
and these afforded employment to a large number of people—as
many as six thousand being employed in one way or the other
in connection with the fishery. The Yarmouth boats or busses
are not unlike the boats once used in Scotland, which have been
already described. They carry from fifteen to twenty lasts of
herrings (a last, counted fisherwise, is more than 13,000 herrings,
but nominally it is 10,000 fish), and are manned with some
fourteen men or boys.

The following summary of the official statistics issued by
the Board for the fishing of 1872 will give the reader an
idea of the present state of this important industry. The
information laid before Parliament about the capture and
branding of herrings during the year 1872 is fuller than usual,
and is of more than usual interest, setting forth as it does the
increasing value which is attached by curers to the brand, and
giving at the same time a series of minute details of the great
improvement annually being effected in the construction of

SLATISTICS OF THE FISHERY. 195

fishing boats and the increase of the number. The Fishery.
Board can only take cognizance of the herrings which are cured
(ae. salted), as no machinery exists for tabulating those quanti-
ties which are sold “fresh,” but it would not, perhaps, be an
exaggeration to consider the quantities of the latter as being
equal to the number cured, which was last year 773,859 barrels,
as against 825,475 barrels in 1871. Calculating, in a rough
way, each barrel to contain 800 fish, that would give a total of
619,087,200 cured herrings, while that number doubled might
give a tolerable approximation of the total capture of herrings
on the coast of Scotland. As regards the numbers captured off
the Isle of Man, at Yarmouth, and other English fisheries, we
have no authentic information—no statistics being taken of the
English herring or other fisheries, The following figures denote
the quantities of herrings which have been cured in Scotland
during the last six years—a period which affords a very fair idea
of the fluctuations incidental to this fishery :—

Year. . Barrels. Year. Barrels.

1867 . . 825,589 1870 . . 833,160
1868 . . 651,433 1871 . . 825,475
1869 . . 675,148 1872 . . 778,859

The Commissioners state that, at the rate of 4d. per barrel a
sum of £7045 : 10 : 6 was derived in 1872 from the exercise
of the brand, which is the largest amount yet obtained in any
one year since payments for branding were exacted. For
‘branding portions of the take of the above six years a sum of
£30,669 : 4:2 was taken by the Board; which, as the pay-
ment of fees is not compulsory, shows that the brand, as an
official certificate of cure, is greatly appreciated by a considerable
body of the Scottish curers ; the number of barrels branded last
year being 422,731, or more than half of the quantity which
was cured. It is estimated by the Commissioners that the fees
taken for branding yielded in 1872 a profit to the Government
of £3765. As already stated the quantity of herrings cured in
1872 was 773,859 barrels, and of these, as has been shown,
422,731 barrels were branded, a proportion which is larger than
that of any preceding year, and proves, say the Commissioners,
“the care with which the herrings were selected for market.”
The Commissioners also say that, “considering the great extent
of the herring fishery, that it is carried on at night, the rough
weather to which the boats are often exposed, the unavoidable

196 STATISTICS OF THE FISHERY.

hurry with which they are unloaded to get the fish into the
curing stations as soon as possible after they are caught—the
number of mixed hands then put upon them to gut and pack,
and the rapidity with which that work has to be done, it speaks
well for the existing organisation of the fisheries of Scotland
that.54 per cent of the total cure, or more than one half,
should have reached the high standard required by the Board.”
Another feature which is brought out by the Commissioners in
connection with the brand is, that the quantity branded this
year bears an unusual proportion to the quantity exported, which
was 549,631 barrels; showing that only 126,900 barrels were
exported which were not branded, a number which, though it
may seem considerable, is small when analysed ; for it includes
ungutted fish, also the export to Ireland, which consists for the
most part of fish not originally selected for first-class cure ; also
the greater part of the fish from the early herring fishery of the
Hebrides prepared for immediate sale. In short, the quantity
exported is 71 per cent of the quantity cured, and the quantity
branded is 77 per cent of the quantity exported, thus showing
that more than three-fourths of the export trade consists of
branded herrings. . The highest years ef branding previous to
1872 were the years 1820, 1862, and 1871. The branding
in these years was:—In 1820; 363,872 barrels; in 1862,
346,712 barrels ; in 1871, 346,663 barrels ; in 1872, 422,731
barrels. The branding of 1872. has therefore exceeded the
branding of 1820 by 58,859 barrels, equal to 16 per cent of
increase, and has exceeded the branding of 1862 by 76,019
barrels, and of 1871 by 76,098 barrels, equal in each of these
years to 22 per cent of increase. In this comparison it is to be
remarked further, that the year 1820 includes brandings at
stations in England, and that the brand was given at that time
not only without the charge of a fee, but with a bounty upon it
paid by the Government ; a bounty which amounted, for the
year 1820 to upwards of £72,000. It is therefore remarkable
to see Scotland alone, without England, and without the stimu-
lus of a bounty, relieving Government by an annual payment
which could reach in a year £72,000, and substituting instead
a return from branding which has already paid to Government
upwards of £63,000, and which yielded as its collection in 1872
the sum of £7045: 10: 6.

An improved order of fishing boat has of late come promi-
nently into use in the Scottish herring-fishery. Decked boats

_SUPERIORITY OF DECKED BOATS. 197

are now coming greatly into use, and in time will entirely sup-
plant the old-fashioned open boats. Upon the east coast
particularly, nearly every new boat now built is bigger than the
one it displaces, and although the decked vessels cost much
more money than the open boats, the return which they yield is
commensurate with the cost. At some fishing places the gains
of those crews fishing with decked vessels ranged in 1872 from
£100 to £550 per boat, while the money taken by other crews
about the same place who fished with open boats did not exceed
£160, that being the highest amount reached, some crews only
realising £60 for their season’s adventure. The decked boats
cost about £200 each, and it is thought by the builders that
there will not be less than 600 of this class of vessels at work
in the fishery of this year. Already at Buckie, on the Banffshire
coast, there are 400 such vessels engaged in the fishing, and in
every important fishery district the boatbuilders are at work
adding to the fleet. “No fisherman would now,” say the
Commissioners, “undertake fishing with boats and. nets of the
kind which were in use a century ago, and the increase in the
number of boats and fishermen during the last ten years yields
conclusive evidence of the steadily advancing prosperity of the
Scottish fisheries. We gather from the current report. that the
number of fishing boats belonging to Scotland in 1862 was
12,545, and that, in the ten years which have elapsed since, that
number has increased at the rate of 260 boats per annum, and
the total number of Scottish boats now engaged in the fisheries
is 15,232. In 1862 the number of fishermen in Scotland was
41,008, but the number now is 46,178, being an increase in ten
years of 5170 fishermen, or an average of 500 per year. The
value of the boats and fishing gear was estimated in the year 1862
at £747,794, and in 1872 at £997,293, being an increase in ten
years of £249,499, equal to an annual average of about £25,000.
“Tn boats, and in the condition of the fishermen, the fisheries
of Scotland may therefore be regarded as thriving,”

As to the takes of herring at the different fishing districts,
the report of the fishery of 1872 records the usual fluctuations
—an increase in one district, a decline in another. At Fraser-
burgh and Peterhead the fishing of 1872 was remarkably
successful, as also at Aberdeen, where the fishery is only of
recent development. At these places larger quantities of herring
were cured last year than ever were cured before. Upon the

west coast the fishing was again deficient, the Lewes fishery -

x

198 QUANTITY OF NETTING EMPLOYED,

being far less productive than in former seasons. At Camphel-
town the fishery was very prolific, the fishing of 1872 being the
most successful of any year of which there is a record in the
district. The winter herring fishery of the Firth of Forth was
very deficient in productiveness, but the sprat fishery proved
only too abundantly productive,.as the quantity of sprats
taken began to exceed the demand. At one time sprats were
selling as low as a ls, per barrel.

The herring fishery of 1873 has been more than usually pro-
ductive, but no official statistics regarding it will be procurable
till next year. At some of the stations the curers were unable
to operate in consequence of an exhaustion of the materials of
cure. Boats so seldom reach an average of more than sixty crans
that, in seasons when that quantity is exceeded, the curer,
counting on the average, is sure to be found unprepared—hence
large quantities of the fish are wasted, and a ery is circulated of
a prolific fishery, and men triumphantly point to the fact, and ask
What about “the fished-up” theory now? But the answer is
not far to seek: the number of boats and extent of netting
ought to capture double—nay treble—the quantity of herring
they have taken this year, or any previous year in which the
take has been larger. Because the curers have run out of the
materials of cure the cry has arisen that we have had a great
fishery !

The quantity of netting now employed in the herring-fishery
is enormous, and is increasing from year to year. It has been
strongly represented by Mr. Cleghorn, and others who hold his
views, that the herring-fishery is on the decline; that if the
fish were as plentiful as in former years, the increased amount
of netting would capture an increased number of herrings,
It is certain that, with a growing population and an increasing
facility of transport, we are able to use a far larger quantity
of sea produce now than we could do fifty years ago, when we
were in the pre-Stephenson age. If, with our present facilities
for the transport of fish to inland towns, Great Britain had
been a Catholic instead of a Protestant country, having the
example of the French fisheries before us, I have no hesitation
in saying that by this time our fisheries would have been
completely exhausted—that is, supposing no remedial steps
had been taken to guard against such a contingency. Were we
compelled to.observe Lent with Catholic rigidity, and had there
been numerous fasts or fish-days, as there used to be in England

,

MOMENTOUS QUESTIONS. 199

before the Reformation, the demand, judging from our present
ratio, would have been greater than the sea could have borne.
Interested parties may sneer at these opinions; but, notwith-
standing, I maintain that the pitcher is going too often to the
well, and that some day soon it will come back empty.

I have always been slow to believe in the inexhaustibility
of the shoals, and can easily imagine the overfishing, which
some people pooh-pooh so glibly, to be quite possible, especially
when supplemented by the cod and other cannibals so constantly
at work, and so well deseribed by the Lochfyne Commission ;
not that I believe it possible to pick up or kill every fish of a
shoal; but, as I have already hinted, so many are taken, and
the economy of the shoal so disturbed, that in all probability
it may change its ground or amalgamate with some other
herring colony. I shall be met here by the old argument,
that “the fecundity of fish is so enormous as to prevent their
extinction,” etc. etc. But the certainty of a fish yielding
twenty thousand eggs is no surety for these being hatched, or
if hatched, of their escaping the dangers of infancy, and reaching
the market as table food. I watch the great shoals at Wick
with much interest, and could wish to have been longer
acquainted with them. How long time have the Wick shoals
taken to grow to their present size /—what size were the shoals
when the fish had leave to grow without molestation !—how
large were the shoals when first discovered ?+—and how long
have they been fished? are questions which I should like to
have answered. As it is, I fear the great Wick fishery must
come some day to an end. When the Wick fishery first began
the fisherman could carry in a creel on his back the nets he
required ; now he requires a cart and a good strong horse !

Although Scotland is the main seat of the herring-fishery, I
should like to see statistics, similar to those collected in Scotland,
taken at a few English ports for a period of years, in order that
we might obtain additional data from which to arrive at a right
conclusion as to the increase or decrease of the fishery for herring.
It is possible to collect statistics of the cereal and root crops of
the country ; it was done for all Scotland during three seasons,
and it was well and quickly accomplished. What can be done
for the land may also, I think, be done for the sea. I believe
the present Board for Scotland to be most useful in aiding the
regulation of the fishery, and in collecting statistics of the catch ;
their functions, however, might be considerably extended, and

*

200 OPERATIONS OF THE FISHERY BOARD.

elevated ‘to a higher order of usefulness, especially as regards the
various questions in connection with the natural history of the
fish, The operations of the Board might likewise be extended
for a few seasons to a dozen of the largest English fishing-ports,
in order that we might obtain confirmation of what is so often
rumoured, the falling off of our supplies of sea-food. There are
various obvious abuses also in connection with the economy of
our fisheries that ought to be remedied, and which an active
Board could remedy and keep right; and a body of naturalists
and economists might easily be kept up at a slight toll of say a
guinea per boat.

The state of the case as between the supply of fish and the
extent of netting has been focussed into the annexed diagram,
which shows at a glance how the question stands,

1818-1845. The drift of 1857-1863. The drift of
nets per boat contained nets per boat contained
4500 Square yards. 16,800 square yards.

1818-1824. Theaver- During the zo years 1857-1863. Theaver-
age per boat 125} 1841-50 the average age per boat 82 crans,
crans, catch per boat was

112 crans.

CHAPTER X.

—e—!

OUR WHITE-FISH FISHERIES.

Difficulty of obtaining Statistics of our White-Fish Fisheries—Ignorance
of the Natural History of the White Fish—“ Finnan Haddies ”—The
Gadide Family : the Cod, Whiting, etc.—The Turbot and other Flat
Fish—When Fish are in Season—How the White-Fish Fisheries are
carried on—The Cod and Haddock Fishery—Line-Fishing —The
Scottish Fishing Boats—Loss of Boats on the Scottish Coasts—
Storms in Scotland—Trawl-Net Fishing —Description of a Trawler—
Evidence on the Trawl Question, -

How do we obtain our haddocks? Where do we get our tur-
bot? How comes it that all kinds of sea-fish are now so dear ?
I propose briefly to answer these often-asked questions, and to
indulge at the same time in a little gossip about our larger sea-
fishes, so far as their economic history and value are concerned.

The two families which supply the cod, haddock, turbot,
sole, and other well-known table-fishes, such as the whiting and
flounder, are known to naturalists as Gadide and Pleuronectide
—the latter being the family of the flat fishes. Cod and tur-
bot are of considerable individual value, large prices being, at
certain seasons of the year, obtained for them ; indeed, it is not
long since the columns of the Times recorded that a guinea had
been given for a single cod-fish ; and as to haddocks and whitings,
once so cheap, they are now, in every sense of the word, dear,
because, in addition to costing much money, they are not so
fine in quality as they used to be. At one time, in various parts
of both England and Scotland, a prime haddock, of say three
pounds weight, might have been purchased for about twopence ;
and a cod-fish of great size could, in the days referred to, be pur-
chased for ninepence, Indeed, so near the present time as a
quarter of a century ago, all kinds of white fish were purchasable
at less than a penny per pound weight; and as for sprats and
herrings, a large dish of the former could be had for a half-

202 DEMAND FOR WHITE FISH.

penny, whilst, “three a penny” was a common price for the
finest fresh herrings. At various times within the memory of
the present generation, both sprats and herrings have been
so plentiful as to be sold for manure. Such days, however,
are gone, never to return. The railways, which have altered
so many conditions of life and trade, have changed entirely the
whole system of fish commerce. Thousands of tons of our best
food fishes are now borne daily from the sea to the great inland
seats of population, where there is a sure and speedy demand
for as much as ean be sent. The London commissariat alone,
supplemented by a few other large cities, demands, but fortunately
does not obtain, all the fish of the sea! Haddocks, cod-fish,
whitings, and turbot, can be sold in any quantity when the price
is moderate ; but no person can exactly estimate the supply, as
there is no record kept at Billingsgate of the total business done
there ; nor is all the fish business of London now transacted at
Billingsgate, as many of the West-end fishmongers obtain their
supplies direct from the coast. We should be glad if reliable
statistics of the annual “take” of sea-fish were collected by
Government: Correct figures would be a guide as to the
supplies; we should then really know if our fish food was
increasing or diminishing, Such statistics are taken in Scotland
as regards the herring, and what is done for that fish might be
done for other fishes. It is said that there are at present a
thousand trawlers employed for the London market; and if
each of these vessels takes about ohe hundred tons of fish per
annum, we should find that nearly one hundred thousand tons
of large fish are taken every year, in addition to the abundant
supplies of herring, mackerel, sprats, etc., which are being con-
stantly forwarded day by day to the great metropolis.

The natural history of our white fish is but imperfectly
known. As an instance of the very limited knowledge we
possess of the natural history of even our most favourite fishes,
I may state that at a meeting of the British Association a few
years ago, a member who read an interesting paper On the Sea
Fisheries of Ireland, introduced specimens of a substance which
the Irish fishermen considered to be spawn of the turbot;
stating that wherever this substance was found trawling was
forbidden ; the supposed spawn being in reality a kind of sponge,
with no other relation to fish except as being indicative of beds
of mollusca, the abundance of which marks that fish are plenti-
ful. It follows that the stoppage of trawling on the grounds

THE COOK AND THE GROUSE. 203

where this kind of squid is found is the result of sheer ignorance,
and causes the loss, in all likelihood, of great quantities of the
best white fish. It is not easy to say when the Gadide are in.
proper season. -Some of the members of that family are used
for table purposes all the year round; and as different salmon
tivers have their different close-times, so undoubtedly will the
white fish of different seas or firths have different spawning
seasons, In reference, for instance, to so important a fish as
the turbot, we are very vaguely told by Yarrell that it spawns
in the spring-time, but no indication is given of the particular
month in which that important operation takes place, or how
long the young fish take to grow. Even a naturalist so
well informed as the late Mr. Wilson was of opinion that the
turbot was a travelling fish, which migrated from place to place.

The combined ignorance of naturalists and fishermen has
much to do with the scarcity of white fish now beginning
to be experienced; and unless some plan be hit upon to
prevent overfishing, we may some fine morning experience the
same astonishment as a country gentleman’s cook, who had
given directions to the gamekeeper to supply the kitchen regu-
larly with a certain quantity of grouse. For a number of years
she found no lack, but in the end the purveyor threw down the
prescribed number, and told her she need look for no more from
him, for on that day the last grouse had been shot. “There
they are,” said the gamekeeper, “and it has taken six of us,
with a gun apiece, to get them, and after all we have only
achieved the labour which was gone through by one man some
years ago.” The cook had unfortunately never considered the
relation between guns and grouse,

The Gadide family is numerous, and its members are
valuable for table purposes ; three of the fishes of that genus are
particularly in request—viz. whiting, cod, and haddock. These
are the three most frequently eaten in a fresh state ; there are
others of the family which are extensively captured for the pur-
pose of being dried and salted, among which are the ling, the
tusk, etc, The haddock (Morrhua aylefinus) has ever been a
favourite fish, and the quantities of it which are annually con-
sumed are really wonderful, Vast numbers used to be taken in
the Firth of Forth, but from recent inquiries at Newhaven I am
led to believe that the supply has considerably decreased of late
years, and that the local fishermen have to proceed to consider-
able distances in order to procure any quantity.

204. WHERE ARE THE HADDOCKS ?

In reference to the question, “Where are the haddocks?”
asked on another page, it is right to say that this prime fish
has more than once become scarce, I have been reminded of
a time, in 1790, when three of these fish were sold for 7s. 6d.
in the Edinburgh market ; but although there have been from
time to time sudden disappearances of the haddock from parti-
cular fishing-erounds, as indeed there have been of all fish, that
is a different, a totally different matter from what the fisher folk
and the public have now to complain of—viz. a yearly decreasing
supply. I once took part in a newspaper controversy about the
scarcity of the haddock, and I found plenty of opponents ready
to maintain that there was no scarcity, but that any quantity

THE GADID& FAMILY.

could be captured. In some degree that is the truth, but what
is the hook-power required now to capture “ any quantity,” and
how long does it take to obtain a given number as compared.
with former times, when that fish was supposed to be more
plentiful? Why do we require, for instance, to send to N orway
and other distant places for haddocks and other white fish? The
only answer I can imagine is that we cannot get enough at
home, As to the general scarcity of white fish, the late Mr.

‘“PINNAN HADDIES.” 205

Methuen, the fish-curer, wrote some few years ago :—“ This morn-
ing I am told that an Edinburgh fishmonger has bought all the
cod brought into Newhaven at 5s, to 7s, each. I recollect when
I cured thousands of cod at 3d. and 4d. each; they were caught
between Burntisland and Kincardine, on which ground not a cod
is now to be got; and at the great cod emporium of Cellardyke,
the cod fishing, instead of threescore for a boat’s fishing, has
dwindled down to about half-a-dozen cod.”

The old belief in the migratory habits of fish comes again
into notice in connection with the haddock. Pennant having
taught us that the haddock appeared periodically in great
quantities about mid-winter, that theory is still believed, al-
though the appearance of this fish in shoals may be easily
explained, from the local habits of most of the denizens of the
great deep. It is said that “in stormy weather the haddock
refuses every kind of bait, and seeks refuge among marine plants
in the deepest parts of the ocean, where it remains until the
violence of the elements is somewhat subsided.” This fish does
not grow to any great size; it usually averages about five
pounds. I prefer it as a table fish to the cod, The very best
haddocks are taken on the coast of Ireland. The scarcity of
fresh haddocks may in some degree be accounted for by the
immense quantities which are converted into ‘“ Finnan haddies ”
—a well-known breakfast luxury no longer confined to Scotland.
It is difficult to procure genuine Finnans, smoked in the original
way by means of peat-reek ; like everything else for which there
is a great demand, Finnan haddocks are now “ manufactured”
in quantity ; and, to make the trade a profitable one, they are
cured by the hundred in smoking-houses built for the purpose,
and are smoked by burning wood or sawdust, which, however,
does not give them the proper gout. In fact the wood-smoked
Finnans, except that they are fish, have no more the right flavour
than Scotch marmalade would have were it manufactured from
turnips instead of bitter oranges. Fifty years ago it was differ-
ent; then the haddocks were smoked in small quantities in the
fishing villages between Aberdeen and Stonehaven, and entirely
over a peat fire. The peat-reek imparted to them that peculiar
flavour which gained them a reputation, The fisher-wives along
the north-east coast used to pack small quantities of these
delicately-cured fish into a basket, and give them to the guard
of the “‘ Defiance” coach, which ran between Aberdeen and Edin-
burgh, and the guard brought them to town, confiding them for

206 THE COMMON COD.

sale to a brother who dealt in provisions ; and it is known that
out of the various transactions which thus arose, individually
small though they must have been, the two made, in the course
of time, a handsome profit. The fame of the smoked fish rapidly
spread, so that cargoes used to be brought by steamboat, and
Finnans are now carried by railway to all parts of the’country
with great celerity, the demand being so great as to induce men
to foist on the public any kind of cure they can manage to
accomplish ; indeed smoked codlings are extensively sold for
Finnan haddocks. Genuine smoked haddocks of the Moray
Firth or Aberdeen cure can seldom now be had, even in Edin-
burgh, under the price of sixpence per pound weight.

The common cod (Morrhua vulgaris) is, as the name implies,
one of our best-known fishes, and it was at one time very plenti-
ful and cheap. It is found in the deep waters of all our
northern seas, but has never been known in the Mediterranean.
It has been largely captured on the coasts of Scotland, and, as
is elsewhere mentioned, it occurs in profusion on the shores of
Newfoundland, where its plentifulness led to a great fishery
being established. The cod is extremely voracious, and eats up
most greedily the smaller inhabitants of the seas ; it grows to a
large size, and is very prolific in the perpetuation of its kind.
A cod-roe has more than once been found to be half the gross
weight of the fish, and specimens of the female have been
caught with upwards of three millions of eggs; but of course it
cannot be expected that in the great waste of waters all the ova
will be fertilised, or that any but a small percentage of the fish
can ever arrive at maturity. This fish spawns in mid-winter,
but there are no very reliable data to show when it becomes re-
productive. My own opinion has already been expressed that
the cod is an animal of slow growth, and I would venture to say
that it is at least three years old before it is endowed with any
breeding power. I may call attention here to one of the causes
that must tend to render the fish scarce, As if the natural
enemies of the young fish were not sufficient to aid in its extir-
pation, and the loss of the ova from causes over which man has
no control not enough in the way of destruction, there is a
commerce in cod-roe, and enormous quantities of it, as I have
mentioned in the preceding chapter, are used in France as
ground-bait for the sardine fishery! The roe of this fish is also
frequently made use of at table ; a cod-roe of from two to four
pounds in weight can unfortunately be bought for a mere trifle,

COD-LIVER OIL. 207

but it ought to cost a good few pounds instead of a few pence.
I have elsewhere stated that the quantity of eggs yielded by a
female cod is often three millions: supposing only a third of
them to come to life—that is one million—and that a tenth
part of that number, viz. one hundred thousand, becomes in
some shape—that is, either as codling or cod—fit for table uses,
what should be the value of the cod-roe that is carelessly con-
sumed at table? If each fish be taken as of the value of six-
pence, the amount would be £2500. But supposing that only
twenty full-grown codfish resulted from the three millions of
eggs; these, at two and sixpence each, would represent the sum
of fifty shillings as the possible produce of one dish, which, in
the shape of cod-roe, cost only about as many farthings !
Cuvier tells us that “almost all the parts of the cod are
adapted for the nourishment of man and animals, or for some
other purposes of domestic economy. The tongue, for instance,
whether fresh or salted, is a great delicacy ; the gills are care-
fully preserved, to be employed as baits in fishing; the liver,
which is large and good for eating, also furnishes an enormous
quantity of oil, which is an excellent substitute for that of the
whale, and applicable to all the same purposes ; the swimming-
bladder furnishes an isinglass not inferior to that yielded by the
sturgeon ; the head, in the places where the cod is taken,
supplies the fishermen and their families with food. The .Nor-
wegians give it with marine plants to their cows, for the purpose
of producing a greater proportion of milk. The vertebra, the
ribs,”and the bones in general, are given to their cattle by the
Icelanders, and by the Kamtschatkians to their dogs. These
same parts, properly dried, are also employed as fuel in the
desolate steppes of the shores of the Icy Sea, Even their in-
testines and their eggs contribute to the luxury of the table.”
I may just mention another most useful product of the codfish.
Cod-liver oil is now well known in materia medica under the
name of olewm jecoris aselli, The best is made without boiling,
by applying to the livers a slight degree of heat, straining
through thin flannel or similar texture. When carefully pre-
pared it is- quite pure, nearly inodorous, and of a crystalline
transparency. The specific gravity at temperature 64° is about
920°. It seems to have been first used medicinally by
Dr. Percival in 1782 for the cure of chronic rheumatism ; after-
wards by Dr. Bardsly in 1807. It has now become a popular
remedy in all the slow-wasting diseases, particularly in scrofulous

208 HOW COD ARE CURED.

affections of the joints and bones, and in consumption of the
lungs. The result of an extended trial of this medicine in the
hospital at London for the treatment of consumptive patients
shows that about 70 per cent gain strength and weight, and im-
prove in health, while taking the cod-liver oil; and this good
effect with a great many is permanent. Skate-liver oil is like-
wise coming into use for medicinal purposes, and I have no doubt
that the oil obtained from some of our other fishes will one day
be found useful in a medicinal point of view.

The codfish is best when eaten fresh, but vast quantities are
sent to market in a dried or cured state: the great seat of the
cod-fishery for curing purposes is at Newfoundland. But con-
siderable numbers of cod and ling are likewise cured on the
coasts of Scotland. The mode of cure is quite simple. The
fish must be cured as soon as possible after it has been caught.
A few having been brought on shore, they are at once split up
from head to tail, and by copious washings thoroughly cleansed
from all particles of blood. A piece of the backbone being cut
away, they are then drained, and afterwards laid down in long
vats, covered with salt, heavy weights being placed upon them
to keep them thoroughly under the action of the pickle. By and
by the fish are taken out of the vat, and are once more drained,
being at the same time carefully washed and brushed to prevent
the collection of any kind of impurity. Next the fish are pined
by exposure to the sun and air ; in other words, they are bleached
by being spread out individually on the sandy beach, or upon
such rocks or stones as may be convenient. After this process
has been gone through the fish are then collected into little heaps,
which are technically called steeples. When the bloom, or whitish
appearance which after a time they assume, comes out on the
dried fish the process is finished, and they are then quite ready
for market. The consumption of dried cod or ling is very
large, and extends over the whole globe; vast quantities are
prepared for the religious communities of Continental Europe,
who make use of it on the fast-days instituted by the Roman
Catholic Church.

Besides the common cod, there are the dorse (M. callarias),
and the poor or power cod (M. minuta), also the bib or pout
(M. lusca).

The whiting (Merlangus vulgaris) is another of our delicious
table-fishes, which is found in comparative plenty on the British
coasts, This fish is by some thought to be superior to all the other

THE SILLOCK-FISHERY. 209

Gadide. Very little is known of its natural history. It de-
posits its spawn in March, and the eggs are not long in hatch-
ing—about forty days, I think, varying, however, with the
temperature of the season. Before and after shedding its milt
or roe the whiting is out of condition, and should not be taken
for a couple of months, The whiting prefers a sandy bottom,
and is usually found a few miles from the shore, its food being
much the same as that of other fishes of the family to which it
belongs. It is a smallish fish, usually about twelve inches long,
and on the average two pounds in weight,

I need scarcely refer to the other members of the Gadide :
they are numerous and useful, but, generally speaking, their
characteristics are common and have been sufficiently detailed.*
I will now, therefore, say a few words about the Pleuronectide.
There are upwards of a dozen kinds of flat fish that are popu-
lar for table purposes. One of these is a very large fish
known as the holibut (Hippoglopus vulgaris), which has been

* A correspondent has favoured me with the following brief account
of the sillock-jishing as carried on in Shetland :—“ Sillocks are the young
of the saith, and they make their appearance in the beginning of August
about the small isles, and are of the size of parrsin Tweed. They continue

“about said isles for 4 few weeks, and in the months of September and
October, and sometimes longer, they hover ahout the small isles, when the
fishermen catch them for the sake of their liver, which contains oil. One
boat of twelve feet of keel will sometimes catch as many as thirty bushels
in a part of a day, and this year (1864), owing to the high price of oil,
each bushel was worth about 1s. 6d. The fish itself is taken to the dung-
hill when the take is not great, but when there is a great take the liver is
taken out and the fish thrown into the sea. There are no Acts of Parlia-
ment against usipg the net ; but after some time the sillocks leave thé
isles and draw to the shore, where there are any edge-places, It is allowed
that the island of Whalsey is about the best place in Shetland for the fish
to draw to, but whenever they come there, the proprieter, Mr. Bruce, will
not allow ‘‘ pocking,” as a week would finish them all; but the people
must all fish with the rod, so that each man niay get as many as keep him
a day or two. The “ pocking” sets them all out, but the fish don’t mind
the rod ; it is very pieturesque to see perhaps fifty men sitting round the
basin with their rods, and the sillocks covering about a rood of the sea,
varying from three to six feet deep, and so close together that you would
think they could not get room to stir. They will continue plentiful till
the end of April, at which time they take to the deep sea ; and when they
make their appearance the following year they are about four times larger,
and are then called piltocks. But these are only taken by the rod. Mr.
Bruce just says, If you pock, you cannot be my tenant; so they must
either give up the one or the other, and by that way of doing every house-
hold has as many of these small fish as they can make use of during the
winter.”

P

210 THE TURBOT,

found in the northern seas to attain occasionally a weight of
from three to four hundred pounds.” One of this species of fish
of extraordinary size was brought to the Edinburgh market in
April 1828 ; it was seven feet and a half long, and upwards of
three feet broad, and it weighed three hundred and twenty
pounds! The flavour of the holibut is not very delicate, although
it has been frequently mistaken for turbot by those not conver-
sant with fish history.

The true turbot (Rhombus maximus) is the especial delight
of aldermanic epicures, and fabulous sums are said to have been
given at different times by rich persons in order to secure a
turbot for their dinner-table. This fine fish is, or rather used
to be, largely taken on our own coasts; but now we have to
rely upon more distant fishing-erounds for a large portion of
our supply. The old complaint of our ignorance of fish habits
must be again reiterated here, for it is not long since it was
supposed that the turbot was a migratory fish that might be
caught at one place to-day and at another to-morrow. The late
Mr. Wilson, who ought to have known better, said, in writing
about this fish :—‘ The English markets are largely supplied
from the various sandbanks which lie between our eastern
coasts and Holland. The Dutch turbot-fishery begins about '
the end of March, a few leagues to the south of Schevening.
The fish proceed northwards as the season advances, and in April
and May are found in great shoals upon the banks called the
Broad Forties. Early in June they surround the island of
Heligoland, where the fishery continues to the middle of August,
and then terminates for the year. At the beginning of the
season the trawl-net is chiefly used; but on the occurrence of
warm weather the fish retire to deeper water, and to banks of
rougher ground, where the long line is indispensable.”

The turbot was well known in ancient gastronomy; the
luxurious Italians used it extensively, and christened it the
sea-pheasant from its fine flavour. In the gastronomic days
of ancient Rome the wealthy patricians were very extravagant
in the use of all kinds of fish ; so much so that it was said by
a satirist that

‘* Great turbots and the soup-dish led
To shame at last and want of bread.”

The turbot is very common on the English and Scottish coasts,
and is known also on the shores of Greece and Italy. This

THE FLAT FISH FAMILY. 211

fish is taken chiefly by means of the trawl-net, but in some
places it is fished for by well-baited lines. We derive large
quantities of our turbot from Holland, so much as £100,000
having been paid to the Dutch in one year for the quantities of
these fish which were brought to London, and on which, at one
time, a duty of £6 per boat was exigible. This fish spawns
during the autumn, and is in fine condition for table use during
the spring and early summer. Yarrell says the turbot spawns
in the spring ; but, with due respect, I think he is wrong; I
would not, however, be positive about this, for there will no

THE PLEURONECTID# FAMILY.

1. Flounder. 2. Turbot. 3. Plaice, 4: Sole. 5. Dab.

doubt be individuals of the turbot kind, as there are of all
other kinds, that will spawn all the year round. The turbot
is a great flat fish, In Scotland, from its shape, it is called
“the bannock fluke,” It is about twenty inches long, and
broad in proportion ; and a prime fish of this species will weigh
from eight to twelve pounds.

The best-known fish of the Pleuronectide is the sole (Solea
vulgaris), which is largely distributed in all our seas, and used

212 THE SOLE.

in immense quantities in London and elsewhere. The sole is too
well known to require any description at my hands. Itis caught
by means of the trawl-net, and is in good season for a great
number of months. Soles of a moderate weight are best for the
table. I prefer such as weigh from three to five pounds per pair.
T have been told, by those who ought to know best, that the
deeper the water from which it is taken the better the sole. It
is quite a groun@ fish, and inhabits the sandy places round the
coast, feeding on minor crustaceans, and on the spawn and
young of various kinds of fish. Good supplies of this popular
fish are taken on the west coast of England, and they are said to
be very plentiful in the Irish seas ; indeed all kinds of fish are
said to inhabit the waters that surround the Emerald Isle.
There can be no doubt of this, at any rate, that the fishing on
the Irish coasts has never been so vigorously prosecuted as on
the coasts of Scotland and England—so that there has been a
greater chance for the best kinds of white fish to thrive and
multiply. Seaside visitors would do well to go on board some
of the trawlers and observe the mode of capture. There is no
more interesting way of passing a seaside holiday than to watch
or take a slight share in the industry of the neighbourhood where
one may be located.

The smaller varieties of the flat fish—such as Muller’s top-
knot, the flounder, whiff, dab, plaice, etc—I need not particu-
larly notice, except to say that immense quantities of them: are
annually consumed in London and other cities. Mr. Mayhew,
in some of-his investigations, found out that upwards of
33,000,000 of plaice were annually required to aid the London
commissariat ! But thatis nothing. Three times that quantity
of soles are needed—one would fancy this to be a statistic of
shoe-leather—the exact figure given by Mr. Mayhew is
97,520,000! This is not in the least exaggerated. I discussed
these figures with a Billingsgate salesman, and he thinks them
quite within the mark.

I have already alluded to the natural history of the mackerel,
and shall now say a word or two about the fishery, which is
keenly prosecuted. The great point in mackerel-fishing is to get
the fish into the market in its freshest state ; and to achieve this
several boats will join in the fishery, and one of their number
will come into harbour as speedily as possible with the united
take. The mackerel is caught in England chiefly by means of
the seine-net, and much in the same way as the pilchard. A

THE MACKEREL FISHERY. 213

great number of this fish are however captured by means of well-
baited lines, and in some places a drift-net is used. Any kind
of bait almost will do for the mackerel-hooks—a bit of red cloth,
a slice of one of its own kind, or any clear shiny substance.
Mackerel are not quite so plentiful as they used to be.

As to when the Gadide and other white fish are in their
proper season it is difficult to say. Their times of sickness are
not so marked as to prevent many of the varieties from being
used all thé year round. Different countries must have, different
seasons. We know, for instance, that it is proper to have the
close-time of one salmon river at a different date from that of
some other stream that may be farther south or farther north ;
and I may state here, that during several winter visits which I
made to the Tay, beautiful clean salmon were running in De-
cember. There are also exceptional spawning seasons in the case
of individual fish, so that we are quite safe in affirming that the
sole and turbot are in season all the year round.

There is no‘organisation in Scotland for carrying on the white
fisheries, as there is in the case of the oyster or herring fisheries,
So far as our most plentiful table fish are concerned, the supply
seems utterly dependent on chance or the will of individuals.
A man (or company) owning a boat goes to sea just when he
pleases. In Scotland, where a great quantity of the best white
fish are caught, this is particularly the case, and the conse-
quence is that at the season of the year when the principal white
and flat fish are in their primest condition, they are not to be
procured ; the general answer to all inquiries as to the scarcity
being, “The men are away at the herring.” This is true; the
best boats and the strongest and most intelligent fishermen have
removed for a time to distant fishing-towns to engage in the
capture of the herring, which forms, during the summer months,
a noted industrial feature on the coasts of Scotland, and allures
to the scene all the best fishermen, in the hope that they may
gain a prize in the great herring-lottery, prizes in which are not
uncommon, as some boats will take fish to the extent of two
hundred barrels in the course of a week or two. Only a few
decrepit old men are left to try their luck with the cod and
haddock lines ; the result being, as I have stated above, a
scarcity of white and flat fish, which is beginning to be felt in
greatly enhanced prices. An intelligent Newhaven fishwife
recently informed me that the price of white fish in Edinburgh—
a city close to the sea—has been more than quadrupled within

214 CONDUCT OF THE WHITE FISHERY.

the last thirty years. She remembers when the primest had-
docks were sold at about one penny per pound weight, and in
her time herrings have been so plentiful that no person would
purchase them. We shall not soon look again on such times.

The cod and haddock fishery is a laborious occupation. At
Buckie, a quaint fishing-town on the Moray Firth, it is one of
the staple occupations of the people. At that little port there
are generally about thirty or forty large boats engaged in the
fishery, as well as a number of smaller craft used to fish
inshore. These boats, which measure from thirty to forty
feet, are, with the necessary hooks and lines, of the value
of about. £100, Each boat is generally the property of a
joint-stock company, and has a crew of eight or nine indi-
viduals, who all claim an equal share in the fish captured.
The Buckie men often go a long distance, forty or fifty miles, to
a populous fishing-place, and are absent from home for a period
of fifteen or twenty hours, At many of the fishing villages from
which herring or cod boats depart, there is no proper harbour,
and at such places the sight of the departing fleet is a most
animated one, as all hands, women included, have to lend their
aid in order to expedite the launching of the little fleet, as the
men who are to fish must be kept dry and comfortable. Even
at places where there is a harbour, it is often not used, many of
the boats being drawn up for convenience on what is called the
boat-shore. At Cockenzie, near Edinburgh, several of the boats
are still drawn up in this rude way, and the women not only
assist in launching and drawing up the boats, but they sell the
produce taken by each crew by auction to the highest bidder—
the purchasers usually being buyers of speculation, who send
the fish by train to Edinburgh, Manchester, or London.

From the little ports of the Moray Firth, the men, as I
have said, have to go long distances to fish for cod and ling.
As they have none. but open boats, it will easily be understood
that they live hard upon such occasions. They are sometimes
absent from home for about a week at a stretch, and as the weather
is often very inclement the men suffer severely. The fish are
not so easily procured as in former years, so that the remuner-
ation for the labour undergone is totally inadequate. A large
traffic in living codfish used to be carried on from Scotland ;
quick vessels furnished with wells took the cod alive as far as
Gravesend, whence they were sent on to London as required.

I cannot say much about the white-fish fisheries of Ireland

IRISH WHITE FISHERIES. 215

from personal knowledge, but the latest report of the Irish fishery
inspectors contains some interesting information on the subject
which I have abridged for the benefit of my readers. I glean
from it that the Irish fisheries are at present in a somewhat
sensational position, and have of late attracted more than usual
attention. The reason of this is their rapid decline—a decline
which dates from the beginning of the Irish famine in 1846,
At that period nearly 20,000 boats or other vessels of various
sizes were engaged in the Irish fisheries, manned by over 100,000
men and boys. Last year [1872] the number of vessels and
boats was under 8000, and the men and boys taking part in the
fisheries numbered a little over 31,000, being a decrease as
compared with the previous year [1871] of, in round numbers
1000 boats and 7000 men.

Statistics of the Irish sea fisheries are annually collected by
members of the Coastguard, who fill up schedules supplied by
the inspectors, which seem one year with another to be consistent
and reliable; but in addition to the matter collected by the
Coastguardsmen, much interesting information about the Irish
fisheries and the decline of co-operative fishing has been inter-
polated by the inspectors, who, in one paragraph of their present
report, confirm to some extent an opinion which is held by some
earnest inquirers, to the effect that in Ireland, as in Scotland
and England, the fishermen find it necessary to go farther afield
for their supplies, there being a considerable falling-off in the
productiveness of the inshore fisheries compared with the quan-
tities of fish obtained about thirty years ago, In consequence
of this thany fishers with imperfect or weak fishing gear have
been obliged to give up fishing, not daring to venture to sea with
old patched-up boats and ragged netting imperfectly protected
from the action of the waves because of a deficient supply of
catechu with which to dye or “bark” their nets and sails.

Other two of the numerous fishing companies started in Ire-
land were last year compelled to haul down their flag; these
were the “South of Ireland Fishing Company,” which for some
years carried on operations at Kinsale so far as its chief business
was concerned, but which lately engaged in the herring fishery
prosecuted off Howth; and the small “Limited” company
known as the “ Inishbofin Fishing Company.” There is now,
properly speaking, no joint-stock fishing company in Ireland.
The boats and gear of the South of Ireland Company were pur-
chased by two or three private individuals, and other undertak-

216 DECLINE OF THE IRISH FISHERY.

ings of a semi-joint-stock kind have generally not more than
three partners, As regards the numerous fishing companies
started from time to time in Ireland, the inspectors tell us that
they have in the end been obliged to be wound up with great loss
to their shareholders. On the other hand, while the large com-
panies have all been obliged to succumb to the force of circum-
stances, smaller enterprises entered into by practical men having
a thorough knowledge of the art of fishing and of the best
markets in which to sell their fish, have usually proved suc-
cessful ; arid, as a proof of this averment, the inspectors point
to the boats belonging to Dublin, and three or four small enter-
prises now in most successful operation at Dunmore, in the
county of Waterford,

As one mode of arriving : at the value, or at least the quantity,
of the fish taken in Ireland, the returns of the weight carried on
the various lines of railway are given, which the Commissioners
might annually summarise for comparison with preceding years.
The following is a summary of the tonnage for 1872 :—Carried
on railways, 5658 tons 11 cwt. ; taken away by steamers, 3974
tons 18 cwt.; total, 9633 tons 9 cwt. But it is not explained
by the inspectors whether any portion or how much of the fish
taken away by steamboats to Scotland and England is included
in;the quantity sent by railway. Taking it for granted, however,
that the steamboat portion was sent direct from the ports of
capture, the weight of fish carried, reduced to pounds would be
21,578,928, which, at an average (wholesale price) of 3d. per
pound—a considerable portion of the fish being salmon—would
yield £269,736 : 12s,

The vexed question of loans to the Irish fishermen is more
directly illustrated in the present report than it was in that of
1871. It was said then by the inspectors that if the same
Imperial aid had been afforded to the Irish fisheries as has for
years been extended to the Scottish fisheries, and if the landed
proprietary on the Irish coast had taken as much interest in
fishing as the Scottish gentry, the Irish fisheries of to-day would
present a very different picture from the melancholy decay of
that industry which is rapidly going on over fully two-thirds
of the Irish coast-line. They attribute the highly prosperous
condition of the Scottish fisheries in a great measure to the
generous assistance which for many years has been extended to
them by the Imperial Exchequer. The Inspecting Commanders
of the Irish Coastguard have so frequently reported on the

THE LOAN QUESTION. 217

loan question that the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries did not think
this year of repeating their queries, but an analysis of the replies
received in 1870-71 from the thirty divisions of the coast
showed that in twenty loans would be beneficial, that security
could be obtained in eight, that security would be doubtful
in eleven, that it could not be obtained in one, that loans would
not benefit the fishermen in six of the districts, and that the
benefit would be doubtful in three. From one of the districts
a return was not obtained. “It is singular,” say the inspectors,
“that in some of the divisions in which the Coastguard officers
teport that security would be doubtful, or loans not likely to
prove beneficial, the Society for Bettering the Condition of the
Poor of Ireland has made large*advances without loss, and the
fishermen have been much benefited.”

Prolific as our coast fisheries have been, and still are,
comparatively speaking, the North Sea is at present the’ grand
reservoir from which we obtain our white fish. Indeed, it has
been the great fish-preserve of the surrounding peoples since
ever there was a demand for this kind of food, All the best-
known fishing banks are to be found in the German Ocean—
Faroe, Loffoden, Shetland, and others nearer home—and its
waters, filling up an area of 140,000 square miles, teem with
the best kinds of fish, and give employment to thousands of
people, as well in their capture and cure as in the building of
the ships, and the development of the commerce which is
incidental to all large enterprise.

It will doubtless be interesting to my readers to know some-
thing about the general machinery of fish-capture, so far as
regards the British sea-fisheries. The modern cod-smack,
clipper-built for speed, with large wells for carrying her live fish,
costs £1500. She usually carries from nine to eleven men and
boys, including the captain. Her average expense per week is
£20 during the long-line season in the North Sea; but it
exceeds this much if unfortunate in losing lines, Fishing has
of late been a most uncertain venture. The line is chiefly used
for the purpose of taking cod and haddock. The number of
lines taken to sea in an open boat {depends upon the number of
men belonging to the particular vessel. Each man has a line
of 50 fathoms (300 feet) in length ; and attached to each of
these lines are 100 “ snoods,” with hooks already baited with
mussels, pieces of herring or whiting. Each line is laid “clear”
in a shallow basket or “scull”—that is, it is so arranged as to

218 FISH CAPTURE BY LINE.

run freely as the boat shoots ahead. The 50-fathom line, with
100 hooks, is in Scotland termed a “taes.” If there are eight
men in a boat the length of line will be 400 fathoms (2400
feet), with 800 hooks (the lines being tied to each other before
setting). On arriving at the fishing-ground the fishermen heave
overboard a cork buoy, with a flag-staff fixed to it about six feet
in height. The buoy is kept stationary by a line, called the
“‘pow-end,” reaching to the bottom of the water, and having a
stone or small anchor fastened to the lower end. To the pow:
end is also fastened the fishing-line, which is then “ paid” out
as fast as the boat sails, which may be from four to five knots
an hour. Should the wind be unfavourable for the direction in
which the crew wish to set the line they use the oars. When
the line or taes is all out the end is dropped, and the boat
returns to the buoy. The pow-end is hauled up with the anchor
and fishing-line attached to it. The fishermen then haul in the
line with whatever fish may be on it. Eight hundred fish
might be taken (and often have been) by eight men in a few
hours by this operation ; but many fishermen now say that
they consider themselves very fortunate when they get a fish
on every five hooks on an eight-taes line. Many a time too
the fish are all eaten off the line by “dogs” and other enemies,
so that only a few fragments and a skeleton or two remain to
show that fish have been caught. The fishermen of deck-welled
cod-bangers use both hand-lines and long-lines such as have been
described. The cod-bangers’ tackling is of course stronger than
that used in open boats. The long-lines are called “ grut-lines,”
or great-lines. Every deck-welled cod-banger carries a small
boat on deck for working the great-lines in moderate weather.
As soon as the cod and haddock are taken off the hooks they
are put into a “well,” formed by a part of the smack’s hold,
divided from the rest of the vessel by water-tight bulkheads.
The well occupies the whole breadth of the vessel, and the sea
has free access to it through auger holes bored in the sides and
bottom of that part of the smack, When the well has been
sufficiently stored, the vessel returns to port with her cargo of
live fish, which are then transferred to chests, in which they are
kept afloat, and in good order, till wanted for market. Some
hundreds of these cod, according to the demand, are taken out
of the chests every afternoon, and after being killed by one or
two blows on the head, are sent by train to Billingsgate and
other markets, where they are sold as “live cod,” and fetch

LINE-FISHING. 219

the highest price given for that kind of fish. Haddocks are
stored and treated in a similar manner, but the supply of line-
caught haddocks is trifling compared with what is provided by
the trawlers. Some cod-fish are still brought home alive in
welled vessels, in the way described, whilst others of the fish
are crimped. They are first of all stunned by a blow when
they are caught, and then laid down in cases, from which they
are only removed in order to be crimped.

Hungry codfish will seize any kind of bait, and great-lines are
usually baited with bits of whiting, herring, haddock, or almost
any kind of fish, For hand-lines the fishermen prefer mussels
or white whelks, White whelks are caught by a line on which
is fastened a number of pieces of carrion or cod-heads. This
line is laid along the bottom where whelks are known to abound.
The whelks attach themselves to the cod-heads, and are
pulled up, put into net bags, something like onion-nets, and
placed in the well of the vessel, where they are kept alive till
required for use. Another kind of bait used by the boat fisher-
men for hand-lines is that of the lug-worm. The “lug” is a
sand-worm, from four to five inches long, and about the thick-
ness of a man’s finger. The head part of the worm is of a
dark brown fleshy substance, and is the part used as bait, the
rest of the worm being nothing but sand. The “lug” is dug
from the sand with a small spade or three-pronged fork.

The principal fishing-grounds in the North Sea where cod-
bangers are employed are the Dogger Bank, Well Bank, and
Dutch Bank. The fishing-ground of the open boat fishermen
is on the coasts of Fife, Midlothian, and Berwickshire ; for had-
docks, cod, ling, etc., it is around the island of May and the
Bell Rock, Marrbank, Murray Bank, and Montrose Pits, etc,

Some of the fishes of the Gadide are extensively cured, as
the ling and hake, large numbers of which, are captured to be
bleached both for the home and foreign markets. Spain obtains
a great quantity of its cured fish from the Shetland Islands,
where a cod and ling fishery is carried on pretty nearly all the
year round, there being both a winter and a summer fishery.
In the summer time the fishermen proceed with their boats to
the smaller islands, where they encamp in little huts for a
few days, in order to carry on their business. They generally
remain out from Monday till Saturday, when they return home
to spend the day of rest with their families, As a general rule,
the men are very pious, and make it a point of honour to be
at home on “the Lord’s day.”

220 THE TRAWL QUESTION.

There has been a large amount of exaggeration as to the injury
done to the white-fish fishery by the trawls, Fishermen who
have neither the capital nor the enterprise to engage in trawling
themselves are sure to abuse those who do ; but the trawl is so
formidable as to have induced various French writers to advocate
its prohibition. They describe this instrument of the fishery as
terrible in its effects, leaving, when it is used, deep furrows in
the bottom of the sea, and crushing alike the fry and the spawn ;
but there is a very evident exaggeration in this charge, because
as a general rule the beam-trawl cannot be worked with safety
except on a sandy or muddy bottom, and, so far as we know,
fish prefer to spawn on ground that is slightly rocky or weedy,
so that the spawn may have something to adhere to, which it
evidently requires in order to escape destruction ; and when a
quantity of spawn is discerned on a bit of sea-weed or rock, we
always find that, from some viscid property of which it is pos-
sessed, it adheres‘to its resting-place with great tenacity, The
trawl-net, however destructive its agency, cannot, I fear, be dis-
pensed with ; and, used at proper seasons and at proper places,
is the best engine of capture we can have for the kinds of fish
which it is employed to secure. The trawl is very largely used
by English fishermen, but it is only of late years that the trawlers
have come so far north as Sunderland and Berwick, and it is the
fishermen of these places who have got up the cry about that
net being so injurious to the fisheries. In Scotland there are
no resident trawlers, the fisheries being chiefly of the nature of
a coasting industry, where the men, as a general rule, only go
out to sea for a few hours and then return with their capture.
Having been frequently on board of the trawling ships, I may
perhaps be allowed to set down a few figures indicative of the
power of the great beam-net.

A trawler, then, is a vessel of about 35 tons burden, and
usually carries 7 persons—viz. 5 men and 2 apprentices—as a
crew to work her.* The trawl-rope is 120 fathoms in length

* A Barking trawler usually carries 5 men and 3 boys, and costs
when in full work £12 per week. A Hull trawler costs much less, and
the owner has less risk ; because the crew, from the captain downwards,
share in the catch. The Barking men refuse to enter into this arrange-
ment, which probably helps to account for the decay of the Barking
fishery, for that of Hull is comparatively prosperous. The co-operative
system prevails among a few of the fisher people of England. In an
account of a Yorkshire fishing-place recently published in Once a Week,
the following statistics of the cost of boats, etc., are given :—

A TRAWLER. 221

and 6 inches in circumference, and to this rope are attached the
different parts of the trawling apparatus—viz. the beam, the
trawl-heads, bag-net, ground-rope, and span or bridle. The
trawler is furnished with a capstan for hauling in this heavy
machine. The beam, a spar of heavy elm wood, is 38 feet in
length, and 2 feet in circumference at the middle, and is made
to taper to the ends. Two trawl-heads (oval rings, 4 feet by 24
feet) are fixed to the beam, one ateach end. The upper part of

the bag-net, which is about 100 feet long, is fastened to the °
beam, while the lower part is attached to the ground-rope. The
ends of the ground-rope are fastened to the trawl-beds, and being
quite slack, the mouth of the bag-net forms a semicircle when
dragged over the ground. The whole apparatus is fastened to
the trawl-rope by means of the span or bridle, which is a rope
double the length of the beam, and of a thickness equal to the
trawl-rope. Each end of the span is fastened to the beam, and
to the loop thus formed the trawl-rope is attached. The ground-
rope is usually an old rope, much weaker than the trawl-rope, so
that, in the event of the net coming in contact with any obstruc-
tion in the water, the ground-rope may break and allow the rest

“Each yawl, varying in tonnage from 28 to 45 tons, costs from
£600 to £650, and is divided into shares; of its earnings 3s. 6d. in the
pound are paid to the owner or owners, 10s. are. devoted to the current
expenses, and the remainder is divided among the men who find the bait.
When a new boat is required, several persons—gentlemen speculators,
harbour-masters, etc., and boatmen—take certain shares of it, which vary
in amount from a half-quarter to a half of the cost; application is then
made to a builder, sail-maker, anchor-maker, and other tradesmen; and
the vessel, in due time, is paid for, equipped, and given over to the owners,
Each lugger-yawl carries two masts, and is provided with three sets of sails
to suit various states of weather. The foresail contains 200 or 250 yards,
the mizen 100, and the mizen-topsail 40 yards; the lesser sizes being
severally of 100, 60, and 50 yards. The jib is very small. On the
average the yawl is of 40 tons, and measures 51 feet keel, or 55 feet over
all, and is of 17 or 18 feet beam; drawing 63'feet water aft, and 5 feet
forward. The amount of ballast varies from 20 to 80 tons. The yawl is
provided with 120 nets, each of which costs £30. Half of this number
are left on shore, and changed at the end of every 12 weeks. The crew is
composed of 7 men and 2 boys. For instance, the ‘‘ Wear,” commanded
by Colling, a first-rate seaman, carries two others, like himself part-owners,
4 men receiving, besides their food, £1, and 1 boy at 18s., and another at
11s. a week; each fisherman, who is a net-owner, receives 24s. a week.
The expenses in wages and wear and tear are calculated at from £12 to £15
weekly. The herrings are valued at £2 per 1000 on an average. Some-
times 23,000 fish are caught in a single haul, occasionally as many as
60,000, but 40,000 are considered a good catch. To remunerate the crew,

222 THE TRAWL-NET.

of the gear to be saved. Were the warp to break instead of the
ground-rope, the whole apparatus, which is of considerable value,
would be left at the bottom. The trawler, as I noted while the
net was in the water, usually sails at the rate of 2 or 24 knots
an hour. The best depth of water for trawling is from 20 to 30
fathoms, with a bottom of mud or sand. At times, however, the
nets are sunk much deeper than this, but that is about the depth
of water over the great Silver Pits, 90 miles off the Humber,
where a large number of the Hull trawlers go to fish, When
they are caught, the fish (chiefly soles and other flat fish) are
then packed in baskets called pads, and are preserved in ice until
brought to market. To take twelve or fourteen pads a day is
considered excellent fishing. Besides these ground-fish the trawl
often encloses haddocks, cod, and other round fish, when such
happen to be feeding. on the bottom. It sometimes happens
that the beam falls to the ground, and, the ground-rope lying
on the top of the bag-net, no fish can get in. This accident,
which, however, seldom occurs, is called a back fall. Mr. Vivian
of Hull, in a letter to the editor of a Manchester newspaper,
gave two years ago a very graphic account of the trawl-fishing,

£50 or £60 a week ought to be obtained. Each net is 10 fathoms
long, and is sunk 9 fathoms during the fishing, the upper part being
floated by a long series of barrels, which are fitted at intervals of 15
fathoms. The warps used for laying out the nets in each vessel measure
2200 yards. Two men take up the nets, two empty the fish out of them,
and one boy stows the nets while his fellow stows the warps, which are
raised by a windlass worked by the men. Each net weighs about 28°
pounds. In order to preserve the nets and sails, it is necessary at
frequent intervals to cover them with tanning, which is prepared in large
coppers These coppers cost £40.” ‘

On the Gulf of St. Lawrence the engagements of fishermen are as
follows :—

“The fishermen are brought to the fishing-station at the expense of
the firm engaging them. They are furnished with a good fishing-boat,
thoroughly fitted, and are besides supplied with fresh bait as long as it
can be got, and they require it, but on payment of a sum of $6 to $8;
and for each 100 codfish delivered on the stage they receive the sum of
5s. 6d., one half in money and the other half in goods and provisions. At
these prices, and fish being abundant, fishermen earn $5, $10, $15, and
even $20 a day; and after an absence of from 6 to 9 weeks, bring
home from $80 to $120, and sometimes more. But they have to board
themselves ; and if the fish is not abundant, their account of the pro-
visions lent to their families before their departure, their own board, the
purchase of their lines, take up the greatest part of their earnings, and
they very often return to Magdalen Islands with empty pockets.” Great
quantities of all kinds of fish are found in the St. Lawrence.

THE ART OF TRAWLING. 223

and stated that 99 out of every 100 turbot and brills, nine-tenths
of all the haddocks, and a large proportion of all the skate, which
are daily sold in the wholesale fishmarkets of this country, are
caught by the system of trawling. Trawling is without doubt
the most efficient mode of getting the white fish at the bottom
of the ocean ; and were it made penal, London and the large
towns would at times be entirely without fish. Asa matter of
course, trawling must exhaust the shoals at particular places.
A fleet of upwards of 100 smacks, each with a beam nearly 40
feet long, trawling night and day, disturbs, frightens, or captures
whatever fish are to be found in that locality, entrapping, besides,
shell-fish, anchors, stores that have been sunken with ships ages
ago; even a wedge of gold has been brought up by this insatiable
instrument. The only remedy is to widen the field of action.

It is best, however, in a case of dispute, as in this trawl
question, to allow those interested to speak for themselves, I
have gone over an immense mass of the evidence taken by a
recent commission appointed by Parliament to make inquiry on
the subject, and will set some parts of it before my readers, so
that, if a little trouble be taken in weighing the pros and cons of
the matter, they may be able to form their own judgment on
this vexed question. A Cullercoats fisherman is very strong
against the beam-trawl. . He is certain that thirty years ago we
could get double the quantity of fish, during the fishing season,
that we obtain now, and that the supply has fallen away little by
little ; and he says that even ten years ago it was almost as good
as it was thirty years ago. Some years hence England will cry
out for want of fish if trawling be allowed to go on. The price
of fish has doubled, he says, of late years. “When I was a
young man, there were nine in family of us, and my wife could
purchase haddock for twopence which would serve for our dinners.
Now she could not obtain the same quantity for less than nine-
pence or tenpence. Of recent years the number of fishermen and
fishing-boats has greatly increased. Ido not think the fisher-
men of the present day are better off than those when I was a
young man.” The fishermen at Cullercoats, when they trawl,
use the small trawl, and fish in shallow water. Under these
circumstances they do no injury. The trawlers, with the large
trawl, says a Mr. Nicholson who was examined, not only sweep
away the lines of the fishermen, but also destroy the fish, At
Cullercoats a man engaged in the line-fishing gets all the fish on
his own lines, and his wife goes to town and disposes of them.

224 STATEMENTS BY TRAWLERS.

The beam-trawling commenced about six years ago. The
number of boats and the fishing population still go on steadily
increasing. Beam-trawling does two kinds of harm: in the first
place, it sweeps away the fishermen’s lines ; and next, it destroys
the spawn. ‘There may be a remedy for a fisherman losing his
lines, but I never heard of it. I am aware that they could
recover damages, but the difficulty-is to get hold of the offending
parties. The only remedy I can suggest is to do away with the
trawl-fishing altogether.” This witness stated that ten years ago
he used to take sixty or seventy codfish per day, and that now
he cannot get one, The trawlers, being able to fish in all
weathers, beat the local fishermen out of the field.

Templeman, a South Shields fisherman, says that when en-
gaged in trawling he has drawn up three and a half tons of fish-
spawn! He also says in his evidence that in trawling one-half
of the fish are dead, and so hashed as to be unfit for market.
Has seen a ton and a half of herring-spawn offered for sale as
manure. The take of fish upon the Dogger Bank has decreased
very much. The fishermen cannot catch one quarter part there
now that they used to do. The number of trawl-boats on the
Dogger Bank has increased about 10 per cent within the last
year, and yet they are getting about a quarter less fish. Some
of them can scarcely make a living now at all, They have. im-
poverished all other places, and now they have come here, and
in a short time there will not bea fish left. It is the same with
the other fish-banks, and that accounts for the trawlers now
coming to this neighbourhood. They have destroyed the Har-
tlepool and Sunderland ground, and now they have come to a
small patch off here, and they will sweep it clean too, A trawl-
boat will sometimes catch five tons a day ; but on the average
a ton and a half; but as a great deal of that has to be thrown
overboard, they only bring about ten cwt. to market. The
boats belonging to Cullercoats, carrying the same number of
hands as the trawlers, only catch upon the average about five,
stones, The fish caught i in the trawl are not fit for the market,
as the insides are broke, and the galls burst and running through
them. “If I had my way, I would pass an Act of Parliament
to do away with trawling, and oblige every man to fish with
hooks and lines. I think that would increase the quantity of
fish for the country, because the young fish would not take the
hooks. I am not aware that if the small boats get five stones
a day it would at all diminish the supply of fish for the market ;
but if the trawling is allowed to continue, that very soon will. %

BAD EFFECTS OF TRAWLING. 225

Thomas Bolam, on being examined, said: ‘“ Ihave followed
the herring-fishing for twenty-one years, and the white-fishing
six years. In the course of those six years I have found that
the supply of white fish has gradually diminished both in the
number and size of the fish. In twenty years’ experience in the
herring-fishing I find a fearful diminution in the total quantity
caught. The shoals of herring are now only about one-third
the size they were when I first commenced the fishing. At
that time we used to get 14,000 or 15,000 ; now the length of
4000 or 5000 is thought a good take, I attribute the falling-
off to the existence of the trawling system.”

Many other fishermen gave similar evidence. A fisherman
named Bulmer, residing at Hartlepool, said that the white fish
were not only scarcer, but that they were deteriorating in size
as well. The falling off in quantity has decidedly been accom-
panied by a smaller size, more particularly in haddocks. Had-
docks, twenty years ago, were caught from five pounds to six
pounds "in weight; now they hardly average three pounds.
There is scarcely a single cod to be caught now, and formerly
our boats got them scores together, and had to trail them out in
rows, and could only sell them for about 10s, a score ; now they
realise at Christmas 5s. and 6s, each, “ Of turbot-fishing I am’
sorry to speak, It pains me to think of the injuries we have
sustained in this particular fishing by trawlers. At present we
dare not cast our nets, as they are sure to be lost. I lost two
‘fleets’ of turbot-nets worth £25. About twenty-six years ago
I. have caught two hundred turbot in one day: now there are
none to be got.” Another resident gave similar evidence, and
thought that if trawling was persisted in, their noble bay would
soon be fallow ground, John Purvis of Whitburn also says that
haddocks have decreased in size as well as in quantity—thinks
they are at least a third smaller now as compared with former
years. Considers that the trawling system has caused the
diminution of fish which has taken place during the last four
years. David Archibald of Croster had bought trawled fish not
for food, as they were only fit to be used as bait.

Having given a fair sample of the evidence against the trawl-
ing system, it will be but just that we now hear the other side
of the case. It is unfortunate, of course, that we cannot obtain
really impartial evidence on this vexed question, as the party
complaining is the party said to have had their fishery prospects
ruined by the use of the beam-trawl, whilst the trawlers, of

226 EVIDENCE OF A HULL TRAWLER.

course, won’t hear a bad word said of the engine by which they
gain their living. A Torbay fisherman, accustomed to trawling
for the last twenty-six years, flatly contradicts much that has
been said against the trawl-net. He asserts that he never took
or saw any spawn taken, and that only about half a hundred-
weight in each two tons of the fish taken is unfit for the market.
He does not think the fish are decreasing either in quantity or
size.

A Hull trawler spoke to the following effect :—“I never saw
any spawn in the net. It is impossible for spawn to Be caught
in the net. There is often unmarketable fish, but it is only
when there is a strong breeze and a difficulty in getting the
gear on board. We generally get seven or eight hampers in a
haul, and one basket would perhaps be unfit for the market.
The hooked fish is a more saleable fish, as it has got the scales
and slime on it, and the trawl fish has not got the slime on it,
and the scales are sometimes rubbed off.” Some haddocks were
here produced which the witness said were a fair specimen. The
scales were on them, and on one being opened the inside was
found to be in an unbroken state,

The following is a summary of the evidence given by William
Dawson, a very intelligent fisherman of Newbiggin, who spoke
from fifty years’ experience :—“ He had fished cod, ling, turbot,
and several kinds of shell-fish, but not oysters. He was still
engaged as a fisherman. He fished with a line for soles. The
number of fishermen and boats had increased. In 1808 there
were eight boats, and there are now about thirty boats. Fifty
years ago the boats were about one-third the size. The boats
carried just about the same lines as now. The boats now carry
about three times as much net as they did. The number of
white fish is falling off a great deal. In 1812 every boat
brought in more white fish than they could carry. We do not
go much more frequently to sea now. In the size of the fish
now there is not much difference—a little smaller. The had-
dock and herring fisheries had decreased. . He had not noticed
much difference in the size, only in the quantity. There was a
greater number of boats engaged now in the herring-fishing—the
number of herring having decreased within the last ten or twelve
years. Little mackerel was caught there. Large quantities of
mackerel were off this coast at times, but they had no nets to
take them. Although a good many sprats were seen, they did
not try to catch them. The cause of the falling off in the quantity

EARNINGS OF THE FISHERMEN, 227

of fish he considered was their being destroyed farther south.
No trawling vessels came here till last summer. They went
about twelve miles from land, and trawled in the fishing-ground.
The lines of the fishing-boats were parallel, and about a quarter
of a mile apart. When there was a south-east storm they got
plenty of fish, but it was not so now. With a north-east storm
they had plenty of fish. In his recollection, fifty years back,
- there was plenty of fish with a south-east storm. There had
been no interference with their nets, and no one had regulated
the times of fishing. There might be some advantage if the
Government made a law to prevent either the English or French
fishing from Saturday morning to Monday night. That would
give time for the fish to draw together. That alluded to herring.
They should not allow the trawl-boais to fish on the coasts. The
French boats often came within three miles of the land.
Herring are caught within three ‘miles of the shore. The
French boats shifted with the herring along the coast, and have
caught a great quantity. There should be a rule that herring-
nets should not be shot before sunset. When the Queen’s
cutters came the French boats made off to more than three miles
from the land. Lobsters had diminished, but not the crabs.
He believed they had caught too many lobsters. The boat’s
crew is not so well off now as thirty years ago. Lodgings were
better. They do not earn so much money now. In the course
of a year (about 1825) he made £126, and a few years back he
made only £78. The average for the last five years at the
white fishing was about £50. Other £50 might be made at
the herring-fishing, The buoys of the lines were large enough
for the trawlers to see them, and they could see where the nets
were. They destroyed both the fish and the lines. A line boat
with fittings costs about £40, and a herring-boat with nets not
less than £100. The men bought the boats with money saved.
Little fish was destroyed on their lines, except what was eaten
by the dog-fish, There were herring there in January and
February, but were not caught. Their boats fished between
Tynemouth and Dunstanborough castles. He could remember
when there were no French boats on the coast; they first came
about 1824. The French boats fish on the Sundays. Their
boats did not. A young man ought to earn £100 a year. It
would cost a full third to keep his boat and tackling up. The

boats lasted about fourteen years.”
I need not go on repeating similar evidence, but the witnesses

228 . OPINION OF A SALESMAN,

were nearly all agreed that the beam-trawl did not do the injury
to the fisheries that was charged against it, especially as regards
injury to spawn. I may perhaps, by way of conclusion to this
contradictory evidence, be allowed to quote from the Times a
portion of a letter on trawling, written by a “ Billingsgate Sales-
man ;”—— “ Seven years’ experience in Billingsgate, and my life-
time previous spent among the fishermen in a seaport-town, may
enable me to offer a few remarks, which through your able:
abilities may be sifted, and perhaps leave a portion of matter
which you may consider of some value and turn to some account.
My personal interest is not only in trawl-fishing, but hook-and-
line, seined-net, drift-net, and other kinds ; for, being a commis-
sion agent, it is all fish that comes to my net. I cannot speak
of the qualities of trawl-net fishing, either for or against, not
having been connected with that branch of the trade, but after
a remark or two on the information received by Mr. Fenwick,
and which is conveyed in your columns from certain gentlemen
professing to have a knowledge of the trade, I will give you my
information as briefly as possible, The fact is this—it never
will be possible to catch what we consider trawl-fish in sufficient
quantities to meet the demand but by the trawl, the principal
kinds being turbot, brill, soles, and plaice. A small quantity
may be taken by other means, but more by accident then other-
wise. As for trawl-fish being mutilated and putrid before land-
ing, how does it happen that so many spotless and pure fish, out
of the above kinds, are not only sold in London but all over the
country, and exhibited on the tables both of rich and poor ? Your-
self and every nobleman can speak on this point; and when
informed that they are all caught by the trawl (a fact undeni-
able), you will consider it wrong on the part of any one to
mislead the public on a matter of so much importance, Advise
him to fathom the secrets of the ocean, and discover a better
mode to obtain them.”

A great deal of obloquy has been thrown on the trawl,
because it hashes the fish ; but the destruction of young fish—
that is, fish unfit for human food because of their being young
—is not peculiar to the trawl. When the lines are thrown out
for cod the fishermen cannot command that only full-grown fish
are to seize upon the bait: the tender codling, the unfledged’
haddock, the greedy mackerel, wild bite—the consequence being
that thousands of sea-fish are annually killed that are unfit for
food, and that have never had an opportunity of adding to their

WANT OF HARBOURS IN SCOTLAND. 229

kind. But this mischance is incidental to all our fisheries, no
matter what the engine of capture may be, whether net or line.
Look how we slaughter our grilses, without giving them the oppors
tunity of breeding! The herring-fishing is a notable example of
this mode of doing business: the very time that these animals
come together to perpetuate their species is the time chosen by
man to kill them. Of course if they are to be used as food,
they must be killed at some time, and the proper time to capture
them forms one of those fishing mysteries which we have not as
yet been able to solve. We protect the salmon with many laws
at the most interesting time of its life, and why we should not
be able to devise a close-time for the cod, turbot, haddock, and
sole of particular coasts—for each portion of the coast has its
particular season—is what I cannot understand, and can only
account for the anomaly on the ground of salmon being private
property.

The labour of the Scottish fishermen is greatly augmented
by the want of good harbours for their boats, Time and op-
portunity serving, the men of the fisher class are really indus-
trious, and this want of proper harbourage is a hardship to them.
It is curious to notice the little quarry-holes that’ on some parts
of the Moray Firth serve as a refuge for the boats. There is
the harbour of Whitehills, for instance: it could not be of any
possible use in the event of a stiff gale arising, for in my opinion
the boats would never get into it, but would be dashed to pieces
on the neighbouring rocks. I have witnessed one or two storms
on the north-east coast of Scotland, and shall never forget the
scenes of misery these tumults of the great deep occasioned.

Large quantities of white fish are, of course, still caught on
the Scottish coasts. Almost in every little bay and firth there
are some boats constantly engaged in the haddock and cod fish-
ing, and if we ask the destination of those fish which are caught,
the answer is almost sure to be “the English markets.” The
constant and unvarying demand for fresh fish from the larger
towns of England so entices the fishermen, that local demands
are entirely slighted. On the coasts of Ayrshire and: Galloway,
all the fish I inquired about, that is, all that were brought
ashore during my visits to several fishing towns, were destined
for either Manchester or London. Wherever there is a railway
reaching to the sea-side, it may be accepted as a settled fact
that a portion of its revenue will be derived from the carriage
of fish to great seats of population.

230

WHEN WHITE FISH ARE IN SEASON.

The following tabular view of the dates when our principal
fishes are in season does not refer to any particular locality, but
has been compiled to show that fish are to be obtained nearly
all the year round from some part of the coast :—

FISH TABLE.

S denotes that the fish is in season; F in finest season ; and

O out of season.

Jan.

Feb.

April.

May.

June.

July.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dee.

Brill . .

Eels .
Flounders
Gurnets .
Haddocks
Holibut .
Herrings .
Ling. .
Lobsters .
Mackerel .
Mullet
Mussels*,
Oysters
Plaice.
Prawns
Salmon
Shrimps .
Skate .
Smelts .
Soles .
Sprats . .
Thornback .
Trout. « »
Turbot
Whitings .

ANRTONRNRNAROORRROOCOUNNRRNRHORRTRODWMANM

ARROONMRHRNROORNROOORNADANRORNHRORMMAN

SCRACORRHRRROMROOOHOHOORRORORMRUAMD® | March.

CRHPOONRRHMAHDOPNRARNRRNONROONROORROBRAND

CRBMOOCRRAMHTTNROOMAHCHARNMRNOOMRHOODD

RRTOCNOMRAPTNOORRAORTRRRORNRDTOOMDM

RARNORORDRRRYRNROORRHODTRRDROMRWOORM

RARRONONRRRNRNOOOCRRNODRNRNARMRRNHOOMM | Aug.

RNRONRONOONOORMROMNOUNRBNHATOHRAMDN

HROROROOROORARONRNRRRAORHTORRRMRM

WRAORRRRARNROODRRROONRRMRDONRDHTORHTRAM

HYROORNNRNAROOSORRROORARNRAORRNRONRAMRMM

* In the Firth of Forth mussels are collected all the year round, but
curiously enough they invariably fall off in condition during a prevalence

of easterly winds.

CHAPTER XI.
—_+>—.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE OYSTER.

Description of the Oyster—Controversies about Oyster-Life—Do Oysters
live upside down ?—The Spawning of Oysters—Oyster-Growth— When
do Oysters become reproductive for Dredging ?—Sergius Orata—Lake
Fusaro—-Oyster-Fascines—Ile De Re, and Growth of the Park System
—Kconomy of the Parks—Greening the Oyster—Oyster-Growth—Spat
Collectors—Miscellaneous Facts.

ZOOLOGICALLY the oyster is known as Ostrea edulis. Its out-
ward appearance is familiar to even very landward people, and
no human engineer could have invented so admirable a home
for the pulpy and headless mass of jelly that is contained within
the rough-looking shell. Many curious opinions have been held
about this shell-fish. At one time oysters were thought to be
8nly masses of oily or other matter, scarcely alive and insensible
to pain. Who would suppose, it was asked, that a portion of
blubber like the oyster, that could only have been first eaten by
some very courageous individual, would have any feeling? But
we know better now, and although the organisation of the
mollusca is not of a high order, it is perfect of its kind, and has
within it indications of organs that in beings of a higher type
serve a loftier purpose, and point out the beginnings of nature,
showing how she works her way from the simplest imaginings
of animal life to the complex human machine. The oyster has
no doubt in its degree many joys aud sorrows, and throbs
with life and pleasure, as animals do that have a higher organic
structure. The oyster is curiously constructed ; but I fear that,
comparatively speaking, very few of my readers have ever seen a
perfect one, as oysters are very much mutilated, being generally
deprived of their beards before they are sent to table, and other-
wise hurt, both accidentally in the opening and by use and
wont, as in the case of the beard. Its mouth—it has no jaws
or teeth—is a kind of trunk or snout, with four lips, and leafy

232 + CONTROVERSIES ABOUT OYSTER LIFE.

coverings or gills are spread over the body to act as lungs, and
keep from the action of the water the air which the animal
requires for its existence. This covering is divided into lobes
with ciliated edges. Four leaves or membranous plates act as
capillary funnels, open at the farthest extremities. Behind the
gills there is a large whitish fatty part enclosing the stomach
and intestines. The vessels of circulation play into muscular
cavities, which act the part of the heart. The stomach is
situated near the mouth. The oyster has no feet, but can move
by opening and closing its shell, and it secures food by means
of its beard, which acts as a kind of take. In fact the internal
structure of the oyster, while it is excellently adapted to that
animal’s mode of life, is exceedingly simple.

It is not my purpose in the present work to enter into the
minutiz of oyster life. Indeed, there have been so many con-
troversies about the natural history of this animal as to render
it impossible to narrate in the brief space I can devote to it a
tenth part of what has been written or spoken about the life and
habits of the “‘breedy creature.” Every stage of its growth has
been made the stand-point for a wrangle of some kind. As an
example of the keenness with which each stage of oyster life is
now being discussed, I may mention that some years ago a most
amusing squabble broke out in the pages of the Field newspaper
on an immaterial point of oyster life, which is worth noting here
as an example of what can be said on either side of a question.
The controversy hinged upon whether an oyster while on the
bed lay on the flat or convex side, Mr, Frank Buckland, who
originated the dispute, maintained that the right, proper, and
natural position of the oyster, when at the bottom of the sea, is
with the flat shell downwards; but the natural position of the
oyster is of no practical importance whatever ; and I know, from
personal observation of the beds at Newhaven and Cockenzie,
that oysters lie both ways,—indeed, with a dozen or two of
dredges tearing over the beds it is impossible but that they
must lie quite higgledy-piggledy, so to speak. A great deal that
is incidentally interesting was brought up in the Field discussion.
There have been several other disputes about points in the
natural history of the oysters—one in particular as to whether
that animal is provided with organs of vision. Various opinions
have been enunciated as to whether an oyster has eyes, and one
author asserts that it has so many as twenty-four, which again
is denied, and the assertion made that the so-called eyes project-

THE SPAWNING OF OYSTERS. 233

ing from the border of the mantle have no optical power what-
ever ; but, be that as it may, the oyster has a power of knowing
the light from the dark.

As*is well known, there is a period every year during
which the oyster-is not fished ; and the reason why our English
oyster-beds have not been ruined or exhausted by over fishing
arises, among other causes, from there being a definite close-time
assigned to the breeding of the mollusc, It would be well if
the larger varieties of sea produce were equally protected ; for
it is sickening to observe the countless numbers of unseasonable
fish that are from time to time brought to Billingsgate and
other markets, and greedily purchased. The fact that oysters
are supplied only during certain months in the year, and that
the public have a general corresponding notion that they are
totally unfit for food during May, June, July, and August (those
four wretched months which have not the letter “r” in their
names), has been greatly in their favour. Had there been no
period of rest, it is almost certain that oysters would long ago
‘—I allude to the days when there was no system of cultivation
—have become extinct.

Oysters begin to sicken about the end of April, so that it
is well that their grand rest commences in May. The shedding
of the spawn continues during the whole of the hot months—
not but that during that period there may be found supplies
of healthy oysters, but, as a general rule, it is better that there
should be a total cessation of the trade during the summer
season, because were the beds disturbed by a search for the
healthy oysters the spawn would be scattered and destroyed.

Oysters do not leave their ova, like many other marine
creatures, but incubate them in the folds of their mantle, and
among the lamine of their lungs. There the ova remain
surrounded by mucous matter, which is necessary to their de-
velopment, and within which they pass through the embryo state.
-The mass of ova, or “spat” as it is familiarly called, undergoes
various changes in its colour, meanwhile losing its fluidity.
This state indicates, it has been said, the near termination of
the development and the sending forth of the embryo to an inde-
pendent existence, for by this time the young oysters can live
without the protection of the maternal organs. An eminent
French pisciculturist says that the animated matter escaping
from the adults on breeding-banks is like a thick mist being
dispersed by the winds—the spat is so scattered by the waves

234 OYSTER-GROWTH.

that only an imperceptible portion remains near the parent
stock. All the rest is dissipated over the sea space ; and if
these myriads of animalcule, tossed by the waves, do not meet
with solid bodies to which they can attach themselves, their
destruction is certain, for if they do not fall victims to the
larger animals which prey upon them, they are unfortunate in
not fixing upon the proper place for their thorough development.

Thus we see that the spawn of the oyster is well matured
before it leaves the protection of the parental shell; and by
the aid of the microscope the young animal can be seen with
its shell perfect and its holding-on apparatus, which is also a
kind of swimming-pad, ready to clutch the first “coigne of
vantage” that the current may carry it against. My “theory”
is, that the parent oyster goes on brewing its spawn for some
time—I have seen it oozing from the same animal for some
days—and it is supposed that the spawn swims about with the
current for a short period before it falls, being in the meantime
devoured by countless sea animals of all kinds, The operation
of nursing, brewing, and exuding the spat from the parental
shell will occupy a considerable period—say from two to four
weeks. It-is quite certain that the close-time for oysters is
necessary and advantageous, for we seldom find this mollusc, as
we do the herring and other fish, full of eggs, so that most of
the operations connected with its reproduction go on in the
months during which there is no dredging. As I have indi-
cated, immense quantities of the spawn of oysters are annually
devoured by other molluscs, and by fish and crustaceans of
various sizes; it is well, therefore, that it is so bountifully
supplied. On occasions of visiting the beds I have seen the
dredge covered with this spawn ; and no pen could number the
thousands of millions of oysters thus prevented from ripening
into life. Economists ought to note this fact with respect to
fish generally, for the enormous destruction of spawn of all
kinds must exercise a very serious influence on our fish supplies.
I may also note that the state of the weather has a serious
influence on the spawn and on the adult oyster-power of spawn-
ing. A cold season is very unfavourable, and a decidedly cold
day will kill the spat.

Some people have asserted that the oyster can reproduce
its kind in twenty weeks, and that in ten months it is full-
grown. Both of these assertions are pure nonsense. At the
age of three months an oyster is not much bigger than a pea;

WHEN DO OYSTERS BECOME REPRODUCTIVE? 235

and the age at which reproduction begins has never been accu-
rately ascertained, but it is thought to be three years, I give
here one or two illustrations of oyster- :

growth in order to show the ratio of
increase. The smallest, about the
dimensions of a pin’s head, may be
called a fortnight old. The next size
represents the oyster as it appears
when three months old. The other
sizes are drawn at the a of five, eight, and twelve months
respectively. Oysters are usually
four years old before they are sent
to the London market. At the age
of five years the oyster is, I think,
in its prime ; and some of our most
intelligent fishermen think its aver-
age duration of life to be ten years.

In these days of oyster-farming the time at which the
oyster becomes reproductive may be easily
fixed, and it will no doubt be found to
vary in different localities. At some places
it becomes saleable—chiefly, however, for
fattening—in the course of two years ; at
other places it is three or four years before
it becomes a saleable commodity ; but on
the average it will be quite safe to assume
that at four years the oyster is both ripe
for sale and able for the reproduction of
its kind. Let us hope that the breeders will take care to
have at least one brood from each batch before they offer any
for sale. Oyster-farmers should keep before them the folly of
the salmon-fishers, who kill their grilse—ze. the virgin fish—
before they have an opportunity of perpetuating their race.

Another point on which naturalists differ is as to the
quantity of spawn from each oyster. Some enumerate the young
by thousands, others by millions, It is certain enough that the
number of young is prodigious—so great, in fact, as to prevent
their all being contained in the parent shell at one time ; but I
do not believe that an oyster yields its young “in millions "—
perhaps half a million is on the average the amount of spat
which each oyster can “ brew” in one season. I have examined
oyster-spawn (taken direct from the oyster) by means of a

936 WHERE THE SPAWN GOES.

powerful microscope, and find it to be a liquid of some little
consistency, in which the young oysters, like the points of a hair,
swim actively about, in great numbers, as many as a thousand
having been counted in a very minute globule of spat. The
spawn, as found floating on the water, is greenish in appearance,
and each little splash may be likened to an oyster nebula, which
resolves itself, when examined by a powerful glass, into a thou-
sand distinct animals,

The oyster, it is now pretty well determined, is hermaphro-
dite, and it is very prolific, as has been already observed, but
the enormous fecundity of the animal is largely detracted from
by bad seasons ; for, unless the spawning season be mild, soft,
and warm, there is usually a very partial full of spat, and of
course quite a scarcity of brood ; and even if one be the pro-
prietor of a large bed of oysters, there is no security for the
spawn which is emitted from the oysters on that bed falling upon
it, or within the bounds of one’s own property even ; it is often
enough the case that the spawn falls at a considerable distance
from the place where it has been emitted. Thus the spawn
from the Whitstable and Faversham Oyster Companies’ beds—-
and these contain millions of oysters in various stages of progress
—falls usually on a large piece of ground between Whitstable
and the Isle of Thanet, formerly common property, but lately
given by Act of Parliament to a company recently formed for
the breeding of oysters. The saving of the spawn cannot be
effected unless it falls on proper ground—ze. ground with a
shelly bottom is best, for the infant animal is sure to perish if
it fall among mud or upon sand ; the infant oyster must obtain
a holding-on place as the first condition of its own existence.
Oysters have not on the aggregate spawned extensively during
late years. The greatest fall of spawn ever known in England
occurred forty-six years ago. On being exuded from the parental
shell, the spawn of the oyster at once rises to the surface, where
its vitality is easily affected, and it is often killed in certain
places by snow-water or ice. A genial warmth of sunshine and
water is considered highly favourable to its proper development
during the few days it floats about on the surface. It is thought
that not more than one oyster out of each million arrives at
maturity. It is curious to note that some oysters have immense
shells with very little “meat” in them. I recently saw in a
restaurant several oysters, much larger externally than crown-
pieces, with the “meat” about the size of a sixpence: these

BEST CONDITIONS FOR SPAWNING. 237

were Firth of Forth oysters from Cockenzie. It is not easy to
determine from the external size of the animal the amount of
“meat” it will yield—apparently, “the bigger the oyster the
smaller the meat.” In the early part of the season only very
small oysters are sold in Edinburgh—the reason assigned being
that all the best dredgers are “‘ away at the herring,” and that
the persons left behind at the oyster-beds are only able to skim
them, so that, for a period of about six weeks, we merely obtain
the small fry that are lying on the top. It is quite certain that
as the season advances the oysters obtained are larger and of
more decided flavour. In the “natives” obtained at Whit-
stable the shell and the meat are pretty much in keeping as to
size, and this is an advantage.

The Abbé Diquemarc, who has keenly observed the habits
of the principal mollusca, assures us that oysters, when free, are
perfectly able to transport themselves from one place to another,
by simply causing the sea-water to enter and emerge suddenly
from between their valves; and these they use with extreme
rapidity and great force. By means of the operation now
described, the oyster is enabled to defend itself from its enemies
among the minor crustacea, particularly the small crabs, which
endeavour to enter the shell when it is half open. ‘Some
naturalists,” the Abbé says, “go the length of allowing the
oyster to have great foresight,” which he illustrates by an allu-
sion to the habits of those found at the sea-side. ‘ These
oysters,” he says, “exposed to the daily change of tides, appear
to be aware that they are likely to be exposed to dryness at
certain recurring periods, and so they preserve water in their
shells to supply their wants when the tide is at ebb. This
peculiarity renders them more easy of transportation to remote
distances than those members of the family which are caught at
a considerable distance from the shore.”

The secret of there being only a holding-on ‘place required
for the spat of the oyster to insure an immensely-increased
supply having been penetrated by the French people—and no
doubt they are in some degree indebted to our oyster-beds on
the Colne and at Whitstable for their idea—the plan of
systematic oyster-culture was easy enough, as I will imme-
diately show. A few initiatory experiments, in fact, speedily
settled that. oysters could be grown in any quantity. Strong
pillars of wood were driven into the mud and sand ; arms were
added ; the whole was interlaced with branches of trees, and

238 OVERFISHING OF THE OYSTER.

various boughs besides were hung over the beds on ropes and
chains, whilst others were sunk in the water and kept down
by a weight. A few boat-loads of oysters being laid down,
the spat had no distance to travel in search of a home, but
found a resting-place almost at the moment of being exuded ;
and, as the fairy legends say, “it grew and it grew,” till, in the
fulness of time, it became a marketable commodity.

But the history of this modern phase of oyster-farming, as
practised on the foreshores of France, is so interesting as to
demand at my hands a rather detailed notice, for it is one of
the most noteworthy circumstances connected with the revived
art of fish-culture, that it has resulted in placing upon the shores
of France a countless number of fish-farms for the cultivation
of the oyster alone.

It is no exaggeration to say, that about twenty-five years
ago there was scarcely an oyster of native growth in France;
the beds—and I cite the case of France as a warning to people
at home, I mean as regards our Scottish oyster-beds—had _ be-
come so exhausted from overdredging as to be unproductive, so
far as their money value was concerned, and to be totally
unable to recover themselves so far as their power of repro-
ductiveness was at stake, And the people were consequently
in despair at the loss of this favourite adjunct of their banquets,
and had to resort to other countries for such small supplies as
they could obtain. As an illustration of the overdredging that
had prevailed, it may be stated that oyster-farms which formerly
employed 1400 men, with 200 boats, and yielded an annual
revenue of 400,000 francs, had become so reduced as to require
only 100 men and 20 boats, Places where at one time there
had been as many as fifteen oyster-banks, and great prosperity
among the fisher class, had become, at the period I allude to,
almost oysterless. St. Brieuc, Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort,
etc., had all suffered so much that those interested in the
fisheries were no longer able to stock the beds, thus proving
that, notwithstanding the great fecundity of these sea animals,
it is quite possible to overfish them, and thoroughly exhaust
their reproductive power. It was under these circumstances
that M. Coste instituted that plan of oyster-culture which has
been so much noticed of late in the scientific journals, and
which appears to have been inspired by the plan of the mussel-
farms in the Bay of Aiguillon, and the oyster-parcs of Lake
Fusaro, so far at least as the principle of cultivation is

SERGIUS ORATA, 239

concerned. At the instigation of the French Government, he
made a voyage of exploration round the coasts of France and
Italy, in order to inquire into the condition of the sea-fisheries,
which were, it was thought, in a declining condition. It was
his “ mission,” and he fulfilled it very well, to see"how these
marine fisheries could be artificially aided, as the fresh-water
fisheries had been aided through the re-discovery by Joseph
Rémy of the long-forgotten plan of pisciculture, as already
detailed in a preceding portion of this work.

The breeding of oysters was a business pursued with great
assiduity during what I have called the gastronomic age of
Italy, the period when Lucullus kept a stock of fish valued at
£50,000 sterling, and Sergius Orata invented the art of oyster-
culture. There is not a great deal known about this ancient
gentleman, except that he was an epicure of most refined taste
(the “master of luxury” he was called in his own day), and
some writers of the period thought him a very greedy person,
a kind of dealer in shell-fish. It was thought also that he was
a housebroker or person who bought or built houses, and
having improved them, sold them to considerable advantage.
He received, however, an excellent character, while standing
his trial for using the public waters of Lake Lucrinus for his
own private use, from his advocate Lucinus Crassus, who said
that the revenue officer who prevented Orata was mistaken if
he thought that gentleman would dispense with his oysters,
even if he was driven from the Lake of Lucrinus, for, rather
than not enjoy his molluscous luxury, he would grow them on
the tops of his houses. .

Lake Fusaro, of which I give a kind of bird’s-eye view, is
highly interesting to all who take an interest in the prosperity
of the fisheries, as the first seat of oyster-culture. It is the
Avernus of Virgil, and is a black volcanic-looking pool of water,
about a league in circumference, which lies between the site of
the Lucrine Lake—the lake used by Orata—and the ruins of
the town of Cum, It is still extant, being even now, as I have
said, devoted to the highly profitable art of oyster-farming, yield-
ing, as has often been published, from this source an. annual
revenue of about £1200. This classic sheet of water was at one
time surrounded by the villas of the wealthy Italians, who fre-
quented the place for the joint benefit of the sea-water baths,
and the shell-fish commissariat, which had been established in

* * the two lakes (Avernus and Lucrine). The place, which, before

240 LAKE FUSARO,

then, was overshadowed by thick plantations, had been con-
secrated by the superstitious to the use of the infernal gods,
The mode of oyster-breeding at this place, then as now, was
to erect artificial pyramids of stones in the water, surrounded
by stakes of wood, in order to intercept the spawn, the oyster
being laid down on the stones. I have shown these modes in
the accompanying engravings. Faggots of branches were also

—)
ce
ae

tat ph tit

a

LAKE FUSARO.

The accompanying engraving gives a general view of Lake Fusaro (the Avernus
of the ancients), showing here and there the stakes surrounding the artificial banks,
the single and double ranges of stakes on which the faggots are suspended, and at
one extremity the labyrinths, in the face of which is a canal of from 2} to 3 metres
broad and 14 metre deep joining the lake to the sea. A small lake, believed to be
the ancient Cocytus, communicates with this canal. The pavilion in the lake is the
ordinary residence of the persons in charge of the fishery.

used to collect the spawn, which, as I have already said, requires,
within forty-eight hours of its emission, to secure a holding-on
place or be lost for ever. The plan of the Fusaro oyster-breeders
struck M. Coste as being eminently practical and suitable for
imitation on the coasts of France: he had one of the stakes
pulled up, and was gratified to find it covered with oysters of
all ages and sizes. The Lake Fusaro system of cultivation was
therefore, at the instigation of Professor Coste, strongly recom-
mended.for imitation by the French Government to the French

OYSTER-FASCINES. 241

people, as being the most suitable to follow, and experiments
were at once entered upon with a view to prove whether it would
be as practicable to cultivate oysters as easily among the agitated
waves of the open sea as in the quiet waters of Fusaro. In
order to settle this point, it was determined to renew the old
oyster-beds in the Bay of St. Brieuc, and notwithstanding the
fact that the water there is exceedingly deep and the winds very
violent, immediate and almost miraculous success was the result.

OYSTER-PYRAMID.

The fascines laid down soon became covered with seed, and
branches were speedily exhibited at Paris, and other places, con-
taining thousands of young oysters, The experiments in oyster-
culture tried at St. Brieuc were commenced early, on part of a space
of 3000 acres that was deemed suitable for the reception of spat.
A quantity of breeding oysters, approaching to three millions,
was laid down either on the old beds or on newly-constructed
longitudinal banks ; these were sown thick on a bottom composed
chiefly of immense quantities of old shells—the “middens” of
Cancale in fact, where the shell accumulation had become a
nuisance—so that there was a more than ordinary good chance
for the spat finding at once a proper holding-on place. Then
again, over some of the new banks, fascines made of boughs
tightly tied together were sunk and chained over the beds, so as
to intercept such portions of the spawn as were likely, upon

R

242 THE ILE DE RE.

rising, to be carried away by the force of the tide. In less than
six months the success of the operation in the Bay of St. Brieuc
was assured ; for, at the proper season, a great fall of spawn
had occurred, and the bottom shells were covered with the spat,
while the fascines were so thickly coated with young oysters that
an estimate of 20,000 for each fascine was not thought an ex-
aggeration,

OYSTER-FASCINES.

Twelve months, however, before the date of the experiments
I have been describing at St. Brieuc, the artificial culture of
oysters had successfully commenced on .another part of the
coast—namely, the Ie de Re off the shore of the lower Charente
(near la Rochelle), in the Bay of Biscay, which may now be
designated the capital of French oysterdom, having more pares
and claires than Marennes, Arcachon, Concarneau, Cancale,
and all the rest of the coast put together, and which, before it
became celebrated for its oyster-gtowing, was only known, in
common with other places in France, for its successful culture of
the vine. It is curious to note the rapid growth of the industry
of oyster-culture on the Ile de Re. It was begun so recently as
1858, and there are now upwards of 4000 parks and claires
upon its shores, and the people may be seen as busy in their
fish-parks as the market-gardeners of Kent in their strawberry-
beds. Oyster-farming on the Ile was inaugurated by one Beuf,
a stone-mason. This shrewd fellow, who was a keen observer:
of nature, and had seen the oyster-spat grow to maturity, began
thinking of oyster-culture simultaneously with Professor Coste,

GROWTH OF THE PARK SYSTEM. 243

and wondering if it could be carried out on those portions of the
public foreshore that were left dry by the ebb of the waters,
He determined to try the experiment on a small scale, so as to
obtain a practical solution of his “idea,” and, with this view,
he enclosed a small portion of the foreshore of the island by
building a rough dyke about eighteen inches in height, In this
park he laid down a few bushels of growing oysters, placing
amongst them a quantity of large stones, which he gathered out
of the surrounding mud. This initiatory experiment was so
successful, that in the course of a year he was able to sell £6
worth of oysters from his stock. This result was of course very
encouraging to the enterprising mason, and the money was just
in a sense found money, for the oysters went on growing while
he was at work at his own proper business as amason. Elated
by the profit of his experiment, he proceeded to double the pro-
portions of his park, and by that means more than doubled his
oyster commerce, for, in 1861, he was able to dispose of upwards
of £20 worth, and this without impoverishing, in the least de-
gree, his breeding stock. He continued to increase the dimen-
sions of his farm, so that by 1862 his sales had increased to £40.
As might have been expected, Boeuf’s neighbours had been
carefully watching his experiments, uttering occasional sneers,
no doubt, at his enthusiasm ; but, for all that, quite ready to go
and do likewise whenever the success of the industrious mason’s
experiments became sufficiently developed to show that they
were profitable as well as practical. After Boeuf had demon-
strated the practicability of oyster-farming, the extension of the
system over the foreshores of the island, between Point de
Rivedoux and Point de Lome, was rapid and effective ; so much
so that two hundred beds were conceded by the Government
previous to 1859, while an additional five hundred beds were
speedily laid down, and in 1860 large quantities of brood were
sold to the oyster-farmers at Marennes, for the purpose of being
manufactured into green oysters in their claires on the banks of
the river Seudre. The first sales after cultivation had become
general amounted to £126, and the next season the sum reached
in sales was upwards of £500, and these monies, be it observed,
were for very young oysters ; because, from an examination of
the dates, it will at once be seen that the brood had not had time
to grow to any great size. So rapid indeed has been the progress
of oyster-culture at the Ile de Re, that what were formerly a
series of enormous and unproductive mud-banks, occupying a

®

244. FORMING THE FARMS.

stretch of shore about four leagues in length, are now so trans-
formed, and the whole place so changed, that it seems the work
ofamiracle. Various gentlemen who have inspected these farms
for the cultivation of oysters speak with great hopefulness about
the success of the experiment. Mr. Ashworth, so well known
for his success as a salmon fisher and breeder in Ireland, tells
me that oyster-farming on the shores of the French coast is one
of the greatest industrial facts of the present age, and thinks
that oyster-farming will in the end be even more profitable than
salmon- breeding. There is only one drawback connected
with these and all other sea-farms in France: the farmers, we
regret to say, are only “tenants at will,” * and liable at any
moment to be ejected ; but notwithstanding this disadvantage
the work of oyster-culture still goes bravely forward, and it is
calculated, in spite of the bad spatting of the last three years,
that there is a stock of oysters in the beds on the Ile de Re—
accumulated in only six years—of the value of upwards of
£100,000,

Much hard work had no doubt to be endured before such a
scene of industry could be thoroughly organised. When the
great success of Bosuf’s experiments had been proclaimed in the
neighbourhood, a little army of about a thousand labourers
came down from the interior of the country and took possession,
along with the native fishermen, of the shores, portions of
which were conceded to them by the French Government at
a nominal rent of about a franc a week, for the purpose of being
cultivated as oyster parks and claires. The most arduous duty
of these men consisted in clearing off the mud, which lay on
the shore in large quantities, and which is fatal to the oyster
in its early stages; but this had to be done before the shores
could be turned to the purpose for which they were wished.
After this preliminary business had been accomplished, the
rocks had to be blasted in order to find stones for the construc-
tion of the park-walls ; then these had to be built, and the
ground had also to be paved in a rough-and-ready kind of way ;
foot-roads had also to be arranged for the convenience of the

* Mr. Ashworth, in a communication to Mr. Barry, one of the Commis-
sioners of Irish Fisheries, says—‘‘No charge is made for the oyster-parks,
but each plot is marked and defined on a map, and the produce is con-
sidered to be the private property of the person who establishes-it. They
vary in size twenty or thirty yards square, the stone or tiles are placed in

rows about five feet apart, withthe ends open so as to admit of the wash of
the tide in and out.”

WHAT CAN BE DONE IN FOUR YEARS. 245

farmers, and carriage-ways had likewise to be made to admit of
the progress of vehicles through the different farms. Ditches
had to be contrived to carry off the mud; the parks had to be
stocked with breeding oysters, and to be kept carefully free
from the various kinds of sea animals that prey upon the oyster ;
and many other daily duties had to be performed that demanded
the minute attention of the owners. But all obstacles were in
time overcome, and some of the breeders have been so very

OYSTER-PARKS,

successful of late years as to be offered a sum of £100 for the
brood attached to twelve of their rows of stones, the cost of
laying these down being about two hundred francs! To con-
struct an oyster-bed thirty yards square costs about £12 of
English money, and it has been calculated that the return from
some of the beds has been as high as 1000 per cent! The
whole industry of the Ile is wonderful when it is considered
that it has been all organised in a period of seven years.
Except a few privately-kept oysters, there was no oyster
establishment on the island previous to 1858.

246 VIEW OF OYSTER-CLAIRES.

Some gentlemen from the island of Jersey who visited Re
report that an incredible quantity of oysters has been produced
on that shore, which a few years ago was of no value, so that
this branch of industry now realises an extraordinary revenue,
and spreads comfort among a large number of families who
were previously in a state of comparative indigence. But
more interesting even than the material prosperity that has
attended the introduction of this industry into the island of Re

OYSTER-CLAIRES.

is the moral success that has accrued to the experiment.
Excellent laws have been enacted by the oyster-farmers them-
selves for the government of the colony. A kind of parliament
has been devised for carrying on arguments as to oyster-culture,
and to enable the four communities, into which the population
has been divided, to communicate to each other such information
as may be found useful for the general good of all engaged in
oyster-farming. Three delegates from each of the communities
are elected to conduct the general business, and to communicate
with the Department of Marine when necessary.

PROSPERITY OF THE OYSTER-GROWERS. 247

A small payment is made by every farmer as a contribution
to the general expense, while each division of the community
employs a special watchman to guard the crops, and see that
all goes on with propriety and good faith; and although each
of the oyster-farmers of the Ile de Re cultivates his own park
or claire for his own sole profit and advantage, they mo
willingly obey the general laws that have been enacted for the
good of the community. It is pleasant to note this, We
cannot help being gratified at the happy moral results of this
wonderful industry, and it will readily be supposed that with
both vine-culture (for the islanders have fine vineyards) and
oyster-culture to attend to, these farmers are kept very busy.
Indeed, the growing commerce—the export of the oysters, and
the import of other commodities for the’ benefit of so industrious
a population—incidental to such an immense growth of shell-
fish as can be carried on in the 4000 parks and claires which
stud the foreground of Re must be arduous ; but as the labour
is highly remunerative, the labourers have great cause for
thankfulness, It is right, however, to state that, with all the
care that can be exercised, there is still an enormous amount of
waste consequent on the artificial system of culture; the present
calculation is, that even with the best possible mode of culture
the average of reproduction is as yet only fourteenfold ; but it
is hoped by those interested that a much larger ratio of increase
will be speedily attained. This is desirable, as prices have
gone on steadily increasing since the time that Boeuf first experi-
mented. In 1859 the sales were effected at about the rate of
fifteen shillings per bushel, for the lowest qualities—the highest
being double that price ; these were for fattening in the claires,
and when sold again they brought from two to three pounds
per bushel.

One of the most lucrative branches of foreign oyster-farm-
ing may be now described—i.c. the manufacture of the cele-
brated green oysters. The greening of oysters, many of which
are brought from the Ile de Re parks, is extensively carried on
at Marennes, on the banks of the river Seudre, and this par-
ticular branch of oyster industry, which extends for leagues
along the river, and is also sanctioned by free grants from
the State, has some features that are quite distinct from those
we have been considering, as the green oyster is of considerably
more value than the common white oyster. The peculiar colour
and taste of the green oyster are imparted to it by the vegetable

248 THE GREEN OYSTERS. !

substances which grow in the beds where it is manipulated.
This statement, however, is scarcely an answer to the question
of “why,” or rather “how,” do the oysters become green ?
Some people maintain that the oyster green is a disease of the
liver-complaint kind, whilst there are others who attribute the
gteen colour to a parasite that overgrows the mollus¢. But
the mode of culture adopted is in itself a sufficient answer to
the question. The industry carried on at Marennes consists
chiefly of the fattening in claires, and the oysters operated upon
are at one period of their lives as white as those which are grown
at any other place; indeed it is only after being steeped for a
year or two in the muddy ponds of the river Seudre that they
attain their much-prized green hue. The enclosed ponds for the
manufacture of these oysters—and, according to all epicurean
authority, the green oyster becomes “‘ the oyster par excellence” —
require to be water-tight, for they are not submerged by the
sea, except during very high tides, Each claire is about one
hundred feet square. The walls for retaining the waters require
therefore to be very strong ; they are composed of low but broad
banks of earth, five or six feet thick at the base and about three
feet in height. These walls are also useful as forming a pro-
menade on which the watchers or workers can walk to and fro
and view the different ponds. The flood-gates for the admission
of the tide require also to be thoroughly watertight and to fit
with great precision, as the stock of oysters must always be
kept covered with water; but a too frequent flow of the tide
over the ponds is not desirable, hence the walls, which serve the
double purpose of both keeping in and keeping out the water.
A trench or ditch is cut in the inside of each pond for the better
collection of the green slime left at each flow of the tide, and
many tidal inundations are necessary before the claire is
thoroughly prepared for the reception of its stock. When all
these matters of construction and slime-collecting have been
attended to, the oysters are then scattered over the ground, and
left to fatten. When placed in these greening claires they are
usually from twelve to sixteen months old, and they must remain
for a period of two years at least before they can be properly
greened, and if left a year longer they are all the better; for
I maintain that an oyster should be at least about four years
old before it is sent to table. In a privately-printed pamphlet
on the French oyster-fisheries, sent to me by Mr. Ashworth, it
is stated that oysters deposited in the claires for feeding possess

OYSTER-GROWTH. 249

the same powers of reproduction as those kept in the breeding-
ponds, “Their progeny is deposited in the same profusion, but
that progeny not coming in contact with any solid body, it
inevitably perishes, unless it can attach itself to the vertical
sides of some erection.” A very great deal of attention must be
devoted to the oysters while they are in the greening-pond, and
they must be occasionally shifted from one pond to another to
ensure perfect success. Many of the oyster-farmers of Marennes
have two or three claires suitable for their purpose. The trade
in these green oysters is very large, and they are found to be
both palatable and safe, the greening matter being furnished by
the sea. Some of the breeders, or rather manufacturers, of green
‘oysters, anxious to be soon rich, content themselves with placing
adult oysters only in these claires, and these become green in a
very short time, and thus enable the operator to have several
crops in a year without very much trouble, The claires of
Marennes furnish about fifty millions of green oysters per annum,
and these are sold at very remunerative prices, yielding an
annual revenue of something like two and a half millions of
francs.

As to the kind of ground most suitable for oyster-growth,
Dr. Kemmerer, of St, Martin’s (Ile de Re), an enthusiast in
oyster-culture, gives us a great many useful hints, I have sum-
marised a portion of his information :—The artificial culture of
the oyster may be considered to have solved an important
question—namely, that the oyster continues fruitful after it is
transplanted from its natural abode in the deep sea to the shores.
This removal retards but never hinders fecundation. The sea
oyster, however, is the most prolific, as the water at’a consider-
able depth is always tranquil, which is a favourable point in
oyster-growth ; but the shore oyster-banks will also be very
productive, having two chances of replenishment—namely, from
the parent oysters in the pares, and from those currents that may
float seed from banks in the sea, Muddy ground is excellent
for the growth of oysters; they grow in such localities very
quickly, and become saleable in a comparatively short space of
time. Dry rocky ground is not so suitable for the young oyster,
as it does not find a sufficiency of food upon it, and consequently
languishes and dies, Marl is the most esteemed, and on it the
oyster is said to become perfect in form and excellent in flavour.
In the marl the young oyster finds plenty of food, constant heat,
and perfect quiet. Wherever there is mud and sun there will be

250 AS TO RECEIVING OYSTER-SPAT.

found the little molluscs, crustacea, and swimming infusoria,
which are the food of the oyster. The culture of the oyster in
the mud-ponds and in the marl—a culture which ought some
day to become general—changes completely its qualities ; the
albumen becomes fatty, yellow or green, oily, and of an exquisite
flavour. The animal and phosphorus matter increases, as does
the osmozone. This oyster, when fed, becomes exquisite food,
In effecting the culture of the sea-shores and of the marl-ponds,
I am pursuing a practical principle of great importance, by the
conversion of millions of shore oysters, squandered without
profit, into food for public consumption. The green oyster, to
this day, has only been regarded as a luxury for the tables of
the rich ; but, as I have indicated, there are an immense num-
ber of farms or ponds on the Seudre, and I would like to see it
used. as food by everyone.”

The French oyster-farmers are happy and prosperous. The
wives assist their husbands in all the lighter labours, such as
separating and arranging the oysters previous to their being
placed on the claires, It is also their duty to sell the oysters ;
and for this purpose they leave their home about the end of
August, and proceed to a particular town, there to await and
dispose of such quantities of shell-fish as their husbands may
forward to them. In this they resemble the fisherwomen of
other countries. The Scotch fishwives do all the business con-
nected with the trade carried on by their husbands ; it is the
husbands’ duty to’ capture the fish only, and the moment they
come ashore their duties’ cease, and those of their wives and
daughters begin with the sale and barter of the fish.

Before going farther, it may be stated that the best mode of
receiving the spawn of the oyster has not been determined. M.
Coste, whose advice is well worthy of being followed, recom-
mended the adoption of fascines of brushwood to be fixed over
the natural oyster-beds in order to intercept the young ones ;
others again, as we have just seen, have adopted the pares, and
have successfully caught the spawn on dykes constructed for
that purpose ; but Dr. Kemmerer has invented a tile, which he
covers with some kind of composition that can, when occasion
requires, be easily peeled off, so that the crop of oysters that
may be gathered upon it can be transferred from place to place
with the greatest possible ease, and this plan is useful for the
transference of the oyster from the collecting parc to the fatten-
ing claire, The annexed drawing will give an idea of the

SPAT-COLLECTING TILES. 251

Doctor’s invention. The composition and the adhering oyster
may all be stripped off in one piece, and the tile may be coated
for future use. Tiles are exceedingly useful in aiding the oyster-
breeder to avoid the natural enemies of the oyster, which are very
numerous, especially at the periods when it is young and tender.
The oysters may be peeled off the tiles when they are six or seven
months old. Spat-collectors of wood have also been tried with
considerable success. Hitherto these tiles have been very
successful, although it is thought by experienced breeders that no

OYSTER-TILES.

bottom for oysters is so good as the natural one of “ cultch,” as
the old oyster-shells are called, but the tile is often of service in
catching the “floatsome,” as the dredgers call the spawn, and to
secure that should be one of the first objects of the oyster-farmer.

We glean from these proceedings of the French piscicul-
turists the most valuable lessons for the improvement and
conduct of our British oyster-parks. If, as seems to be pretty
certain, each matured oyster yields about two millions of young
per annum, and if the greater proportion of these can be saved
by being afforded a permanent resting-place, it is clear that, by
laying down a few thousand breeders, we may, in the course of
a year or two, have, at any place we wish, a large and reproduc-
tive oyster-farm. With reference to the question of growth,
Coste tells us that stakes which had been fixed for a period of
thirty months in the lake of Fusaro were quite loaded with

252 HINTS TO THE OYSTER-FARMER.

oysters when they came to be removed. These were found to
embrace a growth of three seasons. Those of the first year’s
spawning were ready for the market; the second year’s brood
were a good deal smaller ; whilst the remainder were not larger
than a lentil. To attain miraculous crops similar to those once
achieved in the Bay of St. Brieuc, or at the Ile de Re, little
more is required than to lay down the spawn in a nice rocky
bay, or in a place paved for the purpose, and having as little mud
about it as possible. A place having a good stream of water
flowing into it is the most desirable, so that the flock may
procure food of a varied and nutritious kind. A couple of
hundred stakes driven into the soft places of the shore, between
high and low water mark, and these well supplied with branches
held together by galvanised iron wire (common rope might soon
become rotten), would, in conjunction with the rocky ground,
afford capital holding-on places, so that any quantity of spawn
might, in time, be developed into fine “natives.” There are
hundreds of places on the English and Irish coasts where such
farms could be advantageously laid down.

Since the previous editions of this work were issued, bad
news has been received about the French oyster farms, many of
them having become exhausted through the greed of their
proprietors, who at an early period began to kill the goose for
the sake of its golden egg, a calamity that seems to be too
frequently an attendant consequence of the present system of
fishing. economy. In the year 1863, as far as I can ascertain,
the artificial system culminated at the Ile de Re, and since then
the beds have yearly become less prolific.

A great amount of the miscellaneous information regarding
oyster-growth and oyster-commerce, which has been circulated
during the last five years, is not of a reliable nature ; but many
of the circumstances attendant on artificial culture are interesting,
and have been proved to be correct, although they seem contra-
dictory : as, for instance, that oysters if spawned on a muddy
bottom are lost, although the same muddy: bottom is highly
suitable for the feeding stages of the mollusc. It is also
remarkable that breeding oysters do not fatten, and that fat
oysters yield no spat. There has been some controversy as to
whether transplanted oysters will breed ; opinions differ, and it
is on record that;such a remarkable spat once fell on the Whit-
stable grounds as to provide a stock for eleven years, including,
of course, what was gathered towards the end of that period, A

THEORY OF THE SPAT. 253

close time for oysters is a law of the land; but for all that we
might have—indeed, we have now—oysters all the year round,
because all oysters do not sicken or spat at the same period ;
in fact the economy of fish growth is not yet understood either
by naturalists or fishermen ; as an instance of mal-economy we
have salmon rivers closed at the very time they ought to be
open, some rivers being remarkable for early spawning fish,
whilst others are equally so for the tardiness with which their
scaly inhabitants repeat. the story of their birth. In time, when
we understand better how to manage our fisheries, the supplies
of all kinds of round and shell fish will doubtless be better
regulated than at present.

The following theory of the spat was promulgated by the author
through the columns of the Times ;—“In an open expanse of sea the
spat may be carried to great distances by tidal influence, or a sharp
breeze upon the water may waft the oyster-seed many a long mile
away. Every bed has its own time of spatting—thus, one of a series of
scalps may be spatting on a fine warm day, when the sea is like glass, so
that the spat cannot fail to fall ; while on another portion of the beds the
spat may fall on a windy day, be thus left to the tender mercy of a
fiercely receding tide, and so be lost, or fall mayhap on ungenial bottom a
long way from the shore, On the Isle of Oleron, which supplies the green
oyster breeders of Marennes with such large quantities, it is quite certain
that in the course of the summer a friendly wave will waft large quantities
of spat into the artificial parcs, when it is known that the oysters in these
pares have not spawned, Where does this foréign spat come from? The
men say it comes off some of the natural beds of the adjoining sea—is
driven in by the tide, and finds a welcome resting-place on the artificial
receivers of their parcs.. It is altogether an erroneous idea to suppose that
there are some seasons when the oyster does not spat, because of the cold
weather, etc. Some of the parcs had spatted at Arcachon this year [1866]
in very ungenial weather. The spatting of the oyster does not depend on
the weather at all, but the destination of the spat does, because if the tiny
seedling oyster does uot fall on propitious ground it is lost for ever. New
oyster-beds are often discovered in places where it is certain oysters did not
exist in previous years. How came they then to be formed? The spat
must have been blown upon that ground by the ill wind that carried it
away from the spot where it was expected-to fall. If the spat exuded by
the large quantity of oysters known to be stocked in the parcs at Whit-
stable, in Kent, the home of the ‘native,’ were always to fall on the
cultch of Whitstable, instead of on the adjoining flats and elsewhere, the
company would soon become enoymonsly wealthy.

CHAPTER XII.

——_o—.

ECONOMY OF AN OYSTER-FARM.

English Oyster Farms—Whitstable—Pont Oyster-Grounds—Price of Brood
—Natives ”’ —Colne Oyster-Beds—Cost of Working the Beds —
Increase of the Oyster—Demand for the Bivalve—Collecting for the
Beds—Newhaven Oyster-Beds—The ‘‘ Whisker’d Pandore”’—Song of
the Dredger—Oysters in America.

A LARGE oyster-farm requires a great deal of careful attention,
and several people are, necessary to keep it in order. If the
farm be planted in a bay where the water is very shallow, there
is great danger of the stock suffering from frost; and again, if
the brood be laid down in very deep water, the oysters do not
fatten or grow rapidly enough for profit. In dredging, the
whole of the oysters, as they are hauled on board, should be
carefully examined and picked ; all below a certain size ought to
be returned to the water till their beards have grown large
enough. In winter, if the beds be in shallow water, the tender
brood must be placed in a pit for protection from the frost;
which of course takes up a great deal of time. Dead oysters
ought to be carefully removed from the beds. The proprietors
of private “‘layings” are generally careful on this point, and
put themselves to great trouble every spring to lift or overhaul
all their stock in order to remove the dead or diseased. Mussels
must be carefully rooted out from the beds; otherwise they
would in a short time render them valueless, The layings, for
example, of Mr. David Plunkett, in Killery Bay, for which he
had a license from the Irish Board of Fisheries, were overrun by
mussels, and so rendered almost valueless. The weeding and
tending of an oyster-bed requires, therefore, much labour, and
involves either a partnership of several people—which is usual
enough, as at Whitstable—or at least the employment of several
dredgermen and labourers. But, for all that, an oyster-farm

OYSTER-FARMS IN KENT AND ESSEX. 255

may be made a most lucrative concern, As a guide to the
working of a very large oyster-farm—say a concern of £70,000
a year or thereabout—I shall give immediately some data of.
the Whitstable Free Dredgers’ Company ; but I wish first to
say that the organisation which is constantly ‘at work for
supplying the great metropolis with oysters is more perfect than
can be said of any other branch of the fish trade. In oyster-
culture we approach in some degree to the French, although we
do not, as they do, except as regards some new companies, begin
at the beginning and plant the seed. All that we have yet
achieved is the art of nursing the young “brood,” and of
dividing and keeping separate the different kinds of oysters.
This is done in parks or farms on various portions of the coasts
of Kent and Essex, and the whole process, from beginning to
end, may be viewed at Whitstable, where there is a large oyster-
ground and a fine fleet of boats kept for the purpose of dredg-
ing and planting. I have already stated that the Whitstable
oyster-beds are held as by a joint-stock company, into which,
however, there is no other way of entrance than by birth, as
none but the free dredgemen of the town can hold shares,
When a man dies ‘his interest in the company dies with him,
but his widow—if he was a married man—obtains a pension.
The sales from the public and private beds of Whitstable some-
times attain a total of £200,000 per annum. The business of
the company is managed by twelve ‘directors, wha are known as
“the Jury.” The stock of oysters held in the private layings
of the company is said to be of the value of £200,000. The
extent of the public and other oyster-ground at Whitstable is
about twenty-seven square miles.

The oyster-farm of Whitstable is a co-operation in the best
sense of the term, and has been in existence for a long period: it
is the wealthiest and largest oyster corporation in the world.
The layings at Whitstable occupy about a mile and a half square,
and the oyster-beds there have been so very prosperous as to
have attained the name of the “happy fishing-grounds.” At
Whitstable, Faversham, and adjoining grounds, a space of twenty-
seven square miles, as I have mentioned above, is taken up in
oyster-farms, and the industry carried on in this space of ground
involves the annual earning and expenditure of a very large sum
of money. Over 3000 people are employed in the various in-
dustries connected with the fishery, who earn capital wages
all the year round—the sum. paid for labour by the different

256 ‘PONT OYSTER-GROUNDS.

companies being set down at over £160,000 per annum ; and.
in addition to this expenditure for wages, there is likewise a
large sum of money annually expended for the repairing and
purchasing of boats, sails, dredges, and other implements used in
oyster-fishing. At Whitstable the course of work is as follows :
—The business of the’?company is to feed oysters for the London
and other markets: for this purpose they buy brood or spat,
and lay it down in their beds to grow. When the company’s
own oysters produce a spat—that is, when the spawn or “ float-
some” as the dredgers call it, emitted from their own beds falls
upon their own ground—it is of great benefit to them, as it
saves purchases of brood to the extent of what has fallen ; but
this falling of the spat is in a great degree accidental, for no
rule can be laid down as to when the oysters spawn or where the
spat may be carried to. No artificial contrivances of the kind
known in France have yet been used in Whitstable for the sav-
ing of the spawn. Very large sums have been paid in some
years by the Whitstable company for brood with which to stock
their grounds, great quantities being collected from the Essex
side, there being a number of people who derive a comfortable
income from collecting oyster-brood on the public foreshores,
and disposing of it to persons who have private nurseries, or
oyster-layings as these are locally called. The grounds‘of Pont
are particularly fruitful in spat, and yield large quantities to all
that require it. Pont is an open space of water, sixteen miles
long by three broad, free to all; about one hundred and fifty
boats, each with a crew of three or four men, find constant em-
ployment upon it, in obtaining young oysters, which they sell to
the neighbouring oyster-farmers, although it is certain that the
brood thus freely obtained must have floated out of beds belong-
ing to the purchasers, The price of brood is often as high as
fifty shillings per bushel, and it is the sum obtained over this
cost price that must be looked to for the paying of wages and
the realisation of profit. Oysters have risen in price very much
of late years, and brood has also, in consequence of the scarcity
of spat, been proportionally high,

Whitstable oyster-beds are “worked” with great industry,
and it is the process of “ working” that gives employment to so
many people (eight men per acre are employed), and improves
the Whitstable oysters so much beyond those found on the
natural beds, which are known as “ Commons,” in contradis-
tinction to the bred oysters of Whitstable and other grounds,

ABOUT “ NATIVES.” 257

which are called “Natives.” These latter are justly considered
to be of superior flavour, although no particular reason can be
given for their being so, and indeed in many instances they are
not natives at all—that is in the sense of being spatted on the
ground—but are, on the contrary, a grand mixture of all kinds
of oysters, brood being brought from Prestonpans and Newhaven
in the Firth of Forth, and from many other places, to augment
the stock. The so-called “native” oysters—and the name is
usually applied to all that are bred in the estuary of the Thames
——are very large in flesh, succulent and delicate in flavour, and
fetch a much higher price than any other oyster. The beds of
natives are all situated on the London clay, or on similar forma-
tions, There can, however, be no doubt that the difference in
flavour and quantity of flesh is obtained by the Thames system
of transplanting and working that is vigorously carried on over
all the beds. Every year the whole extent of the layings is
gone over and examined by means of the dredge; successive
portions are dredged over day by day, till it may be said that
almost every individual oyster is examined. On the occasion of
these examinations, the brood is detached from the cultch,
double oysters are separated, and all kinds of enemies—and
these are very numerous—are seized upon and killed. It re-
quires about eight men per acre to work the beds effectually.
During three days a week, dredging for what is called the
“planting” is carried on; that is, the transference of the
oysters ‘from one place to another, as may be thought suitable
for their growth, and also the removing of dead ones, the clear-
ing away of mussels, and so on. On the other three days of the
week it becomes the duty of the men to dredge for the London
market, when only so many are lifted as are required. A bell
is carried round and rung every morning to rouse the dredgers
whose turn it is for duty, and who at a given signal start to do
their portion of the “stint.” As to this working of the oyster-
beds, an eminent authority has said it is utterly useless to enclose
a piece of ground and simply plant it; it is utterly useless to
throw a lot of oysters down amongst every state of filth. You
must keep constantly dredging, not only the bed itself, but the
public beds outside, so as to keep the bottom fit for the recep-
tion and growth of the young oysters, and free of its multi-
tudinous natural enemies.

It may as well be explained here also, that what are called
uative beds are all cultivated beds ; the natural beds are unculti-

: 8

258 THE COLNE OYSTER-BEDS.

vated, and are generally public and free to all comers. The
Colne beds, however, are an exception: they are natural beds,
but are held by the city of Colchester as property. Whenever
a new bed is discovered anywhere nowadays, the run upon it is
so great that it is at once despoiled of its shelly treasures ; and
the native beds would soon become exhausted if they were not
systematically conducted on sound commercial principles, and
regularly replenished with brood.

As regards the oyster-cultivation of the river Colne, some
interesting statistics were a few years ago made public at Col-
ehester by Councillor Hawkins. That gentleman tells us that
oyster-brood increases fourfold in three years. The quantity
of oysters in a London bushel is as follows :—First year, spat,
number not ascertainable ; second year, brood, 6400 ; third year,
ware, 24.00 ; fourth year, oysters, 1600 ; therefore, four wash of
brood (ie. four pecks), purchased at say 5s. per wash, increase
by growth and corresponding value to 42s. per bushel, or a sum
of eight guineas. The quantity of oysters obtained from the
river Colne by the company bears but a small proportion to the
yield from private layings, which are in general only a few acres
in extent. “The private layings,” however, we are told, “ can-
not fairly be made the measure of productiveness for a large’
fishery ; as théy may be compared to a garden in a high state
of cultivation, while the fishery generally is better represented
by a large tract of land but partially reclaimed from a state of
nature.” The difference in cost of working a big fishery and a
little one seems to be great. One of the owners of a private .
laying states that, whe the expense of dredging or lifting the
oysters exceeded 4s. per bushel, he gave up working, while in
the Colne Fishery dredgermen are never paid less than 12s., and
sometimes as high as 40s. a bushel. The Colne Company is
managed by a jury of twelve, appointed by the water-bailiff,
who is under the jurisdiction of the corporation of Colchester.
Whenever it is time to begin the season's operations, the jury
meet and take stock of the oysters on hand, fix the price at
which sales are to be made, and regulate the charge for dredging,
which is paid by the wash. Under direction of the jury, the
foreman of the company sets the daily stint to the men ; and so
the work, which is very light, goes pleasantly forward from
season to season.

At Faversham, Queenborough, and Rochester, there is a
large commerce carried on in this particular shell-fish, In

»

DEMAND FOR OYSTERS. 259

others of the “parks” at these places, “natives” are grown in
perfection. The company of the burghers of Queenborough
grow the fine Milton oyster so well known to the connoisseur,
and the company’s beds are well attended to. I may note the
Faversham Company, said to be the oldest among the Thames
companies, having been in existence for a few centuries, All
of these companies grow the “ natives,” and I may explain that
the portion of the beds set apart for the rearing of “natives”
is as sacred as the waxen cells devoted to the growth of queen
bees, and the coarser denizens of the mid-channel are not
allowed to be mixed therewith. The management of all the.
Kent and Essex oyster companies is pretty much the same,
but there are also gentlemen who trade solely upon their own
account,

- The demand for native and other oysters by the Londoners
alone is something wonderful, and constitutes of itself a large
branch of commerce—as the numerous shell-fish shops of the
Strand and Haymarket abundantly testify. It is not easy to
arrive at correct statistics of what London requires in the way
of oysters; but if we set the number down as being nearly
1,000,000,000 per annum we shall not be very far wrong. To
provide these, the dredgermen or fisher people at Colchester,
and other places on the Essex and Kent coasts, prowl about
the sea-shore and pick up all the little oysters they can find—
these ranging from the size of a threepenny-piece to a shilling ;
and persons and companies having layings purchase them to be
nursed ang fattened for the table, as already described. At
other places the spawn itself is collected, by picking it from
the pieces of stone, or the old oyster-shells, to which it may
have adhered ; and it is nourished in pits, as at Burnham, for
the purpose of being sold to the Whitstable people, who care-
fully lay that brood in their grounds, A good idea of the
oyster-traftic may be obtained from the fact that, in some years,
the Whitstable men have paid £30,000 for brood, in order to
keep up the stock of their far-famed oysters,

The centre in England for the distribution of oysters is
Billingsgate, the chief piscatorial bourse of the great metropolis,
and the countless thousands of bushels of this molluscous dainty
which find their way through “Oyster Street” to this Fish
Exchange mark the everlasting demand. Oysters are sold by
the bushel, and every measure is made to pay a toll of fourpence,
and another sum of a like amount for carriage to the shore,

260 THE NEWHAVEN OYSTER-BEDS.

All oysters sold at Billingsgate are liable to this eightpénny
tax. The London oysters—and I regret to say it, for there is
nothing finer than a genuine oyster—are sophisticated in the
cellars of the buyers, by being stuffed with oatmeal till the
flavour is all but lost in the fat. The flavour of oysters—like
the flavour of all other animals—depends on their feeding.
The fine gowt of the highly-relished Prestonpans oysters is said
to be derived from the fact of their feeding on the refuse liquor
which flows from the saltpans of that neighbourhood. I have
eaten of fine oysters taken from a bank that was visited by a
‘rather questionable stream of water ; they were very large, fat,
and of exquisite flavour, the shell being more than usually well
filled with “meat.” What the London oysters gain in fat by
artificial feeding they assuredly lose in flavour. The harbour
of Kinsale (a receptacle for much filth) used to be remarkable
for the size and flavour of its oysters. The beds occupied the
whole harbour, and the oysters there were at one time very
plentiful, and far exceeded thé Cork oysters in fame (and they
have long been famous) ; but they were so overfished as to be
long since used up, much to the loss of the Irish people, who
are particularly fond of oysters, and delight in their ‘“ Pool-
doodies” and “‘ Red-banks ” as much as the English and Scotch
do in their “ Natives” and ‘“ Pandores.”

The far-famed Scottish oysters obtained near Edinburgh,
once so cheap, are becoming scarce and dear. The growth of
the railway system has also extended the Newhaven men’s mar-
ket. Before the railway period very few boats wen’ out at the
same time to dredge ; then oysters were very plentiful—so plenti-
ful, in fact, that three men in a boat could, with ease, procure
3000 oysters in a couple of hours ; but now, so great is the change .
in the productiveness of the scalps, that three men consider it
an excellent day’s work to’ procure about a fifth part of that
quantity. The Newhaven oyster-beds lie between Inchkeith and
Newhaven, and belong to the city of Edinburgh, and were given
in charge to the free fishermen of that village, on certain condi-
tions.

The “ pandore” oysters are principally obtained at the village
of Prestonpans and the neighbouring one of Cockenzie. Dredg-
ing for oysters is a principal part of the occupation of the
Cockenzie fishermen. There are few lovers of this dainty mollusc
who have not heard of the “ whiskered pandores,” The pandore
oyster is so called because of being found in the neighbourhood

OYSTER-DREDGING AT COCKENZIE, 261

of the saltpans. It is a large fine-flavoured oyster, as good as
any “native” that ever was brought to table, the Pooldoodies
of Burran not excepted. The men of Cockenzie derive a good
portion of their annual income from the oyster traffic. The
pursuit of the oyster, indeed, forms a phase of fisher life there as
distinct as at Whitstable. The times for going out to dredge

OYSTER-DREDGING AT COCKENZIE.

are at high tide and low tide. The boats used are the smaller-
sized ones employed in the white fishery. The dredge somewhat
resembles in shape a common clasp-purse ; it is formed of net-
work, attached to a strong iron frame, which serves to keep the
mouth of the instrument open, and acts also as a sinker, giving
it a proper pressure as it travels along the oyster-beds. When
the boat arrives over the oyster-scalps, the dredge is let down by
a rope attached to the upper ring, and is worked by one man,
except in cases where the boat has to be sailed swiftly, when

262 A DREDGING SONG.

two are employed. Of course, in the absence of wind recourse
is had to the oars. The tension upon the rope is the signal for
hauling the dredge on board, when the entire contents are
emptied into the boat, and the dredge returned to the water.
‘These contents, not including the oysters, are of a most hetero-
geneous kind—stones, sea-weed, star-fish, young lobsters, crabs,
actinze—all of which are usually returned to the water, some of
them being considered as the most fattening ground-bait for the
codfish. The whelks, clams, mussels, cockles, and occasion-
ally the crabs, are used by the fishermen as bait for their
white-fish lines. Once, in a conversation with a veteran dredger
as to what strange things might come in the dredge, he replied,
“‘Well, master, I don’t know what sort o’ curiosities we some-
times get ; but I have seen gentlemen like yourself go out with
us a-dredgin’, and take away big baskets full o’ things as was
neither good for eating or looking at. The Lord knows what
they did wi them.” During the whole time that this dredging
is being carried on, the crew keep up a wild monotonous song,
or rather chant, in which they believe much virtue to lie. They
assert that it charms the oysters into the dredge.

‘¢ The herring loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel loves the wind ;
But the oyster loves the dredger’s song,
For he comes of a gentle kind.”

Talking is strictly forbidden, so that all the required conversa-
tion ‘is carried on after the manner of the recttative of an opera
or oratorio. An enthusiastic London Ittterateur and musician,
being on a visit to Scotland, determined to carry back with him,
among other natural curiosities, the words and music of the
oyster-dredging song. But, after being exposed to the piercing
east wind for six hours, and jotting down the words and music
of the dredgers, he found it all to end in nothing; the same
words were never used, the words were ever changing. The
oyster-scalps are gone over by the men much in the way that a
field is ploughed by an agricultural labourer, the boat going and
returning until sufficient oysters are secured, or a shift is made
to another bed.

The geographical distribution of oysters is most lavish ;
wherever there is a seaboard there will they be found. The old
stories of ancient mariners, who sailed the seas before the days

OYSTERS IN AMERICA. 263

of cheap literature, will be recalled, and their boasted knowledge
of the wonders of the fish world—of oysters that grew on trees,
and oysters so large that they required to be carved just like a
round of beef or quarter of lamb, All these tales were formerly
considered so many romances. Who believed Uncle Jack when
he gravely told his wondering nephews about oysters as large
as a soup-plate being found on the coast of Coromandel? But,
nevertheless, Uncle Jack’s stories have been found to be true:
there are large oysters which require carving, and oysters have
been plucked off trees, There are wonderful tales about oysters
that have been taken on the coast of Africa—plucked too from
the very trees that our good, but ignorant, forefathers did not
believe in, The ancient Romans, who knew all the secrets of
good living, had the oysters of all countries brought to their
fish-stews, in order that they might experiment upon them and
fatten them for table purposes. Although they gave the palm
to those from Britain, they had a great many varieties from
Africa, and had ingenious modes of transporting them to great
distances which have been lost to modern pisciculturists.

In America the oyster is an institution of great importance.
On the seaboard of that vast continent they are found in
natural beds of wonderful extent, and are distributed by means
of railway and steamboat throughout the cities and villages of
even the far inland districts. Numerous as are the shell-fish
shops of London, they are but as one in ten when compared
with the oyster-houses of New York, in which city oyster-eating
appears to be almost the sole business of life, so many people
are to be found indulging in that pleasure. The custom in
America is to have the oysters cooked, and this culinary process
is accomplished in a variety of ways; the mollusc being stewed,
fried, or roasted, according to taste; they may be had cooked
in about twenty different ways in any of the well-known oyster
taverns of New York at a few minutes’ notice. The great
market for oysters in America is the city of Baltimore, in
Maryland, where it is not uncommon for one or two firms each
to “can” a million bushels in one year! Immense numbers of
these “ canned ” oysters are dispatched all over the States, to
the prairies of the far west, to the cities of New Mexico, to the
military forts of the great American desert, to the restaurants of
Honolulu, and to the miners searching for gold on the Rocky
Mountains ; whilst fresh oysters packed in ice have been sent

264 OYSTERS IN AMERICA.

to great distances. In the oyster-fisheries of Maryland as many
as six hundred vessels of about twenty-three tons each are
engaged, in addition to two thousand small boats or canoes,
These employ about seven thousand men, and if we add those
engaged in the carrying trade, it would give the number of
persons employed in the oyster trade of the State of Maryland
as at least ten thousand, all obtaining remunerative employ-
ment.

CHAPTER XIII.

—_—_
OUR SHELL-FISH FISHERIES.

Productive Power of Shell-Fish—Varieties of the Crustacean Family—
Study of the Minor Shell-Fishes—Demand for Shell-Fish—Lobsters—
A Lobster Store-Pond described—Natural -History of the Lobster
and other Crustacea—March of the Land-Crabs—Prawns and Shrimps,
how they are caught and cured—A Mussel-Farm—How to grow bait.

SHELL-FIsH is the popular name bestowed by unscientific
persons on the Crustacea and Mollusca, and no other designation
could so well cover the multitudinous variety of forms which
are embraced in these extensive divisions of the animal kingdom.
Fanciful disquisitions on shell-fish and on marine zoology have
been intruded on the public of late till they have become
somewhat tiresome; but as our knowledge of the natural
history of all kinds of sea animals, and particularly of oysters,
lobsters, crabs, etc., is decidedly on the increase, there is yet
room for all that I have to say on the subject of these dainties ;
and there are still unexplored wonders of animal life in the
fathomless sea that deserve the deepest study.

The economic and productive phases of our shell-fish
fisheries have never yet, in my opinion, been sufficiently dis-
cussed; and when I state that the power of multiplication
possessed by all kinds of Crustacea and Mollusca is even greater,
if that be possible, than that possessed by finned fishes, it will
be obvious that there is much in their natural history that
must prove interesting even to the most general reader. Each
oyster, as we have seen, gives birth to almost incredible
quantities of young. Lobsters also have an amazing fecundity,
and yield an immense number of eggs—each female producing
from twelve to twenty thousand in a season; and the crab is
likewise most prolific. I lately purchased a crab weighing
within an ounce of two pounds, and it contained a mass of

266 FECUNDITY OF SHELL-FISH.

minute eggs equal in size to a man’s hand; these were so
minute that a very small portion of them, picked off with the
point of a pin, when placed on a bit of glass, and counted
by the aid of a powerful miscroscope, numbered over sixty,
each appearing of the size of a red currant, and not at all unlike
that fruit: so far as I could guess the eggs were not nearly ripe,
I also examined about the same time a quantity of shrimp-eggs ;
and it is curious that, while there are the cock and hen lobster,
I never saw any difference in the sex of the shrimps: all that
I handled, amounting to hundreds, were females, and all of
them were laden with spawn, the eggs being so minute as to
resemble grains of the finest sand.

Although the crustacean family counts its varieties by
thousands, and contains members of all sizes, from minute
animalcule to gigantic American crabs and lobsters, and ranges
from the simplest to the most complex forms, yet the edible
varieties are not at all numerous. The largest of these are the
lobster (Astacus marinus) and the crab (Carcer pagurus) ; and
river and sea cray-fish may also be seen in considerable quantities
in London shell-fish shops ; and as for common shrimps (Crangon
vulgaris) and prawns (Palemon serratis), they are eaten in
myriads. ‘The violet or marching crab of the West Indies, and
the robber crab common to the islands of the Pacific, are also
esteemed as great delicacies of the table, but are unknown in
this country except by reputation.

Leaving old and grave people to study the animal economy
of the larger Crustacea, the juveniles may with advantage take
a peep at the periwinkles, the whelks, or other Mollusca,
These are found in immense profusion on the little stones
between high and low water mark, and on almost every rock
on the British coast. Although to the common observer‘ the
oyster seems but a repulsive mass of blubber, and the peri-
winkle a creature of the lowest possible organisation, nothing
can be farther from the reality. There is throughout this
class of animals a wonderful adaptability of means to ends.
The turbinated shell of the periwinkle, with its finely-closed
door, gives no token of the powers bestowed upon the animal,
both as provision for locomotion (this class of travellers
wherever they go they carry their house along with them) and
for reaping the tender rock-grass upon which they feed. They
have eyes in their horns, and their sense of vision is quick,
Their curiously-constructed foot enables them to progress in

A PEEP AT THE PERIWINKLE. 267

any direction they please, and their wonderful tongue either
acts as a screw orasaw. In fact, simple as the organisation
of these animals appears to be, it is not less curious in its own
way than the structure of other beings which are thought to
be more complicated. In good truth, the common periwinkle
(Littorina vulgaris) is both worth studying and eating, vulgar
as some people may think it.

Immense quantities of all the edible molluscs are annually
collected by women and children in order to supply the large
inland cities. Great sacks full of periwinkles, whelks, etc.,
are sent on by railway to Manchester, Glasgow, London, etc. ;
whilst on portions of the Scottish sea-coast the larger kinds
are assiduously collected by the fishermen’s wives and pre-
pared as bait for the long hand-lines which are used in cap-
turing the codfish or other Gadide. As an evidence of how
abundant the sea-harvest is, I may mention that from a spot
so far north as Orkney hundreds of bags of periwinkles are
weekly sent to London by the Aberdeen steamer.

From personal inquiry made by the writer he estimated that
for the commissariat of London alone there were required three
millions of crabs and lobsters! May we not, therefore, take
for granted that the other populous towns of the British empire
will consume an equally large number? The people of Liver-
pool, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dublin, are as fond
of shell-fish as the denizens of the great metropolis ; at any rate,
they eat all they can get, and never get enough. The machinery
for supplying this ever-increasing demand for lobsters, crabs,
and oysters, is exceedingly simple, On most parts of the British
coast there: are people who make it their business to provide
those luxuries of the table for all who wish them. The capital
required for this branch of the fisheries is not large, and the
fishermen and their families attend to the capture of the crab
and lobster in the intervals of other business, The Scotch laird’s
+ advice to his son to “ be always stickin’ in the ither tree, it will
be growin’ when ye are sleepin’,” holds good in lobster-fishing.
The pots may be baited and left till such time as the victim
enters, whilst the men in the meantime take a short cruise in
search of bait, or try a cast of their haddock-lines a mile or two
from the shore ; or the fishing can be watched over, and when
the lobsters are numerous, the pots be lifted every half-hour or
so. The taking of shell-fish also affords occupation to the old
men and youngsters of the fishing villages, and these folks may

268 LOBSTER-FISHING.

be seen in the fine days assiduously waiting on the lobster-traps
and crab-cages, which are not unlike overgrown rat-traps, and are
constructed of netting fastened over a wooden framework, baited
with any kind of fish offal, or garbage, the stench of which may
be strong enough to attract the attention of those minor monsters
of the deep. A great number of these lobster-pots are sunk at,
perhaps, a depth of twelve or twenty fathoms at an appropriate
place, being held together by a strong line, and all marked with
a peculiarly-cut piece of cork, so that each fisherman may recog-
nise his own lot. The knowing youngsters of our fishing com-
munities can also secure their prey by using a long stick. Mr.
Cancer Pagurus is watched as he bustles out for his evening
promenade, and, on being deftly pitched upon his back by means
of a pole, he indignantly seizes upon it with all his might, and
the stick being shaken a little has the desirable effect of causing
Mr. Crab to cling thereto with great tenacity, which is, of course,
the very thing desired by the grinning “ human” at the other
end, as whenever he feels his prey secure he dexterously hauls
him on board, unhooks the crusty gentleman with a jerk, and
adds him to the accumulating heap at the bottom of the old boat,
The monkeys in the West Indies are, however, still more ingeni-
ous than the “fisher loons” of Arran or Skye. Those wise
animals, when they take a notion of dining on a crab, proceed
to the rocks, and slyly insinuating their tail into one of the holes
where the crustacea take refuge, that appendage is at once seized
upon by the crab, who is thereby drawn from his hiding-place,
and, being speedily dashed to pieces on the hard stone, affords
a fine feast to his captor. This reminds me of the story told
about a man’s dog which was seized by a crab when passing a
fish shop: Punch has it, ‘“ Whustle on your dog, man ;” “ Na,
na, my man; whustle you on your partan.” On the granite-
bound coast of Scotland the sport of crab-hunting may be
enjoyed to perfection, and the wonders of the deep be studied
at the same time, A long pole with a small crook at the end
will be found useful to draw the erab from his nest, or great
fun may be enjoyed by tying during low-water a piece of bait
to a string and attaching a stone toffie other end of the
cord. The crab seizes upon this bait wih cover the tide flows,
and drags it to its hole, so that when fhesebb of the tide
recurs, the stone at the end of the cord marks the hiding-place
of the animal, who thus falls an easy prey to his captor. The
natives are the best instructors in these arts, and seaside

LOBSTER-COMMERCE, 269

visitors cannot do better than engage the services of some
strong fisher youth to act as guide in such perambulations as
they may make on the beach. There are few seaside places
where the natives cannot guide strangers to rock pools -and
picturesque nooks teeming with materials for studying thé
wonders of the shore.

Lobsters are collected and sent to London from all parts of
the Scottish shore. I have seen on the Sutherland and other
coasts perforated floating chests filled with them, They were
kept till called for by the welled smacks, which generally make
the circuit of the coasts once a week, taking up all the lobsters
or crabs they can get, and carrying them alive to London.
From the Durness shores alone as many as from six to eight
thousand lobsters have been collected in the course of a single
summer, and sold, big or little, at threepence each to the buyers.
The lobsters taken on the north-east coast of Scotland and at
Orkney are now packed in seaweed and sent in boxes to London
by railway. Lobsters have not been so plentiful, it is thought,
in the Orkney Islands of late years; but a large trade has
been done in them since the railway was opened from Aber-
deen—at all events, the prices of lobsters are double what
they used to be in the time of the welled smacks alluded to
above. The fisher-folks of Orkney confess that the trade in
lobsters pays them well. At some places in Scotland lobster-
fishing is pursued at great risk, Among the groups of rocky
islands on the west coast of Scotland, it is often a work of
great danger to set the lobster-pots, and often enough after
being set they cannot again be reached, in consequence of
sudden squalls, till many days have elapsed; so that, if the
remuneration for the labour is good, it is sometimes very hardly
earned.

All kinds of crustaceans can be kept alive at the place of
capture till “wanted ”—that is, till the welled vessel which
carries them to London or Liverpool arrives—by simply storing
them in a large perforated wooden box anchored in a con-
venient place. Nor must it be supposed that the acute London
dealers allow too many lobsters to be brought to market at
once; the supply is governed by the demand, and the stock
kept in large store-boxes at convenient places down the river,
where the sea-water is strong and the liquid filth of London
harmless. But these old-fashioned store-boxes will, no doubt,
be speedily superseded by the construction of artificial store-

270 A LOBSTER-STORE.

ponds on a large scale, similar to that erected by Mr. Richard
Scovell at Hamble, near Southampton. That gentleman’s pond
has been of good service to him. It is about fifty yards
square, and is lined with brick, having a bottom of concrete,
and was excavated at a cost of about £1200. It. will store
with great ease 50,000 lobsters, and the animals may remain
in the pond as long as six weeks, with little chance of being
damaged. Lobsters, however, do not breed in this state of
confinement, nor have they been seen to undergo a change of
shell, There is, of course, an apparatus of pipes and sluices for
the purpose of supplying the pond with water. The stock is
recruited from the coasts of France and Ireland; and to keep
up the supply Mr. Scovell has in his service two or three vessels
of considerable size, which visit the various fisheries and bring
the lobsters to Hamble in their capacious wells, each of which is
large enough to contain from 5000 to 10,000 animals.

The west and north-west coasts of Ireland abound with fine
lobsters, and welled vessels bring thence supplies for the London
market, and it is said that a supply of 10,000 a week can easily
be obtained. Immense quantities are also procured on the west
coast of Scotland. A year or two ago I saw on board the
Islesman steamboat at Greenock a cargo of 30,000 lobsters,
obtained chiefly on the coasts of Lewis and Skye. The;value of
these to the captors would be upwards of £1000, and in the
English fishmarkets the lot would bring at least four times that
sum.

A very large share of our lobsters is derived from Norway,
as many as 30,000 sometimes arriving from the fjords in a
single day. The Norway lobsters are much esteemed, and we
pay the Norwegians something like £20,000 a year for this one
article of commerce. They are brought over in welled steam-
vessels, and are kept in the wooden reservoirs already alluded
to, some of which may be seen at Hole Haven, on the Essex
side of the Thames, Once upon a time, some forty years ago,
one of these wooden lobster-stores was run into by a Russian
frigate, whereby some 20,000 lobsters were set adrift to sprawl
in the muddy waters of the Thames. In order that the great
mass of animals confined in these places may be kept upon their
best behaviour, a species of cruelty has to be perpetrated to
prevent their tearing each other to pieces; the great claw is
there rendered paralytic by means of a wooden peg being driven
into a lower joint.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOBSTER. 271

I have no intention of describing the whole members of the
crustacea ; they are much too numerous to admit of that, rang-
ing as they do from the comparatively giant-like crab and
lobster down to the millions of minute insects which at some
places confer a phosphorescent appearance on the waters of the
sea. My limits will necessarily confine me to a few of the
principal members of the family—the edible crustacea, in fact ;
and these I shall endeavour to speak about in such plain
language as I think my readers will understand, leaving out as
much of the fashionable “ scientific slang” as I possibly can.

The more we study the varied crustacea of the British
shores, the more we are struck with their wonderful formation,
and the peculiar habits of their members. I once heard a
clergyman at a lecture describe a lobster in brief but fitttng
terms as a standing romance of the sea—an animal whose
clothing is a shell, which it casts away once a year in order
that it may put on a larger suit—an animal whose flesh is in
its tail and legs, and whose hair is in the inside of its breast,
whose stomach is in its head, and which is changed every year
for a new one, and which new one begins its life by devouring
the old! an animal which carries its eggs within its body till
they become fruitful, and then carries them outwardly under
its tail; an animal which can throw off its legs when they
become troublesome, and can in a brief time replace them with
others ; and lastly, an animal with very sharp eyes placed in
movable horns, The picture is not at all overdrawn. It isa
wondrous creature this lobster, and I may be allowed a brief
space in which to describe the curious provision of nature which
allows for an increase of growth, or provides for the renewal of
a broken limb, and which applies generally to the edible
crustacea.

The habits of the principal crustacea are not pretty well
understood, and their mode of growth is so peculiar as to
render a close inspection of their habits a most interesting
study. As has been stated, a good-sized lobster will yield about
20,000 eggs, and these are hatched, being so nearly ripe before
they are abandoned by the mother, with great rapidity—it is
said in forty-eight hours—and grow quickly, although the
young lobster passes through many changes before it is fit to
be presented at table. During the early periods of growth it
casts its shell frequently. This wonderful provision for an
increase of size in the lobster has ‘been minutely studied during

272 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CRUSTACEA.

its period of moulting. Mr. Jonathan Couch says the additional
size which is gained at each period of exuviation is perfectly
surprising, and it is wonderful to see the complete covering of
the animal cast off like a suit of old clothes, while it hides,
naked and soft, in a convenient hole, awaiting the growth of
its new crust. In fact, it is difficult to believe that the great
soft animal ever inhabited the cast-off habitation which is lying
beside it, because the lobster looks, and really is, so much
larger. The lobster, crab, etc., change their shells about every
six weeks during the first year of their age, every two months
during the second year, and then the changing of the shell
becomes less frequent, being reduced to four times a year. It
is supposed that this animal becomes reproductive at the age of
five years. In France the lobster-fishery is to some extent
“regulated.” A. close-time exists, and size is the one element
of capture that is most studied. All the small lobsters are
thrown back to the water. There is no difficulty in observing
the process of exuviation, A friend of mine had a crab which
moulted in a small crystal basin. I presume that at some
period in the life of the crab or lobster growth will cease, and
the annual moulting become unnecessary ; at any rate, I have
seen crabs and other crustaceans taken from an island in the
Firth of Forth which were covered with parasites evidently
two or three years old.

To describe minutely the exuviation of a lobster, crab, or
shrimp, would in itself form an interesting chapter of this work,
and it is only of late years that many points of the process
have been witnessed and for the first time described: Not long
ago, for instance, it was doubtful whether or not the hermit-
crabs (Anomoura) shed their skin ; and, that fact being settled,
it became a question whether they shed the skin of their tail!
There was a considerable amount of controversy on this delicate
point, till the “strange and unexpected discovery” was made
by Mr. Harper. That gentleman was fortunate enough to
catch a hermit-crab in the very act, and was able to secure the
caudal appendage which had just been thrown off. Other
matters of controversy have been instituted in reference to the
growth of various members of the crustacea ; indeed, the young
of the crab in an early stage have before now been described
by naturalists as distinct species, so great is the metamorphosis
they undergo before they assume their final shape—just as the
sprat in good time changes in all probability to the herring.

LAND-CRABS, 273

Another point of controversy at one period existed in reference
to the power of crustaceans to replace their broken limbs, or
occasionally to dispense, at their own good pleasure, with a limb,
when it is out of order, with the absolute certainty of replac-
ing it. ;

When the female crustacea retire in order to undergo their
exuviation, they are watched, or rather guarded, by the males ;
and if one male be taken away, in a short time another will
be found to have taken his place. I do not think there is
any particular season for moulting ; the period differs in differ-
ent places, according to the temperature of the water and
other circumstances, so that we might have shell-fish (and
white-fish too) all the year round were a little attention paid
to the different seasons of exuviation and egg-laying.

The mode in which a hen lobster lays her eggs is curious :
she lodges a quantity of them under her tail, and bears them
about for a considerable period ; indeed, till they are so nearly
hatched as only to require a very brief time to mature them.
When the eggs are first exuded from the ovary they are very
small, but before they are committed to the sand or water they
increase considerably in size, and become as large as good-sized
shot. Lobsters may be found with eggs, or “in -berry” as it is
called, all the year round; and when the hen is in process of
‘depositing her eggs she is not good for food, the flesh being poor,
watery, and destitute of flavour.

When the British crustacea are in their soft state they are
not considered as being good for food; but, curiously enough,
the land-crabs are most esteemed while in that condition. The
epicure who has not tasted “soft crabs” should hasten to make
himself acquainted with one of the most delicious luxuries of
the table. The eccentric land-erab, which lives*far inland
among the rocks, or in the clefts of trees, or burrows in holes
in the earth, makes in the spring-time an annual pilgrimage to
the sea in order to deposit its spawn, and the young, guided by
an unerring instinct, return to the land in order to live in the
rocks or burrow in the earth like their progenitors, In the fish-
world we have something nearly akin to this. We have the
salmon, that spends one-half its life in the sea, and the other
half in the fresh water ; it proceeds to the sea to attain size and
strength, and returns to the river in order to perpetuate its kind.
The eel, again, just does the reverse of all this: it goes down to
the sea to spawn, and then proceeds up the river to live; and

T

274 THE WORLD OF FISH.

at certain seasons it may be seen in myriad quantities making its
way upstream. The march of the land-crabs is a singular and in-
teresting sight : they congregate into one great army, and travel
in two or three divisions, generally by night, to the sea ; they
procéed straight forward, and seldom deviate from their path un-
less to avoid crossing a river. These marching crabs eat up all
the luxuriant vegetation on their route ; their path is marked by
desolation. The moment they arrive at the water the operation
of spawning is commenced \by allowing the waves to wash
gently over their bodies. A few days of this kind of bathing
assists the process of oviposition, and knots of spawn similar
to lumps of herring-roe are gradually washed into the water,
which in a short time finishes the operation. Countless thou-
sands of these eggs are annually devoured by various fishes and
monsters of the deep that lie in wait for them during the spawn-
ing season, After their brief seaside sojourn, the old crabs
undergo their moult, and at this period thousands of them sicken
and die, and large numbers of them are captured for table use,
soft crabs being highly esteemed by all lovers of good things,
By the time they have recovered from their moult the army of
juveniles from the seaside begins to make its appearance inorder
to join the old stock in the mountains ; and thus the legion of
land-crabs is annually recruited by a fresh batch, which in their
tur perform the annual migration to the sea much as their
parents have done before them.

It is worth noting here that lobsters are year by year
becoming “smaller by degrees and beautifully less,” all the large
ones are being fished up and the small ones are never allowed to
become bigger in consequence of the yearly increasing demands
of the public. As a general rule, the great bulk of lobsters are
not much more than half the size they used to be. The remedy
is a close-time. Yes; there must be a close-time instituted for
the lobster and the crab as well.

Before leaving the crabs and lobsters, it is worthy of remark
that an experienced dealer can tell at once the locality whence
any particular lobster is obtained—whether from the west of
Ireland, the Orkney Islands, or the coast of Brittany. The
shelly inhabitants of different localities are distinctly marked.
Indeed fish are peculiarly local in their habits, although the
vulgar idea has hitherto been that all kinds of sea animals herd
indiscriminately together ; that the crab and the lobster crept
about the bottom rocks, whilst the waving skate or the swaggering

FISH COMMUNITIES. 275

ling fish dashed about in mid-water, the prowling “dogs” busily
preying on the shoals of herring supposed to be swimming near ;
' the brilliant shrimp flashing through the crowd like a meteor, the
elegant saithe keeping them company ; the whole being over-
shadowed by a few whales, and kept in awe by a dozen or so of
sharks! Nothing can be more different than the reality of the.
water-world, which is colonised quite as systematically as the earth.
Particular shoals of herring, for instance, gather off particular
counties; the Lochfyne herring, as I have mentioned in the
account of the herring-fishery, differs from the herring of the
Caithness coast or that of the Firth of Forth ; and any ’cute
fishmonger can tell a Tweed salmon from a Tay one. The
herring at certain periods gather in gigantic shoals, the chief
members of the Gadide congregate on vast sand-banks, and the
whales occasionally roam about in schools; while the Pleuro-
nectidee occupy sandy places in the bottom of the sea. We
have all heard of the great cod-banks of Newfoundland, of the
fish community at Rockall ; then is there not the Nymph Bank,
near Dublin, celebrated for its haddocks? have we not also the
Faroe fishing-ground, the Dogger Bank, and other places with a
numerous fish population? There are wonderful diversities of
life in the bosom of the deep ; and there is beautiful scenery of
hill and plain, vegetable and rock, and mountain and valley.
There are shallows and depths suited to different aspects of life,
and there is life of all kinds teeming in that mighty world of
waters, and the fishes live

**A cold sweet silver life, wrapped in round waves,
Quickened with touches of transporting fear.”

The prawn and the shrimp are ploughed in innumerable
quantities from the shallow waters that lave the shore. The
shrimper may be seen any day at work, pushing his little net
before him. To reach the more distant sandbanks he requires a
boat; but on these he captures his prey with greater facility,
and richer hauls rewards his labour than when he plies his
putting-net close inshore. The shrimper, when he captures a
sufficient quantity, proceeds to boil them ; and till they undergo
that process they are not edible. The shrimp is “ the ‘Undine’
of the waters,” and seems possessed by some aquatic devil, it
darts about with such intense velocity. Like the lobster and
the crab, the prawn periodically changes its skin ; and its exer-
tions to throw off its old clothes are really as wonderful as those

276 SHRIMPING.

of its larger relatives of the lobster and crab family. There are
a great many species of shrimp in addition to the common one ;
as, for instance, banded, spinous, sculptured, three-spined, and
two-spined. Young prawns, too, are often taken in the “ putting-
nets” and sold for shrimps. Prawns are caught in some places
in pots resembling those used for the taking of lobsters. The
prawn exuviates very frequently ; in fact, it has no sooner re-
covered from one illness than it has to undergo another.
Although the prawn and the shrimp are exceedingly common on
the British coasts, when we consider the millions of these “sea,
insects,” as they have been called, which are annually consumed
at the breakfast tables and in the tea-gardens of London alone
(not to speak of those which are greedily devoured in our
watering-places, or the few which are allowed to reach the more
inland towns of the country), we cannot but wonder where they
all come from, or who provides them ; and the problem can only
be solved by taking into account the fact that we are sur-
rounded by hundreds of miles of a productive seaboard, and
that thousands of seafaring people, and others as well, make
it their business to supply such luxuries to all who can
pay for them. It is even found profitable to send these
delicacies to England all the way from the remote fisheries of
Scotland.

The art of “shrimping” is well understood all round the
English coasts. The mode of capturing this particular member
of the crustacea is by what is called a shrimp-net, formed of a
frame of wood and twine into a long bag, which is used as a
kind of miniature trawl-net; each shrimping-boat being pro-
vided with one or two of these instruments, which, scraping
along the sand, compel the shrimp to enter. Each boat is
provided with a “well,” or store, to contain the proceeds of the
nets, and on arrival at home the shrimps are immediately
boiled for the London or other markets. The shrimpers are
rather ill-used by the trade. Of the many thousand gallons
sent daily to London, they only get an infinitesimal portion of
the money produce. The retail price in London is four shil-
lings per gallon, out of which the producer is understood to get
only threepence! I have been told that the railways charge at
the extraordinary rate of £9 a ton for the carriage of this
delicacy to London. It is an interesting sight to watch the
shrimpers at their work, and such of my readers as can obtain a
brief holiday should run down to. Leigh. or some nearer fishing

_CRAY-FISH, 277

place, where they can see the art of shrimping carried on in
all its picturesque beauty.

The fresh-water cray-fish, a very delicate kind of miniature
lobster, abundantly numerous in all our larger streams, and
exceedingly plentiful in France, may often be seen on the
counters of our fishmongers ; as also the sea cray-fish, which is
much larger in size, having been known to attain the weight
of ten or twelve pounds, but it is coarser in the flavour than
either the crab or lobster. The river cray-fish, which lodges
in holes in the banks of our streams, is caught simply by
means of a split stick with a bit of bait inserted at the end.
The fresh-water cray-fish has afforded a better opportunity for
studying the structure of the crustacea than any of the salt-
water species, as its habits can be more easily observed,
The sea cray-fish is not at all plentiful in the British Islands,
although we have a limited supply in some of our markets.

There has hitherto beeen a fixed period for the annual
sacrifice to crustacean gastronomy. As my readers are already
aware, there is a well-known time for the supplying of oysters,
which is fixed by law, and which begins in August and ends
in April. During the r-less months oysters are less wholesome
than in the colder weather. The season for lobsters begins about
March, and is supposed to close with September, so that in
‘the. round of the year we have always some kind of shell-fish
delicacy to feast upon. Were a little more attention devoted
to the economy of our fisheries, we might have lobsters and
crabs upon our tables all the year round. In my opinion
lobsters are as good for food in the winter time as during the
months in which they are most in demand. It may be hoped
that we shall get to understand all this much better by and
by, for at present we are sadly ignorant of the natural economy
of these, and indeed all other denizens of the deep.

Considering the importance attached by fishermen to the
easy attainment of a cheap supply of bait, it is surprising that
no attempt has been made in this country to economise and
regulate the various mussel-beds which abound on the Scottish
and English coasts. The mussel is very largely used for bait,
and fishermen have to go far, and pay dear, for what they require
—their wives and families being also employed to gather as
many as they can possibly procure on the accessible places of the
coast, but usually the bait has to be purchased and carried from
long distances, I propose to show our fisher-people how these

278 AIGUILLON.

matters are managed in France, and how they may obviate thé
labour and expense connected with bait buying or gathering, by
growing such a crop of mussels as would not only suffice for an
abundant supply of bait, but produce a large quantity for sale
as well,

It is no exaggeration to say that, although the British
people are shy of eating the mussel, except when it is cooked
for sauce—and a very excellent sauce it makes—countless
millions are annually required by our fishermen for bait. There
is one little fishing-village in Scotland which I know, from
personal investigation, uses for its own share, for the baiting of
the deep-sea lines required in the cod and haddock fishery,
close on five millions of these molluscs, which have all to be
sought and gathered from the natural beds, the men, and the
women as well, having frequently to go long distances to obtain
them. These figures will not. be thought to be exaggerated
when I say that each deep-sea line requires about twelve
hundred mussels to bait it; and as many of the boats carry
eight or ten lines, it is easy to check the calculation. The
fishermen, it is hoped, may by and by come to grow their own
mussels, as do the industrious men of Aiguillon ; and if they do
not turn mussel-farmers after what I have to tell them, they
will have themselves to blame for the ultimate extinction of
the mussel, for the natural scalps are giving way under: the
present increasing demand for bait.

“Where is Aiguillon?” was naturally enough the first
question I had to answer, after determining to visit the great
French mussel-farm ; but no one could answer it. I asked
many who are interested in fishery matters, but none of them
had heard of the mussel-farm, Aiguillon, they said, was
mentioned in Murray’s Guide, and doubtless the site of the
fishery would be there. But the mussel-farm is not at the
Aiguillon mentioned by Murray, which is a town, of nearly two
thousand inhabitants, 'on the left bank of the Lot, about a mile
above its influx into the Garonne. My Aiguillon, indeed, is not
even on the same line of railway, although it is at an equally
great distance from Pall Mall. In fact, Murray contains
nothing at all about my Aiguillon, Murray has a soul above
mussels, and, to speak the truth, doesn’t even seem to care
much about oysters, seeing that he sometimes neglects to
mention localities where they are grown in the greatest pro-

VISIT TO A MUSSEL-FARM. 279

fusion, I found my Aiguillon at the port of Esnandes, which
is itself a curious out-of-the-way place.

In order to see the mussel-farm, it is neeessary first to get
to Paris, and to take the Orleans Railway to Poitiers, then to
change to the line for La Rochelle, after reaching which place
a voiture must be hired for the rest of the journey, Esnandes
being about seven kilomatres from Rochelle. I need not weary
the reader with a description of all that is to be seen on the
’ Orleans Railway, which, as all the travelling world at least

knows, runs through the most historical part of France.
Looking from the window of the railway carriage, I enjoyed .
for a few hours the lovely champaign scenery of the claret district
of France. There are vine-fields, and big joint-stock walnut
trees, and cherry orchards—and cherry orchards, walnut trees,
and vineyards, over and over again, all the way to Bordeaux.
Then there are little patches of water ; and dark-green grassy
quadrangles laid down every here and there, guarded by those
tall alder trees one sees in such profusion all over the Conti-
nent. Every here and there, too, may be seen a distant chateau
on its finely-wooded hill; then come a few old farmhouses,
their inner yards alive with the minute industry of the plodding
husbandmen, Anon we pass the outskirts of old historical
towns, tempting one to break one’s journey.

It might have well suited others to perform these pleasures
of travel ; my errand was to see la moule. History had no
charms for me till I had seen the mussel-farms, which I had
come so far to visit. To my exceeding astonishment, almost
no one, in La Rochelle knew anything about the industry of
Aiguillon. I had to search far and wide to obtain information
as to how to get to the place; another exemplification of the
old story, that one may live all his life in London, and not be
able to find his way to St. Paul’s, By virtue of a little Scottish
perseverance, and the expenditure of much bad French, I at
length found out that it was at Esnandes that they cultivated
Ia moule, So, procuring a voiture, and a gargon to drive it, I
sallied away out through the gates and barriers of La Rochelle ;
and after a pleasant drive through the vineyards and small
‘farms of the district, on each of which there appeared to be a
little flock of black sheep, I arrived in about an hour’s time at
my destination, much to the astonishment of the idle poultry
and young dogs of the neighbourhood, which looked and acted
as if they never had seen a voiture or a Scotchman before.

280 FRENCH FISHING VILLAGE.

The port of Esnandes is very much like all other fishing-
villages, and the fisher-people like all other fishing-people.
As you enter the town, you feel that it has the usual ancient
and fish-like smell; and you see, as you suppose, the same
little boys with the overgrown small-clothes that you meet
with in the fishing-villages of England or Scotland. After
passing a little way down the one street of the village, you
observe all the way, right and left, the invariable mussel-
middens, the worn-out old fish-baskets, and the various other
insignia of the trade of the people, the like of which you can
also see at Whitstable or Cockenzie, The people waken up
the moment it is buzzed about that a stranger has arrived.
At first, I thought the population were all out at sea, but I
was so quickly surrounded by an inquisitive little crowd, that
I speedily gave up that idea; and as soon as I had explained
my errand to the buxom landlady of the village café, I was
provided with a guide, who kindly escorted me to the bouchots
(fishing hurdles), or rather to. the dépét of the boucholiers,
which is about a quarter of a mile from the village.

Having alighted from the carriage, I looked around me with
some curiosity ; but I saw no farm of mussels, no appearance
even of there being a common fishery. About a mile away to
the right there was moored a small fleet of the common flat-
bottomed fishery-boats peculiar to the coast. A few miles to
the left lay the Ile de Ré, famous for its oyster-beds; but
where was the object of my search—the mussel-farm? Well,
to make a long story short, the farm was at that particular hour
covered with water ; but, as the tide was on the ebb, I speedily
obtained a view of the vast mud-fields to which the people of
Esnandes are indebted for their peculiar fish-commerce. The
story of the translation of these vast sloughs of mud into fertile
fields of industry, productive of comfort and ,wealth, is short and
simple, for the discovery of the bouchot was purely accidental.
An Irish vessel, laden with sheep, having been wrecked in the
bay, so long ago as the year 1235, only one out, of all the crew
was saved. This man’s name was Walton, and he became the
founder of the present industry by means of the bouchot system
of cultivation. On finding himself saved, he at once set about
finding a means of earning his own food, so that he might not
be a burden upon the poor fishermen who had rescued him from
the ravening waters, and who were themselves at the time well-
nigh destitute of every comfort of life.

DISCOVERY OF MUSSEL-FARMING. 281

All around him, however, as Walton soon perceived, was
one vast expanse of liquid mud, and what could any man do on
such a barren field? Walton speedily solved the problem. He
first of all invented a mode of travelling upon the mud-bed, for
walking was an impossibility, as at every step he sank up to
the knees in the miry clay. This boat is called a pirogue by the
boucholiers, and it is still in use. By means of this simple
machine, which I will by and by describe, Walton was able to
travel along and explore the muddy coast, by which he found
out that vast numbers of land and sea birds used to assemble
on the waters and in the mud in search of food. A kind of
purse-net for the capture of these birds at once suggested itself
to the hungry sailor. This being made and set on the mud as
a trap to float with the tide, was found to answer admirably,
and every night large numbers of aquatic birds were captured
in its purse-like folds. It was out of that little example of a
destitute sailor’s ingenuity that the present industry of Aiguillon
was developed, for it was not long before Walton found the
strong posts to which he had affixed his net all covered over
with the spawn of the edible mussel ; these he found grew very
rapidly, and when mature, had a much finer flavour than the
mud-grown bivalves from whence the spawn had floated. The
Irishman soon saw how he could multiply his own food-supplies,
and create at the same time a lasting industry for the benefit
of the poor people among whom he had been thrown by his
unfortunate shipwreck ; he therefore went on multiplying his
stakes, till he found that there was no end to the produce; so
that in due time this accidental discovery became a rich
inheritance to the fisher-folks of the district, for in ten years
after the shipwreck the bay was covered with an appropriate
and successful mussel-collecting apparatus, out of which has
grown the present extensive commerce.

The work of cultivation at Aiguillon is carried on very
systematically. I shall give what I learned about it, just as I
saw it myself, or as it was descfibed to me by my guide, a very
civil and ‘immensely voluble fisherman, who had the whole
theory and practice of mussel-farming at his finger-ends, or
rather at the end of his tongue. It was truly curious to con-
sider that the same mode of cultivating and working was going
on that had prevailed from the beginning—the invention having
been perfect from the first. One of the most curious phases of
the whole industry is the mode ‘of progression over the fields

282 TRAVELLING OVER THE MUD.

which has been adopted by the men, for each man has not only
to paddle his own canoe on these soft fields of mud, but if he
have a visitor, he has to paddle his boat as well. The manner
of progression is very primitive. The man kneels in his little
wooden vessel with one leg, the other, being encased in a great
boot, is fixed deep in the mud; a lift of the little canoe with
both hands, and a simultaneous shove with the mud-engulfed
leg, and lo! a progress of many inches is achieved ; this action,
frequently repeated by the industrious labourers, soon overcomes
the distance between the different fields; and when a new
trousseau has to be carried out to the bouchots, or a stranger
has to be conducted over the fields, two men will load a canoe,
and work it out between them, not, however, without a few jolts
and jerks, which, like a ride on a camel’s back, is rather tiring
to the unaccustomed. When three of the canoes are joined
together by means of pieces of stout rope, the boucholier in the
first one uses his left leg as the propelling power, while the man
in No. 3 uses his right leg, and by this means they get along in
a straighter line and with greater speed. This peculiar boat-
exercise has not a little of the comic element in it, especially
when one sees a fleet of more than a hundred narrow boats all
propelled in the same eccentric manner by upwards of one
hundred merry boucholiers, I may mention that the mud at
Aiguillon is unusually smooth and soft ; there are no sun-baked
furrows to interrupt the progress of the canoe, a fact that is due
to the presence of a little animal, which accomplishes for the
boucholier what a regiment of a thousand soldiers could not
perform.

In addition to the large and strong stakes originally used as
holdfasts for his bird-nets, Walton planted others, in long rows,
in the form of a double V, with their apex open to the sea, the
sides being interlaced with branches of trees, to which the
mussels, by means of their byssus, affixed themselves with
great aptitude. These bouchots were also so arranged one with
another so as to serve as traps for the taking of such fish and
crustaceans as frequent the coast; so that the fishermen had
thus a double chance, being, of ‘course, always assured, when
there is no fish, of a canoeful of mussels.

The men in search of fish depart for the farm a little
time before the tide recedes, and taking their places at the
mouth or apex of the V, they affix a small net to the opening,
so that they are sure to intercept any fish that may have come

FAMILY WORKERS. 283

in to feed with the previous tide. I made very particular
inquiries into the constitution of the farm, and although disap-
pointed at not finding it, as I was led to expect, a vast scene of
perfect co-operation, I was pleased to learn that, although the
bouchots had many owners, there was no violent competition
among those who owned them. Some of these mussel-farmers
have three or four bouchots, and the very poorest among them
have a half, or at least a third share in one. The system of
family co-operation prevails very largely ; I found, as in the case
of the celebrated walnut-trees, so often quoted, that one or two
families, grandfathers, sons, and grandchildren, were often the
owners of several bouchots, which they worked for their joint
benefit, dividing the profits at the end of the season.

The farm occupies a very large space of ground, equal to
eight kilométres, and is laid out in four fields or divisions, each
of which has its peculiar name and use. There are at least 500

MUSSEL-STAKES,

bouchots, and each one represents a length of 450 mitres,
forming a total wall of strong basket-work, all for the growth
of mussels, equal to a length of 225,000 métres, and rising six
feet above the mud-bed on which it is erected.

Great pains are taken to keep the bouchots in good order ;
repairs are continually being made; and along the protecting-
wall of the cliff by which the bay is bounded, there are to be
seen what my guide called the trousseau of the bouchots—

284 MUSSEL CULTURE,

great strong wooden stakes twelve feet long, and of considerable
girth. These are sunk into the mud to a depth of six feet, the
upper portion being the receptacle of a garniture of strong but
supple branches, twisted in the form of basket work, on which
are grown the annual ‘crops of mussels. The bouchots have
different names, according to their uses and their situation,
The bouchots du bas are those farthest away in the water:
these are very seldom left uncovered by the tide; they are
formed of very large and very strong solitary stakes, planted so
near each other that there are three of them to each mbére,
The duty of these stakes is to enact the part of spat-collectors
—the spat is locally called naissain at the Port of Esnandes—
so that there may be always a store of infant mussels for the
peopling and repeopling of such of the palisades as may accident-
ally become barren. My guide, in describing to me the oper-
ations of the farm, used agricultural terms, such as seeding,
planting, transplanting, replanting, etc., and he told me that
operations of some kind are continually going on all over the
farm. When it is not seed or harvest time, the bouchots have
to be repaired or the canoes mended.

As near as I could understand, the spat of the natural
mussel which voluntarily fixed itself to the outer rows of posts,
attains about February or March to the size of a grain of flax-
seed. In May the young mussels are about as big as a lentil,
and in about two months more they will attain to the dimensions
of a haricot bean—the men of Esnandes then call the mussel a
renouvelain—which is the proper time for the planting to begin ;
and this operation was in progress during my visit. It is
simple but effective. When a few canoe-loads of these young
mussels are required for the seeding of the more inland bouchots,
the men proceed to the single or collecting stakes at the lowest
state of the tide, armed with long poles, having blunt hooks at
the end, by means of which they scrape off the seedlings. The
men do not, however, scrape off more of the mussels than they
require for the operation in hand, which must be completed
before the flow of the next tide. Having filled a few baskets,
each man paddles his canoe to the seat of work, and there
commences the first stage of the work or planting, which is
effected in a curious but characteristic way, the operation being

-called la bdtisse by. those engaged in it. Taking a good handful
of the mussels, they are skilfully tied up by the boucholier in a
bag of old netting or canvas, and then deftly fastened in the

MODE OF WORKING, 285

interstices of the palisades, or bouchot basket-work, each group
of mussels being, of course, fastened at such a distance as to
have plenty of room to grow. Left there, the byssus of the
animal soon forms a point of attachment ; and the bag rotting
away by means of the water, speedily leaves the mussels hang-
ing in numerous vine-like clusters on the bouchots, where they
increase in size with such great rapidity, as speedily to demand
the performance of the next operation in mussel-culture, which
is called the transplanting. It is conducted with a view to the
attainment of two ends: firstly, the thinning of overcrowded
bouchots ; and, secondly, to bring the ripe mussels gradually
nearer to the shore, so as to make their removal all the more
easy at the proper time. The change of habitation is effected
precisely as has already been described ; the mussels are again
tied up in purses of old netting, although not so particularly as
before ; again the mussel, whose power in this way is well
known, weaves itself a new cable, and the bivalve clings to its
new resting-place as tenaciously as ever. It may be asked, why
the mussel-farmers should so plant the mussels as that they will
require constant thinning ; but the reason is, that it is desirable
for the purpose of their proper fattening that the mussels should
be always, if possible, covered by the salt water ; this, however,
is not compatible with the extent of the crop; but all that can
be done is done, and the mussels are kept in the front-ranks as
long as possible. A third and last change brings the mussels
as near the shore as they can ever get, so long as they are
ungathered.

The labour of planting and transplanting goes on inces-
santly, till all the spat that had found a resting-place on the
solitary stakes—that is, the advanced guard—has been dealt
with. The labour of all these varied operations is constant,
and is carried on by old and young, male and female, both
day and night, at times when the tide is suitable. Some
portions of the farm are always under water; other portions
of it, again, are uncovered at the ebbing of the tide ; and this
circumstance, I was told, has a great influence on the quality
of the mussel ; those being the best, as may be supposed, which
are longest submerged, and kept at the greatest distance from
the mud. Although the greatest possible care is taken to keep
the mussels from being affected by the copious muddy deposits
of the place, by means of allowing a. good flow of water between
the base of the bouchots and the sea-surface, yet some of the

286 VIEW OF THE FARM.

bunches become deteriorated, in spite of all the precautions that
can be taken. This, of course, distresses the boucholiers, as
one of their points is the superior flavour of their produce ;
indeed, it was the superiority of the mussels, as discovered by
accident through Walton’s bird-net, which was’ set so as to
float high above the mud—the quality of the mussel more than
the quantity——that influenced Walton to commence as a
mussel-farmer ; and to this day it is still quality more than
quantity that the boucholiers study at Esnandes. After the
process of about a year’s farming has been undergone, the

A MUSSEL-FARM.

mussels are considered to be ready for the market, and by
the care of the farmer, the mussels are in season all the year
round, although, of course, not so good for food at some periods
of the year as at others; thus, the Aiguillon mussels are not
so fine in the spring months as they are in the autumnal
periods of the year, when they became deliciously fat and
savoury ; indeed, I can bear testimony, having had a feast of
them, to the fact of their being better, larger in size, and more
pronounced in their flavour, than any of the British mussels I
have tasted, About April the mussels become milky and

” "MUSSEL COMMERCE. 287

unpalatable, although there are still many branches of them
fit for the market. It is in the months between July and
January that the great harvest goes on, and the chief money-
business is done. If the mussels are to be sent to a distance,
they are separated and cleared from all kinds of dirt, packed
in hampers and bags, and sent away on the backs of horses or
in carts; while those requirgd for more local consumption are
kept in pits dug at the bottom of the cliff, and within the
enclosure where the men keep the trousseau of the bouchots.
There are no less than a hundred and forty horses and about a
hundred carts engaged in the trade; and the mussels are
distributed within a radius of about a hundred miles of Esnandes,
more than thirty thousand journeys being made in the service.
In addition to this land-carrying, forty or fifty barques are in
the habit of visiting the port, to bear away the mussels to still
greater distances, making in all about seven hundred and fifty
voyages per annum,

Does the mussel-farm pay? will, of course, be asked by
practical people. Yes, it pays. I have obtained the following
figures to show that mussel-farming pays very well, not to speak
of what is obtained by the round and flat fish which are daily
captured through the peculiar construction of the bouchots.
Every bouchot will yield a load of mussels for each métre of its
length ; and this load is of the value of six francs; and the
whole farm at Esnandes is said to yield an annual revenue of
about a million and a quarter of francs, or, to speak roundly,
upwards of fifty-two thousand pounds per annum ; and when it
is taken into account that this large sum of money is, as nearly
as possible, a gift from nature to the inhabitants, as there is no
rent to pay for the farm, no seed—as is the case at the’
Whitstable oyster-farm—to provide, no manure to buy—only
the labour necessary for cultivation to be given, British fisher-
men will easily comprehend the advantages to be derived from
mussel-farming.

[Since my visit to Esnandes several changes have been made at the
mussel-farm—more especially in the disposition of the Bouchots—but there
is no difference in the mode of culture. ]

CHAPTER XIV.

—_—_>—

FOREIGN FISHERY EXHIBITIONS AND
HOME AQUARIUMS.

Amsterdam Fishery Exhibition—The Variety of Exhibits at a Fishery
Exhibition—The Dutch Cure—Exhibition at Arcachon—The higher
aspects of a Fishery Exhibition — Questions for Solution — The great
Question, How to Capture !—Mr. Buckland’s Museum of Economic
Fish Culture — The Brighton and Crystal Palace Aquaria, and the
Lessons which may be derived from them.

I wAVE attended no fewer than five general “ Fishery Exposi-
tions.” Only one of these, however— “an exhibition of salmon
ladders, coupled with an inquiry into the present state of the
salmon rivers of Great Britain ”—has been held in this country,
The others were held abroad. The first exhibition of the kind,
and the one which is thought to have been the best, was held at
Amsterdam. It was, as far as it went, a thoroughly practical
exposition of the arts of fishing. One thing it effectually did:
it brought the food-fisheries of Holland (all the continental
fishes, even the most insignificant and repulsive, are used as food)

“into a focus, and allowed people to see what progress was being
made in the arts of fishing, and what position Holland occupies
as a fishing nation compared with France or Britain.

A fishery exhibition, or “exposition,” as it is called, is inter-
esting even to the uninitiated. Much taste is often displayed in
showing the various nets ; and there are always many curiosities
in the shape of fish-traps, such as the quaint-looking cylinders
used for the taking of eels, and the curious cages employed in
the capture of crustaceans, not to speak of some of the unique
self-acting fish-catchers which the French have invented. The
little instrument that gives its death-blow to the monarch of the
sea may be examined, as may the tiny hook that takes the trout
a prisoner. The fishes themselves, either alive or dead, can be

THE HAGUE EXPOSITION. 289

seen in most fishery exhibitions; and, while the epicure may
eye the tid-bits, the economic housewife is taught that all parts
of a fish may be made useful. At the Hague Fishery Ex-
position large jars were exhibited filled with choice morsels
from parts of the cod that have hitherto been thrown away as
inedible. The lips, the cheeks, and the jelly from the head of
that fish, afford choice eating. The merits of Dutch cured her-
ring, i.e. fish pickled with a portion of the intestines left in them,
were at the Hague contrasted with the British mode of curing,
and the Dutch way was found in many respects the best. The
fish-curers always send a good stock of preserved fish to fishery
exhibitions: sardines from Ooncarneau, matie herrings from
Viaardingen, anchovies from Genoa, pickled mackerel, preserved
oysters, fish-flour, etc. etc., are plentifully shown. The “ex-
hibits” in the way of prepared fish-food were very heterogeneous
at all the exhibitions—each curer, of course; showing on his own
behalf. The collection of food-fishes in these shows was nothing
like so perfect as that in the Industrial Museum of Edinburgh ;
where most of the food-fishes—ranging in variety of size and
shape from whitebait to sturgeon—may be seen in a finely pre-
served state.

The ambition of the directors of the exposition at Arcachon
was to show a little of everything connected with the science of
the seas, even to specimens of the ground inhabited by mussels, as
well as bits of rock frequented by the larger crustaceans, The
uses of sea-weed were demonstrated ; the guano made from those
inedible fish with which the sea abounds could also be tested at
the exposition of Arcachon, Various other sea products were
likewise to be seen there, as ambergris, spermaceti, shagreen, the
dye-shells of the Indian Ocean, etc. And, better than all, at
Arcachon exposition the best fishes of the sea could be seen
disporting au naturel. Oysters from the Ile de Ré were also
there, growing on the very tiles which had intercepted them as
spat. Cultivated mussels, so valuable as bait, were likewise ex-
hibited, hanging in beautiful clusters, just as they had grown on
the basket-work erected in the bay of Aiguillon. Crustacean
monsters bounded to and fro in the very unimaginative aquarium
which terminated the chdlet of the exhibition, and which, although
very useful, was very unlike the picturesque fish-house erected
at Boulogne. One of the curiosities of the place was the, Sea-
angler or Fishing Frog, a drawing of which will interest those
of my readers who have never seen a living specimen, Bar-

U

290 THE FISHING FROG.

nacles flourished in some of the salt-water tanks, and the
maladies of fishes were shown in numerous glass jars which
studded the tables and counters of the show-room. The de-
velopment of salmon, from the egg to the animal, was likewise
shown. Pisciculture could be studied, either as developed at
Huningue or as practised in a ruder fashion at more homely
places, The arts of fishing, as known in all countries having

THE FISHING FROG.

access to the sea, were displayed at Arcachon, either by pictures
or models. Pearl-fishing, coral-diving, seal-slaughtering, turtle-
hunting, and the sponge harvest, can all be well represented at
‘a fishery exhibition.

After the eye had been gratified with numerous out-of-the-
way wonders, there are left for the fishery economist certain
higher aspects of the show. All that could be seen, whether of
products or apparatus, supplied texts on- which to hang lay-

QUESTIONS ITERATED. 291

sermons about fish, and the best mode of making them useful
to mankind ; about fisheries, as an outlet for capital, as a
medium for the employment of labour’; not to speak of the
important question—important at least to great maritime nations
like England and France—how far the fisheries may be made to
serve as a training school for either the imperial or the mercan-
tile navy. Nor was the force of any of the expositions expended
even so. It was attempted to illustrate the technology of fish-
eries, as in the arts of boat-building, rigging, sail-making, anchor-
forging, and net-weaving. Attempts were likewise made to
estimate and compare the productive powers of salt and fresh
water, and to measure the additional ascendency which man
might obtain over the ocean if he were thoroughly to culti-
vate it.

None of the exhibitions have yet taught us what we most
want to know as regards the food-fishes of the sea. At what
age (the reader must excuse this iteration) do these animals be-
come reproductive, and how long is it ere their eggs come to
life? Many questions bearing on the natural history of fish
in general, and on the food-fishes in particular, were propounded
at Arcachon ; but have they yet been answered? Of oysters it
was asked—-At what age do they reproduce ? what is the average
number produced by individuals at a time? what causes may
annually influence their fecundity? what is their food? what
substances do they attach themselves to? and how long do they
live? As to fish in general, the following questions were put :—
“What, in all probability, becomes of fish, both migratory and other,
when they cease to show themselves on our coasts? on what.
kind of bottom does each species prefer to deposit its ova? is it
possible to determine the spawning-time of most useful species ?
and is it possible to cause natural and artificial spawning? None
of these questions were answered at Arcachon, nor yet at the
Hague. Nor have our British naturalists ventured to grapple
with them, except in a very superficial way. There was hung
up in the fishery exposition at Boulogne a chart exhibiting
“the grand tour” of the herring, and it was astonishing to
note that many of the visitors were impressed with the belief
that this grand tour was real, and was still going on year after
year! There are naturalists who think the mackerel to be also a
fish of passage, making long voyages from north to south, and
vice vers, The turbot, too, has been described as a migratory
fish, and it has been often asserted that salmon make an annual

292 APPARATUS OF CAPTURE.

visit to the North Pole! Then as to the spawning of fishes
the most absurd ideas used to prevail, All kinds of outré sea
substances were set down as fish-spawn ; and as to the modus
operands of spawning, the queerest fancies were indulged in even
by persons who ought to have known better.

How best to secure the fishes of the sea is still an unsolved
problem. The French have invented various self-acting machines
for their fisheries. One of these, a model of which was shown
at Arcachon, is so contrived that, the moment a large fish is
caught, it gives the signal of its capture by causing a bell to ring !
An ingenious ‘“salmon-catcher,” which is used on some of the
French rivers, excited the attention of the visitors to Arcachon,
It is formed of three large fanners or dippers of strong network,
which revolve on an axis and are driven by the water of the
stream on which they are placed, and in the inner end of each of
the fanners there is a funnel, through which the fishes find their
way into a large reservoir, where they can be detained, in water
of course, till wanted for the table. ‘Throughout France there
are numerous contrivances by which fish capture themselves,
Indeed, at the productive viviers of Monsieur Boistre, situated at
the west end of the basin of Arcachon, the working of the fishery
is so planned that the lagoons form a large reservoir from which
the fish can be easily ladled out as they are wanted for the
market. In the construction of his viviers, the proprietor has
so studied the economy of labour that his staff of workers consists
of only half a dozen persons—a very moderate number when
there are three hundred acres of water, with a great variety of
gates and canals, to be looked after. In Holland there are no
viviers ; and although the numerous canals would give abundant
opportunity for fish-breeding, I could not ascertain that the Dutch
people carried on any system of fish-culture beyond making every
canal, big or little, a reservoir for eels, of which immense
quantities are captured for the Paris, Brussels, and London
markets. It may be said of all these foreign fishery exhibitions
that they were not what is wanted: they were mere temporary
displays, forgotten a day after they were closed ; but what is
wanted is a permanent fishery “exposition,” where the science
of the sea can be always on exhibition, and where those who do
not have business on the great waters may see what men have
to encounter who have.

In Mr, Buckland’s “ Museum of Economic Fish-culture” at
Kensington, the public will find an admirable nucleus of the

BUCKLAND’S MUSEUM. 293

kind of permanent exhibition of fishery products and apparatus
which we should like to see established in all countries, There
are several novelties in Mr. Buckland’s collection well worth
seeing, The casts of large salmon and fine trout so beautifully
coloured by Mr. H. L. Rolfe are exceedingly interesting. There
is a collection at present on view [1873] at South Kensington
which must greatly delight all anglers. I allude to the con-
tributions of stuffed fish which have been sent to the exhibition
by various angling and piscatorial societies. A trout over
fourteen pounds in weight is shown, also a pike which pulled
the scale at twenty-eight pounds, Numerous fine specimens
of carp are likewise to be seen, as also, grayling, bream, and
perch, The cast of the 72 lb. Tay salmon will at once
take the eye. Mr. Rolfe has made it look as like nature as
possible. Mr. Buckland has been very successful from time
to time in his fish hatching operations, especially with the
different kinds of salmon and hybrids of trout. The hatching
was most successful this year, and a very varied stock of
eggs was deposited,* as the following list will show :—Salmo
feroe (hatched out February 22); Rhine salmon (March 9);
Norway trout, Great Lake trout (hatched February 22);
Tyne salmon (hatched February 26); Newstead Abbey
trout (hatched March 14); Neuchatel trout, common trout
(hatched February 20); Salmo fario (hatched March 9) ; silver
char, salmon and: trout hybrids ; sea-trout hybrids from Nunin-
guen (hatched February 27). It would require many pages of
this work to catalogue all the remarkable things connected with
his pet subject, which Mr. Buckland has begged or borrowed
for his exhibition, He stops at nothing from the whitebait to
the whale. When I last visited the museum one great feature
was a large skeleton of the latter animal set up on a.plot of land
outside, it being too large to be accommodated within. Londoners
are now fortunate, for they can see at the museum of economic
fish-culture, and at the aquarium at the Crystal Palace, much
that will interest them in fish life and economy.

The Brighton and Crystal Palace aquaria will do much
to spread a correct knowledge of the life and habits of all kinds of
fish. These exhibitions are exceedingly attractive, and are daily
visited by crowds of persons anxious to see how the inhabitants
of the sea behave in their native element. The aquarium at
Brighton is in a hall by the sea; it is large, commodious,
and convenient, both for the reception of its finny population and

294 .BRIGHTON AQUARIUM.

for obtaining the element in which they live. The Act of
Parliament for the erection of the Brighton Aquarium was
obtained in July 1868, and a year afterwards the building was
commenced, and the aquarium was provisionally opened at
Easter 1872, on the occasion of a visit of his Royal Highness
Prince Arthur ; and on the following August, when the town
was honoured by a visit from the British Association, the
exhibition was finally thrown open to the public. The great
aquarium at the Crystal Palace was opened a year earlier.
Both aquariums are very large. One of the tanks in the
Brighton Aquarium is 100 feet long by 40 feet in width, and
holds 110,000 gallons of sea water. Another tank, the next
largest, is 50 feet by 30 feet, and is situated just opposite the
other large one. No one can pay a visit to either institution
without being struck with the beautiful series of living portraits
of fish and crustaceans which have been provided for his amuse-
ment and instruction. The marine animals which make the
best show are undoubtedly the lobsters and crabs and other
crustaceans: some of the lobsters are exceedingly beautiful, and
the grace of movement exhibited by the shrimps and prawns as
they bound through the depths of their watery home cannot be
excelled by any land animal that I canname. A great variety
of what are technically known as “ground fish” are exhibited
in the tanks in both of these large aquaria, and in time some
interesting discoveries will doubtless result from the continued
observation by the resident naturalists of the haddock and the
herring. It is a treat of a really scientific kind to see the latter
fish in captivity. I have seen the spawn as it burst into
existence, a mere thread which lived but for an instant, and
died as soon as it was born, reminding one of the simile of
Robert Burns

‘« A snowflake falling in the river,
A moment white, then lost for ever.”

It is an achievement to have captured living herrings, and it is a
still greater feat to keep them alive as we see them in the
Brighton aquarium. What may we' not learn from that one
experiment? As I have again and again iterated, what is
chiefly wanted to be known with regard to all fishes is at
what age they become reproductive ; that is the key to the real
economy of the fisheries. Let us but ascertain how long it is
ere a fish reaches the age of reproduction, and the greatest
secret of the sea will then be in our keeping.

FISH MENAGERIES ! 295

It would serve no purpose to describe the varied and
everchanging inhabitants of the tanks at the Crystal Palace and
‘Brighton ; they must be seen in order to be appreciated. New
forms of life are being daily added to the collections, and it is
hoped that many questions of fish life and growth will be
solved by those whose duty it is to watch the daily life of the
inhabitants of these “ ichthyological menageries,” if I may be
allowed such aterm. It may be interesting, by the by, to note
here that in America they have started travelling shows of

SILURIS GLANIS.

living fish, which visit the inland towns, and delight hundreds
who never before saw a lobster or an aquatic sheep’s head. I
do not undervalue the study of fancy fishes, and no doubt
it interests a large number of miscellaneous visitors to view
the sea-horse, the butter-fish, and other curiosities of marine
life; but I am in hopes that real good work will yet be

achieved by means of these aquaria, and that many points

296 PROBLEM FOR SOLUTION.

of fish life and economy, especially as regards our food fishes,
will be determined by Mr. Lloyd at Brighton, and Mr. Saville
Kent at the Crystal Palace. In particular, I hope that one
or other of these gentlemen will solve a great many of the
questions which have been promulgated during late years in
regard to the acclimatisation in this country of various kinds
of foreign ‘fishes, about which a great deal was at one
time spoken and written, but about which to-day all men are
silent, What about the Stluris glanis which some seven or -
eight years ago was to become a British fish par excellence? So
far as I can ascertain, notwithstanding the parade that was
made at the time with regard to the introduction of the Siluris
glanis into this country, all attempts to acclimatise it have
failed. I gave a figure of the fish in the first and second
editions of the Harvest of the Sea, and as many of my present
readers may feel some curiosity about it, I beg to reproduce it.

In all probability great marine aquaria will multiply. We
shall have them not only at all our great sea-side resorts, but
in London and in other large inland towns as well. There is
nothing to prevent their being erected at any distance from the
sea. The Crystal Palace Aquarium Company have solved any
riddle that might pertain to that part of the question. Indeed
it is a mistake to suppose that fish or other sea animals cannot
be kept in healthy life without sea-water. In the Jardin
@ Acclimatisation at Paris there was an aquarium (and notwith-
standing the events of the war it may be there yet), which was
kept going in great style by means of a mixture of salt and
water, In Glasgow, for instance, a large Aquarium could easily
be erected, and I feel“sure it.would prove a great attraction,
and what is of greater importance—it would pay! The proper
site for it would be in the West-end Park. I have no intention
of writing a disquisition on the scientific portion of the aquarium,
more especially as regards the sweetening of the water and the
best methods of aération ; these matters may be studied on the
spot ; the resident authorities at Brighton and Sydenham will be
only too happy to give information on the subject, and excellent
handbooks have been issued for both establishments. The real
value, however, of these institutions will consist in their solving
the problems connected with our food fishes, and it is to be hoped
that at an early date lectures and illustrative descriptions of the
fishes in the tanks by experts will be instituted as a feature of
the exhibitions,

1
PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED. 297

One problem that might be solved by means of a great
aquarium is the Pearl problem. ‘ What is a Pearl?” has
been often asked. But it is a question which no man has yet
been able to answer. Some say that these gems are the result
of disease in the animal, while others maintain the pearl to be
produced by the introduction of some foreign substance into the
Shell, Having studied the question a little, more especially as
concerns the Scottish pearl, I have come to the conclusion that
the production of the pearl is quite accidental, and that, as has
been asserted by some writers on the subject, it is not a result
of a hereditary kind, There is no special breed of mussels that

produces the pearl, The above drawings of Scottish pearl shells
are very accurate, and give a good ‘idea of the style of mussel
which produces the most beautiful gem of Scotland. Practised
collectors always select deformed or “ wrinkled ” shells as being
more likely to contain pearls than those of a smooth surface.
Scottish pearls have become scarce of late, owing to their
having been so largely fished for ten years ago—another proof

298 PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED.

of that wanton disturbance of the balance of nature which
always brings its own punishment. ‘Leaving the solution of
the pearl problem, both as regards the fresh-water production
and that of the sea—the Scottish gem and the Oriental one—
to one or other of these great aquaria, we take leave of the
subject. If either of these valuable institutions succeed in
growing “ropes of pearls,” I trust the directors won’t forget
who first suggested such a remunerative industry.

CHAPTER XV.

—+—
THE FISHER-FOLK.

The Fisher-People the same everywhere—Growth of a Fishing Village—
Marrying and giving in Marriage —-Newhaven, near Edinburgh_—New-
haven Fishwives—A Fishwife’s mode of doing Business—Supersti-
tions—Dunbar—Buckhaven—Scene of the Antiquary : Auchmithie—
Smoking Haddocks—The Round of Fisher Life—Fittie and its quaint
Inhabitants.

A Boox describing the harvest of the sea must of necessity con-
tain a chapter about the quaint people who gather in that
harvest, otherwise it would be like playing “ Hamlet” without
the hero, I have a considerable acquaintance with the fisher-
folk; and while engaged in collecting information about the
fisheries, and in investigating the natural history of the herring
and other food-fishes, have visited most of the Scottish fishing
villages and many of the English ones, nor have I neglected
Normandy, Brittany, and Picardy; and wherever I went
I found the fisher-folk to be the same, no matter whether
they talked a French patois or a Scottish dialect, such as one
may hear at Buckie on the Moray Firth, or in the Rue de Pollet
of Dieppe. The manners, customs, mode of life, and even the
dréss and superstitions, are nearly the same on the coast of
France as they are on the coast of Fife, and used-up gentlemen
in search of seaside sensations could scarcely do better than
take a tour among the Scottish fisher-folks, in order to view
the wonders of the fishing season, its curious industry, and the
quaint people. There are scenes on the coast worthy of any
sketch-book ; there are also curious seaside resorts that have not
yet been vulgarised by hordes of summer visitors—infant fish-
ing villages, set down by accident in the most romantic spots,
occupied by hardy men and rosy women, who have children
“paidling” in the water or building castles upon the sand.

300 GROWTH OF A FISHING VILLAGE.

Such seascapes—for they look more like pictures than realities
—may be witnessed from the deck of the steamboat on the way
to Inverness or Ultima Thule.

Looking from the steamer—if one cannot see the coast in
any other way—at one of these embryo communities, one may
readily guess, from the fond attitude of the youthful pair who
are leaning on the old boat, that another cottage will speedily
require to be added to the two now existing. Ina few years
there will be another ; in course of time the four may be eight,
the eight sixteen ; and lo! ina generation there is built a large
village, with its adult population gaining wealth by mining in
the silvery quarries of the sea; and by and by we will see with
a pleased eye groups of youngsters splashing in the water or
gathering seaware on the shore, and old men pottering about the
rocks setting lobster-pots, doing business in the crustaceous deli-
cacies of the season. And on glorious afternoons, when the
atmosphere is pure, and the briny perfume delicious to inhale
—when the water glances merrily in the sunlight, and the sails
of the dancing boats are just filled by a capful of wind—the
people ‘will be out to view the scene and note the growing
industry of the place ; and, as the old song says—

“O weel may the boatie row,
And better may she speed ;
And muckle luck attend the boat
That wins the bairnies’ bread.”

In good time the little community will have its annals of births,
marriages, and deaths; its chronicles of storms, its records of
disasters, and its glimpses of prosperity ; and in two hundred
years its origin may be lost and the inhabitants of the original
village represented by descendants in the sixth generation.
At any rate, boats will increase, curers of herrings and
merchants who buy fish will visit the village and circulate
their money, and so the place will thrive. If a pier should be
built, and a railway branch out to it, who knows but it may
become a great port ?

I first became acquainted with the fisher-folk by assisting
at a fisherman’s marriage. Marrying and giving in marriage
involves an occasional festival among the fisher-folks of New-
haven of drinking and dancing —and all the fisher-folks are
fond of the dance. In the more populous fishing towns there
are usually a dozen or two of marriages to celebrate at the close

FISHER WEDDINGS. 301

of each herring season; and as these weddings are what are
called in Scotland penny weddings—7‘.c. weddings at which
each guest pays a small sum for his entertainment, there is
no difficulty in obtaining admission to the ceremony and
customary rejoicings. Young men often wait till the close of
the annual fishing before they venture into the matrimonial
noose; and I have seen at Newhaven as many as eight
marriages in one evening. It has. been said that a “lucky”
day, or rather night, is usually chosen for the ceremony,
for “luck” is the ruling deity of the fishermen; but as
regards the marriage customs of the fisher-class, it was ex-
plained to me that marriages were always held on a Friday
(usually thought to be an unlucky day), from no superstitious
feeling or notion, as was sometimes considered by strangers,
but simply that the fishermen might have the last day of the
week (Saturday) and the Sunday to enjoy themselves with
their friends and acquaintances, instead of, if their weddings
took place on Monday or Tuesday, breaking up the whole
week afterwards. I considered this a sort of feasible and
reasonable explanation of the matter. On such occasions as
those of marriage there is great bustle and animation. The
guests are invited two days beforehand by the happy couple
un propriis personis, and means are taken to remind their friends
again of the ceremony on the joyous day. At the proper time
the parties,meet—the lad in his best blue suit, and the lass
and all the other maidens dressed in white—and walk to the
manse or church, as the case may be, or the minister is “‘ trysted ”
to come to the bride’s father’s residence. There is a great
dinner provided for the happy occasion, usually served ata small
inn or public-house when there is a very large party. All the
best viands which can be thought of are procured: fish, flesh,
and fowl; porter, ale, and whisky, are all to be had at these
banquets, not forgetting the universal dish of skate, which is
produced at all fisher marriages. After dinner comes the
collection, when the best man, or some one of the company,
goes round and gets a shilling or a sixpence from each. This
is the mode of celebrating a penny wedding, and all are welcome
who like to attend,.the bidding being general. The evening
winds up, so far as the young folks are concerned, with unlimited
‘dancing. In fact dancing at one time used to be the favourite
recreation of the fisher-folk, In a dull season they would dance
for “luck,” in a plentiful season for joy—anything served as an

302 NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES.

excuse for a dance. On the wedding-night the old folks sit
and ,enjoy themselves with a bowl of punch and a smoke,
talking of old times and old fishing adventures, storms, miracu-
lous hauls, etc.; in short, like old military or naval veterans,
they have a strong penchant“ to fight their battles o’er again.”
The fun grows fast and furious with all concerned, till the tired
body. gives warning that it is time to desist, and by and by
all retire, and life in the fishing village resumes its old jog-
trot.

It would take up-too much space, and weary the reader
besides, were I to give in detail an account of all the fishing
places I have visited. My purpose will be amply served by a
glance at a few of the Scottish fishing villages, which, with
the information I can interpolate about the fisher-folks of the
coast of France, and the eel-breeders of Comacchio, not
to mention those of Northumberland and Yorkshire, will be
quite sufficient to give the general reader a tolerable idea
of this interesting class of people; and to suit my own
convenience I will begin at the place where I witnessed the
marriage.

Newhaven is most celebrated for its “ fishwives,” who were
declared by King George IV. to be the handsomest women he
had ever seen, and were looked upon by Queen Victoria with
eyes of wonder and admiration. The Newhaven fishwife must
not be confounded by those who are unacquainted in the locality
with the squalid fish-hawkers of Dublin; nor, although they
can use strong language occasionally, are they to be taken as
examples of the genus peculiar to Billingsgate. The Newhaven
women are more like the buxom dames of the market of Paris,
though their glory of late years has been somewhat dulled.
There is this, however, to be said of them, that they are as
much of the past as the present; in dress and manners they are
the same now as they were a hundred years ago; they take a
pride in conserving all their traditions and characteristics, so
that their customs appear unchangeable, and are never, at any
tate, influenced by the alterations which art, science, and
literature produce on the country at large. Before the railway
era, the Newhaven fishwife was a great fact, and could be met
with in Edinburgh in her picturesque costume of short but
voluminous and gaudy petticoats, shouting “Caller herrings !”
or “‘Wha'll buy my caller cod ?” with all the energy that a
strong pair of lungs could supply. Then, in the evening, there

NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES. 303

entered the city the oyster-wench, with her prolonged musical
aria of “ Wha’ll o’ caller ou?” But the spread of fishmongers’
shops and the increase of oyster-taverns is doing away with
this picturesque branch of the business, Forty years ago

NEWHAVEN FISHWIVES,

nearly the whole of the fishermen of the Firth of Forth, in
view of the Edinburgh market, made for Newhaven with their
cargoes of white fish ; and these, at that time, were all bought
up by the women, who carried them on their backs to Edinburgh
in creels, and then hawked them through the city. The sight
of a bevy of fishwives in the streets of the Modern Athens,
although comparatively rare, may still occasionally be enjoyed ;

but the railways have lightened their labours, and we do not

304. BARGAINING.

find them climbing the Whale Brae with a hundredweight, or
two hundredweight, perhaps, of fish, to be sold in driblets, for
a few pence, all through Edinburgh.

The industry of fishwives is proverbial, their chief maxim
being, that “the woman that canna work for a man is no worth
ane ;” and accordingly they undertake the task of disposing of
the merchandise, and acting as Chancelor of the Exchequer.
Their husbands have only to catch the fish, their labour being
finished as soon as the boats touch the quay. The Newhaven
fishwife’s mode of doing business is well known. She is always
supposed to ask double or triple what she will take; and, on
occasions of bargaining she is sure, in allusion to the hazardous
nature of the gudeman’s occupation, to tell her customers that
“fish are no fish the day, they’re just men’s lives.” The style
of higgling adopted when dealing with the fisher-folk, if at-
tempted in other kinds of commerce, gives rise to the well-
known Scottish reproach of “‘D’ye tak’ me for a fishwife?”
The style of bargain-making carried on by the fishwives may be
illustrated by the following little scene :—

A servant girl having just beckoned to one of them, is
answered by the usual interrogatory, ‘“ What's yer wull the day,
my bonnie lass?” and the “mistress” being introduced, the
following conversation takes place :—

a Come awa, mem, an’ see what bonnie fish I hae the day.”

“ Have you any haddocks ”

“ Ay hae I, mem, an’ as bonnie fish as ever ye clappit yer
twa een on.”

“ What's the price of these four small ones ?”

“ What's yer wull, mem ?”

“T wish these small ones.”

““What d’ye say, mem? sma’ haddies ! they’s no sma’ fish,
an they’re the bonniest I hae in a’ ma creel.”

“Well, never mind, what do you ask for them?”

a Weel, mem, its been awfw wather o’ late, an’ the men
canna get fish ; yell no grudge me twentypence for thae four ?”

a Twentypence ! 1?

“ Ay, mem; what for no?”

“They are too dear ; I'll give—”

“ What dye say, mem ! ! ower dear! I wish ye kent it: but
what'll ye gie me for thae four ?”

“Tl give you a sixpence,”

“Ye'll gie me a what?”

ANECDOTE OF A FISHWIFE. 305

“A sixpence.”

“I daur say ye wull, ma bonny leddy, but ye’ll no get thae
four fish for twa sixpences this day.”

“‘T’ll not give more.”

“Well, mem, gude day” (making preparations to go);
“T'll take eighteenpence an’ be dune wi’t.”

“No; I'll give you twopence each for them.”

And so the chaffering goes on, till ultimately the fishwife
will take tenpence for the lot, and this plan of asking double
what will be taken, which is common with them all and
sometimes succeeds with simple housewives, will be repeated
from door to door, till the supply be exhausted. The mode
of doing business with a fishwife is admirably illustrated in
the Antiquary. When Monkbarns bargains for “the bannock-
fluke” (turbot) and “ the cock-padle” (the lump-sucker), Maggie
Mucklebackit asks four shillings and sixpence, and ends, after a
little negotiation and’ much finesse, in accepting half-a-crown
and a dram ; the latter commodity being worth siller just then,
in consequence of the stoppage of the distilleries.

The fishwives while selling their fish will often say some-
thing quaint to the customer with whom they are dealing. I
will give one instance of this, which, though somewhat ludi-
crous, is characteristic, and have no doubt the words were
spoken from the poor woman’s heart. “A fishwife who was
~ erying her ‘ caller cod’ in George Street, Edinburgh, was stopped
by.a cook at the head of one of the area stairs. A cod was
wanted that day for the dinner of the family, but the cook
and the fishwife could not trade, disagreeing about the price.
The night had been stormy, and instead of the fishwife flying
into a passion, as is their general custom when bargaining for
their fish if opposed in getting their price, the poor woman
shed tears, and said to the cook, ‘Tak’ it or want it ; ye may
think it dear, but it’s a’ that’s left to me for a faither o’ four
bairns,’”

Notwithstanding, however, their lying and cheating in
the streets during the week when selling their fish, there are
no human beings in Scotland more regular in their attendance
at church. To go to their church ona Sunday, and see the
women all sitting with their smooth glossy hair and snow-white
caps, staring with open eyes and mouth at the minister, as he
exhorts them from the pulpit as to what they should do, one
would think them the most innocent and simple creatures in

x

306 FISHER LIFE,

existence. But offer one of them a penny less than she feels
inclined to take for a haddock, and he is a lucky fellow who
escapes without its tail coming across his whiskers. Of late
our fishwives have been considering themselves of some import-
ance. When the Queen came first to Edinburgh, she happened
to take notice of them, and every printshop window was then
stuck full of pictures of Newhaven fishwives in their quaint
costume of short petticoats of flaming red and yellow colours.
They wear a dress of a peculiar and appropriate fashion, consist-
ing of a long blue duffle jacket, with wide sleeves, a blue petti-
coat usually tucked up so as to form a pocket, and in order to
show off their ample under petticoats of bright-coloured woollen
stripe, reaching to the calf of the leg. It may be remarked
that the upper petticoats are of a striped sort of stuff technically
called, we believe, drugget, and are always of different colours.
As the women carry their load of fish on their backs in creels,
supported by a broad leather belt resting forwards on the fore-
head, a thick napkin is their usual headdress, although often a
muslin cap, or mutch, with a very broad frill, edged with lace,
and turned back on the head, is seen peeping from under the
napkin, A variety of kerchiefs or small shawls similar to that
on the head encircle the neck and bosom, which, with thick
worsted stockings and a pair of stout shoes, complete the
costume.

The sketch of fisher-life in the Antiquary applies as well to
the fisher-folk of to-day as to those of sixty years since. This
is demonstrable at Newhaven; which, though fortunate in
having a pier as a rendezvous for its boats, thus admitting of a
vast saving of time and labour, is yet far behind inland villages
in point of sanitary arrangements, There is in the “town” an
everlasting scent of new tar, and a permanent smell of decaying
fish, for the dainty visitors who go down to the village of
Edinburgh to partake of the fish-dinners for which it is 80
celebrated. Up the narrow closes, redolent of “bark,” we
see hanging on the outside stairs the paraphernalia of the
fisherman—his “properties,” as an actor would call them ; nets,
bladders, lines, and oilskin unmentionables, with dozens of pairs
of those particularly blue stockings that seem to be the universal
wear of both mothers and maidens. On the stair itself sit, if it
be seasonable weather, the wife and daughters, repairing the
nets and baiting the lines—gossiping of course with opposite
neighbours, who are engaged in a precisely similar pursuit ; and

INTERIOR OF A FISHERMAN’S HOUSE, 307

to day, as half a century ago, the fishermen sit beside their
hauled-up boats, in their white canvas trousers and their
Guernsey shirts, smoking their short pipes, while their wives
and daughters are so employed, seeming to have no idea of any-
thing in the shape.of labour being a duty of theirs when ashore.
In the flowing gutter, which trickles down the centre of the
old village, we have the young idea developing itself in plenty of
noise, and adding another layer to the incrustation of dirt which
it seems to be the sole business of these children to collect on
their bodies. These juvenile fisher-folk have already learned
from the mud-larks of the Thames the practice of sporting on
the sands before the hotel windows, in the expectation of being
rewarded with a few halfpence. ‘ What's the use of asking
for siller before they’ve gotten their denner?” we once heard
one of these precocious youths say to another, who was proposing
to solicit a bawbee from a party of strangers,

To see the people of Newhaven, both men and women, one
would be apt to think that their social condition was one of
great hardship and discomfort: but one has only to enter their
dwellings in order to be disabused of this notion, and to be
convinced of the reverse of this, for there are few houses among
the working population of Scotland which can compare with
the well-decked and well-plenished dwellings of these fishermen.
Within doors all is neat and tidy. When at the marriage I
have mentioned, I thought the house I was invited to was the

- cleanest and the cosiest-looking house I had ever seen. Never
did I see before so many plates and bowls in any private
dwelling ; and on all of them, cups and saucers not excepted,
fish, with their fins spread wide out, were painted in glowing
colours ; and in their dwellings and domestic arrangements the
Newhaven fishwives are the cleanest women in Scotland, and
the comfort of their husbands when they return from their
labours on the wild and dangerous deep seems to be the fish-
wife’s chief delight. I may also mention that none of the young
women of Newhaven will take a husband out of their own
community, that they are as rigid in this matrimonial observance
as if they were all Jewesses.*

* “There fishermen and fishermen’s daughters marry and are given in
marriage to each other with a sacredness only second to the strictness of
intermarriage observed among the Jews. On making inquiry we find that
occasionally one of these buxom young damsels chooses a husband for her-
self elsewhere than from among her own community ; but we understand

308 “THE MAN IN THE BLACK COAT.”

The remains of many old superstitions are still to be found
about Newhaven. I could easily fill a page or two of this
volume with illustrative anecdotes of sayings and doings that
are abhorrent to the fisher mind. The following are given as
the merest sample of the number that might be collected.
They have several times “gone the round” of the newspapers,
but are none the worse for that :—

If an uninitiated greenhorn of a landsman chanced to be on
board of a Newhaven boat, and, in the ignorance and simplicity
of his heart, talked about “ salmon,” the whole crew—at least a,
few years ago—would start, grasp the nearest iron thowell, and
exclaim, “‘ Cauld iron! cauld iron!” in order to avert the
calamity which such a rash use of the appellation was calculated
-to induce ; and the said uninitiated gentleman would very likely
have been addressed in some such courteous terms as “O ye
igrant brute, cud ye no ca’d it redfish?” Woe to the unfortunate.
wight—be he Episcopalian or Presbyterian, Churchman or
Dissenter—who being afloat talks about “‘ the minister :” there
is a kind of undefined terror visible on every countenance if
haply this unlucky word is spoken; and I would advise my
readers, should they hereafter have occasion, when water-borne,

that when this occurs the bride loses caste, and has to follow the future
fortunes of the bridegroom, whatever these may turn out to be. Speaking
of marriages, the present great scarcity both of beef and mutton, and the
consequent high price of these articles of food, seems in no way to terrify
the denizens of Newhaven, for there the matrimonial knot is being briskly
tied. While chatting with some of the fishermen just the other day we
heard that two of these celebrations had taken place the night before, and
that other four weddings were expected to come off during this week ; and
we both heard and saw the fag end of the musical and dancing jollification,
which was held in a public-house on these two recent occasions, and which
was kept up until far on in the next afternoon. We can see little to tempt
the young women of Newhaven to enter into the marriage state, for it
seems only to increase their bodily labour. This circumstance, however,
would appear to be no obstacle in the way; but rather to spur them on ;
and we recollect of once actually hearing, when a girl rather delicate for a
Newhaven young woman was about to be married, another girl, a strapping
lass of about eighteen, thus express herself :—‘‘ Jenny Flucker takin’ a
man! she’s a gude cheek ; hoo is she tae keep him? the puir man’ll hae
tae sell his fish as weel as catch them.” When upon this subject of inter-
marriages among the Newhaven people it is proper to mention that we
heard contradictory accounts regarding the point; some saying that no
such custom existed, or at least that no such rule was enforced by the
community, while another account was that only one marriage out of
the community had, so far as had come to the knowledge of our infor-
mant, taken place during the last eight or nine years.” —North Briton.

ANTIPATHY TO SWINE. 309

to speak of a clergyman, to call him “the man in the black
coat ;” the thing will be equally well understood, and can give
offence to none. I warn them, moreover, to be guarded and
circumspect should the idea of a cat ora pig flit across their
minds ; and should necessity demand the utterance of their
names, let the one be called “‘ Theebet” and the other “ Sandy ;”
so shall they be landed on terra firma in safety, and neither their
ears nor their feelings be insulted by piscatory wit. In the same
category must be placed every four-footed beast, from the ele-
phant moving amongst the jungles of Hindostan to the mouse
that burrows under the cottage hearth-stone. Some quadrupeds,
however, are more “ unlucky” than others ; dogs are detestable,
hogs horrible, and hares hideous! It would appear that Friday,
for certain operations, is the most unfortunate ; for others the
most auspicious day in the week. On that day no sane fisher-
man would commence a Greenland voyage, or proceed to the
herring-ground, and on no other day of the week would he be
married,

In illustration of the peculiar dread and antipathy of fisher-
men to swine, I give the following extract from a volume
published by a schoolmaster, entitled An Historical Account of
St. Monance, The town is divided into two divisions, the one
called Nethertown and the other Overtown—the former being
inhabited entirely by fishermen, and the latter by agriculturists
and petty tradesmen :—‘ The inhabitants of the Nethertown
entertained a most deadly hatred towards swine, as ominous of
evil, insomuch that not one was kept amongst them; and if
their eyes haplessly lighted upon one in any quarter, they
abandoned their mission and fled from it as they would from a
lion, and their occupation was suspended till the ebbing and
flowing of the tide had effectually removed the spell. The same
devils were kept, however, in the Uppertown, frequently affording
much annoyance to their neighbours below, on account of their
casual intrusions, producing much damage by suspension of
labour, At last, becoming quite exasperated, the decision of
their oracle was to go in a body and destroy not the animals
(for they dared not hurt them), but all who bred and fostered
such demons, looking on them with a jealous eye, on account of
their traffic. Armed with boat-hooks, they ascended the hill in
formidable procession, and dreadful had been the consequence
had they not been discovered. But the Uppertown, profiting by
previous remonstrance, immediately let loose their swine, whose

*

310 CREEL-HAWKING,

grunt and squeak chilled the most heroic blood of the enemy,
who, on beholding them, turned and fied down the hill with
tenfold speed, more exasperated than ever, secreting themselves
till the flux and reflux of the tide had undone the enchantment.

According to the most authentic tradition, not an
animal of the kind existed in the whole territories of ‘St. Mon-
ance for nearly a century ; and, even at the present day, though
they are fed and eaten, the fisher people are extremely averse to
looking on them or speaking of them by that name; but, when
necessitated to mention the animal, it is called ‘ the beast,’ or
‘the brute,’ and, in case the. real name of the animal should
accidentally be mentioned, the spell is undone by a less tedious
process—the exclamation of ‘ cauld iron’ by the person affected
being perfectly sufficient to counteract the evil influence. Cauld
iron, touched or expressed, is understood to be the first antidote
against enchantment.”

The system of merchandise followed by the fishwives in the
old days of creel-hawking, and even yet to a considerable extent,
was very simple. Having procured a supply of fish; which
having bestowed in a basket of a form fitted to the back, they
used to trudge off to market under a load which most men would
have had difficulty in carrying, and which would have made
even the strongest stagger. Many of them still proceed to the
market, and display their commodities ; but the majority, per-
haps, perambulate the streets of the city, emitting cries which,
to some persons, are more loud than agreeable, and which a
stranger would never imagine to have the most distant connec-
tion with fish. Occasionally, too, they may be seen pulling the
door-bell of some house where they are in the habit of disposing
of their merchandise, with the blunt inquiry, “‘ Ony haddies the
day?”

While treating of the peculiarities of these people, I may
record the following characteristic anecdote :—“ A clergyman,
in whose parish a pretty large fishing-village is situated, in his
visitations among the families of the fish-carriers found that the
majority of them had never partaken of the sacrament, Interro-
gating them regarding the reason of this neglect, they candidly
admitted to him that their trade necessarily led them so much
to cheat and tell lies, that they felt themselves unqualified to
join in that religious duty.” It is but justice, however, to add
that, when confidence is reposed in them, nothing can be more
fair and upright than the dealings of the fisher class ; and, as

.

PRESTONPANS. 311

dealers in a commodity of very fluctuating value, they cannot
perhaps be justly blamed for endeavouring to sell it to the best
advantage.

At Prestonpans, and the neighbouring village of Cockenzie,
the modern system, as I may call it, for Scotland, of selling the
fish wholesale, may be seen in daily operation. When the boats
arrive at the boat-shore, the wives of those engaged in the fish-
ing are in readiness to obtain the fish, and carry them from the
boats to the place of sale, They are at once divided into lots,
and put up to auction, the skipper’s wife acting as the George
Robins of the company, and the price obtained being divided
among the crew, who are also, generally speaking, owners of the
boat. Buyers, or their agents, from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liver-
pool, Manchester, etc., are always ready to purchase, and in a
few hours the scaly produce of the Firth of Forth is being
whisked along the railway at the rate of twenty miles an hour.
This system, which is certainly a great improvement on the old
creel-hawking plan, is a faint imitation of what is done in Eng-
land, where the owners of fishing-smacks consign their produce
to a wholesale agent at Billingsgate, who sells it by auction in
lots to the retail dealers and costermongers.

Farther along on the Scottish east coast is North Berwick,
now a bathing resort, and a fishing town as well; and farther
east still is Dunbar, the seat of an important herring-fishery—
grown from a fishing village into a country town, in which a
mixture of agricultural and fishing interests gives the place a
somewhat heterogeneous aspect ; and between St. Abb’s Head
and Berwick-on-T'weed is situated Eyemouth, a fishing-village
pure and simple, with all that wonderful filth scattered about
which is a sanitary peculiarity of such towns. The population
of Eyemouth is in keeping with the outward appearance of the
place. As a whole, they are a rough uncultivated people, and
more drunken in their habits than the fishermen of the neigh-
bouring villages. Coldingham Shore, for instance, is only three
miles distant, and has a population of about one hundred fisher-
men, of a very respectable class, sober, well-dressed, and “ well-
to-do.” A year or two ago an outburst of what is called “ re-
vivalism ” took place at Eyemouth, and seemed greatly to affect
it. The change produced for a time was unmistakable. These
rude unlettered fishermen ceased to visit the public-houses,
refrained from the use of oaths, and instead sang psalms and said
prayers, But this wave of revivalism, which passed over other

312 BUCKHAVEN.

villages besides Eyemouth, has rolled away back, and in some
instances left the people worse than it found them.

Crossing the Firth of Forth, the coast of Fife, from Burnt-
island to “the East Neuk,” will be found studded at intervals
with quaint fishing-villages ; and the quaintest among the quaint
is Buckhaven. ‘ Buckhaven, or, as it is locally named, Buckhyne,
as seen from the sea, is a picturesque group of houses sown
broadcast on a low cliff. Indeed, most fishing villages seem
thrown together without any kind of plan. The local architects
had never thought of building their villages in rows or streets ;
as the fisher-folks themselves say, their houses are “ a’ heids and
thraws,” that is, set down here and there without regard to
architectural arrangement. The origin of Buckhaven is rather
obscure: it is supposed to have been founded by the crew of a
Brabant vessel, wrecked on that portion of the Fife coast in the
reign of Philip II. The population are, like most of their class,
a peculiar people, living entirely among themselves; and any
stranger settling among them is viewed with such suspicion that
years will often elapse before he is adopted as one of the com-
munity. One of the old Scottish chap-books is devoted to a
satire of the Buckhaven people. These old chap-books are now
rare, and to obtain them involves a considerable amount of
trouble, Thirty years ago the chapmen were still-carrying them
about in their packs: now it is pleasing to think they have been
superseded by the admirable cheap periodicals which are so
numerous and so easy to purchase. The title of the chap-book
referred to above is, The History of Buckhaven in Fifeshire, con-
taining the Witty aad Entertaining Emploits of Wise Willie and
Witty Eppie, the Ale-wife, with a description of their College, Coats
of Arms, etc. It would be a strong breach of etiquette to mention
the title of this book to any of the Buckhaven people; it is
difficult to understand how they should feel so sore on the point,
as the pamphlet in question is a collection of very vulgar
witticisms tinged with such a dash of obscenity as prevents their
being quoted here. The industrious fishermen of Buckhaven
are moral, sober, and comparatively wealthy. As denoting
the prosperous state of the people of Buckhaven, it may be
stated that most of the families there have saved money ; and
not a few of them have a bank account, as well as consider-
able capital in boats, nets, and lines, Fishermen, being much
away from home, at the herring-fishery or out at the deep-
sea fishing, have no temptation to spend their earnings or

CO-OPERATION AMONG THE FISHERS. 313

waste their time in the tavern. Indeed, in some Scottish fishing
villages there is not even a public-house. The Buckhaven men
delight in their boats, which are mostly “ Firth-built,”—1.¢,
built at Leith on the Firth of Forth. Each boat with its appur-
tenances has generally more than one owner ; in other words, it
is held in shares, This is rather an advantage than otherwise,
as every vessel requires a crew of four men at any rate, so that
each boat is usually manned by two or three of its owners—a
pledge that it will be looked carefully after and not be exposed
to needless danger. With all the youngsters of a fishing village
it is a point of ambition to obtain a share of a boat as soon as
ever they can ; so that they save hard from their allowances as
extra hands, in order to attain as early as possible to the dignity
of proprietorship. We look in vain, except at such wonderful
places as Rochdale, to find manufacturing operatives in a similar
financial position to these Buckhaven men : in fact, our fishermen
have been practising the plan of co-operation for years without
knowing it, and without making it known. The co-operative
system seems to prevail among the English fisher-folk as well.
At Filey, on the Yorkshire coast, many of the large fishing yawls
—these vessels average about 40 tous each—are built by little
companies and worked on the sharing principle: so much to
the men who find the bait, and so much to each man who
provides a net; and a few shillings per pound of the weekly
earnings of the ship go to the owners, In France there are
various ways of engaging the boats and conducting the fisheries.
There are some men who fish on their awn account, who have
their own boat, sail, and nets, etc., and who find their own bait,
whether at the sardine-fishery or when prosecuting any other
branch of the sea-fisheries, Of course these boat-owners hire
what assistance they require, and pay for it. There are other
men again who hire a boat, and work it on the sharing plan, each
man getting so much, the remainder being left for the owner. A
third class of persons are those who work off their advances :
these are a class of men so poor as to be obliged to pawn their
labour to the boat-owners long before it is required. We can
parallel this at home in the herring-fishery, where the advance
of money to the men has become something very like a curse to
all concerned.

The retired Buckhaven fishermen can give interesting in-
formation about the money value of the fisheries. One, who
was a young fellow five-and-thirty years ago, told me the

314 AUCHMITHIE.

herring-fishery was a kind of lottery, but that, on an average
of years, each boat would take annually something like a hun-
dred crans—the produce, in all cases where the crew were part
owners, after deducting a fifth part or so to keep up the boat,
being equally divided. “When I was a younker, sir,” said
this person, ‘there was lots o’ herrin’, an’ we had a fine winter
fishin’ as well, an’ sprats in plenty. As to white fish, they
were abundant five-an’-twenty years ago. Haddocks now are
searce to be had ; being an inshore fish, they’ve been a’ ta’en, in
my opinion. Line-fishin’ was very profitable from 1830 to 1840.
I’ve seen as many as a hunder thoosand fish o’ ae kind or
anither ta’en by the Buckhyne boats in a week—that is, countin’
baith inshore boats an’ them awa at the Dogger Bank. The
lot brocht four hunder pound ; but a’ kinds of fish are now sae
scarce that it taks mair than dooble the labour to mak the same
money that was made then.”

I will now carry the reader with me to a very quaint place
indeed, the scene of Sir Walter Scott’s novel of The Antiquary
—Auchmithie. The supposed scene of Sir Walter Scott’s novel
of The Antiquary, on the coast of Forfarshire, presents a con-
junction of scenic and industrial features which commends it to
notice. At Auchmithie, which is distant a few miles from
Arbroath, there is often some cause for excitement ; and a real
storm or a real drowning is something vastly different from the
shipwreck in the drama of The Tempest, or the death of the
Colleen Bawn. The beetling cliffs barricading the sea from the
land may be traversed by the tourist to the music of the everlast-
ing waves, the dashing of which only makes the deep solitude
more solemn ; the sea-gull sweeps around with its shrill cry, and
playful whales gambol in the placid waters.

The village of Auchmithie, which is wildly grand and
romantic, stands on the top of the cliffs, and as the road to it
is steep, a great amount of labour devolves on the fishermen in
carrying down their lines and nets, and carrying up their pro-
duce, etc. One customary feature observed by strangers on
entering Auchmithie is, that when met by female children they
invariably stoop down, making a very low curtsey, and for this
piece of polite condescension they expect that a few halfpence
will be thrown to them. If you pass on without noticing them
they will not ask for anything, but once throw them a few
halfpence and a pocketful will be required to satisfy their
importunities. There are two roads leading to Auchmithie

A FISHING “ TOUN.” 315

from Arbroath, one along the sea-coast, the other through the
country. The distance is about 34 miles in a north-east
direction, and the country road is the best ; and approaching
the village in that direction it has a very fair aspect. Two rows
of low-built slate-roofed houses, and a school and chapel, stand a
few yards off by themselves. On the north side of the village
is a stately farm-house, surrounded by trees, and on the south
side a Coast-Guard station, clean, whitewashed, and with a flag-
staff, giving the whole a regular and picturesque appearance.
Entering the village of Auchmithie from the west, and walking
through to the extreme east end, the imagination gets staggered
to think how any class of men could have selected such a wild
and rugged part of the coast for pursuing the fishing trade—a
trade above all others that requires a safe harbour where boats
can be launched and put to sea at a moment's warning if any
signals of distress be given. The bight of Auchmithie is an
indentation into rocky cliffs several hundred feet in perpendicular
height. About the middle of the bight there is a steep ravine
or gully with a small stream, and at the bottom of this ravine
there is a small piece of level ground where a fish-curing house
is erected, and where also the fishermen pull up their boats, that
they may be safe from easterly gales. There are in all about
seventeen boats’ crews at Auchmithie. Winding roads with
steps lead down the side of the steep brae to the beach. There
are a few half-tide rocks in the bight that may help to break
the fury of waves raised hy easterly winds; but there is no
harbour or pier for the boats to land at or receive shelter from,
and this the fishermen complain of, as they have to pay £2
a year for the privilege of each boat. The beach is steep, and
strewed with large pebbles, excellently adapted, they say, for
drying fish upon.

The visitor, in addition to studying’ the quaint people,
may explore one of the vast caves which only a few years ago
were the nightly refuge of the smuggler. Brandy Cove and
Gaylet Pot are worth inspection, and inspire a mingled feeling
of terror and grandeur, The visitor may also take a look at
the “Spindle”—a large detached piece of the cliffs, shaped
something like a corn-stack, or a boy’s top with the apex
uppermost. When the tide is full this rock is surrounded
with water, and appears like an island. Fisher-life may. be
witnessed here in all its unvarnished simplicity. Indeed
nothing could well be more primitive than their habits. and

316 INDUSTRY AT AUCHMITHIE,

mode of life. I have seen the women of Auchmithie “kilt
their coats” and rush into the water in order to aid in shoving
off the boats, and on the return of the little fleet carry the
men ashore on their brawny shoulders with the greatest ease
and all the nonchalance imaginable, no matter who might be
looking at them. Their peculiar way of smoking their had-
docks may be taken as a very good example of their other
modes of industry. Instead of splitting the fish after cleaning
them, as the regular curers do, they smoke them in their round
shape. They use a barrel without top or bottom as a substitute
for a curing house. The barrel being inserted a little distance
in the ground, an old kail-pot or kettle, filled with sawdust, is
placed at the bottom, and the inside is then filled with as
many fish as can conveniently be hung in it. The sawdust is
then set fire to, and a piece of canvas thrown over the top of
the barrel: by this means the females of Auchmithie smoke
their haddocks in a round state, and: very excellent they are
when the fish are caught. in season. The daily routine of
fisher-life at Auchmithie is simple and unvarying; year by
year, and all the year round, it changes only from one branch
of the fishery to another. The season, of course, brings about
its joys and sorrows: sad deaths, which overshadow the
village with gloom ; or marriages, when the people may ven-
ture to hold some simple fete, but only to send them back with
renewed vigour to their occupations, Time, as it sweeps over
them, only indicates a period when the deep-sea hand-lines must
be laid aside for the herring-drift, or when the men must take
a toilsome journey in search of bait for their lines. Their scene
of labour is on the sea, ever on the sea; and, trusting themselves
on the mighty waters, they pursue their simple craft with per-
severing industry, never heeding that they’are scorched by the
suns of summer or benumbed by the frosts of winter. There is,
of course, an appropriate season for the capture of each particular
kind of fish, There are days when the men fish inshore for
haddocks ; and there are times when, with their frail vessels,
the fishermen sail long distances to procure larger fish in the
deep seas, and when they must remain in their open boats for a
few days and nights, But the El-dorado of all the coast tribe
is “the herring.” This abounding and delightful fish, which
can be taken at one place or another from January to December,
yields a six weeks’ fishing in the autumn of the year, to which,
as has already been stated, all the fisher-folk look forward with

FITTIE. 8317

hope, as a period of money-making, and which, so far as the young
people are concerned, is generally expected to end, like the third
volume of a love-story, in matrimony.

Footdee, or “Fittie” as it is locally called, is a quaint
suburb of Aberdeen, figuring not a little, and always with a
kind of comic quaintness, in the traditions of that northern city,
and in the stories which the inhabitants tell of each other.
They tell there of one Aberdeen man, who, being in London for
the first time, and visiting St. Paul's, was surprised by his
astonishment at its dimensions into an unusual burst of candour.
“My stars!” he said, “this maks a perfect feel (fool) 0’, the
kirk o’ Fittie.” Part of the quaint interest thus attached to
this particular suburb by the Aberdonians themselves arises
from its containing a little colony or nest of fisher-folk of
immemorial antiquity. There are about a hundred families
living in Fittie, or Footdee Square, close to the sea, where the
Dee has its mouth. This community, like all others made up
of fishing-folk, is a peculiar one, and differs of course from those
of other working-people in its neighbourhood. In many things
the Footdee people are like the gipsies. They rarely marry
except with their own class ; and those born in a community of
fishers seldom leave it, and very seldom engage in any other
avocation than that of their fathers. The squares of houses at
Footdee are peculiarly constructed. There are neither doors
nor windows in the outside walls, although these look to all the
points of the compass ; and none live within the square but the
fishermen and their families, so that they are as completely
isolated and secluded from public gaze as a regiment of soldiers
within the dead walls of a barrack. The Reverend Mr. Spence,
of Free St. Clemént’s, lately completed plans of the entire
“toun,” giving the number and the names of the tenants in
every house ; and from these exhaustive plans it appears that
the total population of the two squares was 584—giving about
nine inmates for each of these two-roomed houses.. But the
case is even worse than this average indicates. “In the
South Square only eight of the houses are occupied by single
families ; and in the North Square only three, the others being
occupied by at least two families each—one room apiece—
and four single rooms in the North Square contain two families
each! There are thirty-six married couples and nineteen
widows in the twenty-eight houses ; and the number of distinct
families in them is fifty-four.” The Fittie men seem poorer.

318 DIVISION OF LABOUR IN FITTIE.

than the generality of their brethren. They purchase the crazy
old boats of other fishermen, and with these, except on very fine
weather, they dare not venture very far from “the seething
harbour-bar ;” and the moment they come home with a quantity
of fish the men consider their labours over, the duty of turning
the fish into cash devolving, as in all other fishing communities,
onthe women. The young girls, or “‘ queans,” as they are called
in Fittie, carry the fish to market, and the women sit there and
sell them ; and it is thought that it is the officious desire of
their wives to be the treasurers of their earnings that keeps the
fishermen from being more enterprising. The women enslave
the men to their will, and keep them chained under petticoat
government. Did the women remain at home in their domestic
sphere, looking after the children and their husbands’ comforts,
the men would then pluck up spirit and exert themselves to
make money in order to keep their families at home comfortable
and respectable. Just now there are many fishermen who will
not go to sea as long as they imagine their wives have got a
penny left from the last hawking excursion. There is no
necessity for the females labouring at out-door work. There are
few trades in this country where industrious men have a better
chance to make money than fishermen have, especially when
they are equipped with proper machinery for their calling. At
Arbroath, Auchmithie, and Footdee (Fittie), the fishing popula-
tion are at the very bottom of the scale for enterprising habits
and social progress. When the wind is in any way from the
eastward, or in fact blowing hard from any direction, the fisher-
men at these places are very chary about going to sea unless
dire necessity urges them.

The people of “ Fittie” are progressing in morals and
civilisation. One of the local journalists, who took the trouble
to visit the place lately in order to describe truthfully what
he saw, says :—‘‘ They have the reputation of being a very
peculiar people, and so in many respects they are; but they
have also the reputation of being a dirtily-inclined and de-
graded people, and this we can certify from personal inspection
they are not. We have visited both squares, and found the
interior of the houses as clean, sweet, and wholesome as could
well be desired. Their whitewashed walls and ceiling, their
well-rubbed furniture, clean bedding, and freshly-sanded floors,
present a picture of tidiness such as is seldom to be met with
among classes of the population reckoned higher in the social

ITALIAN FABLE, 319

scale. And this external order is only the index of a still more
important change in the habits and character of our fisher-toun,

the population of which, all who know it agree in testifying,
has within the past few years undergone a remarkable change
for the better in a moral point of view, Especially is this
noticed in the care of their children, whose education might, in
some cases, bring a tinge of shame to the cheek of well-to-do
town’s folks. _Go down to the fisher squares, and lay hold of
some little fellow hardly able to waddle about without assist-
ance in his thick made-down moleskins, and you will find he
has the Shorter Catechism at his tongue-end. Ask any
employer of labour in the neighbourhood of the shore where he
gets his best apprentices, and | he will tell you that for industry
and integrity he finds no lads who surpass those from the fisher
squares. Inquire about the families of the fishermen who have
lost their lives while following their perilous occupation, and
you will find that they have been divided among other families
in the square, and treated by the heads of these families as
affectionately as if they had been their own.”

As regards the constant intermarrying of the fisher class,
and the working habits of their women, I have read an Italian
fable to the following effect :—“‘A man of distinction, in
rambling one day through a fishing-village, accosted one of the
fishermen with the remark that he wondered greatly that men
of his line of life should chiefly confine themselves, in their
matrimonial connections, to women of their own caste, and not
take them from other classes of society, where a greater security
would be obtained for their wives keeping a house properly, and
rearing a family more in accordance with the refinement and
courtesies of life. To this the fisherman replied, that to him,
and men of his laborious profession, such wives as they usually
took were as indispensable to their vocation as their boat and
nets. Their wives took their fish to market, obtained bait for
their lines, mended their nets, and performed a thousand
different and necessary things, which husbands could not do for
themselves, and which women taken from any other of the
labouring classes of society would be unable to do. ‘The
labour and drudgery of our wives,’ continued he, ‘is a necessary
part of our peculiar craft, and cannot by any means be dispensed
with, without retailing irreparable injury upon our social

“interests,” Morat—this is one among many instances, where
the solid and the useful must take precedence-of the ‘showy and
the elegant,”

: CHAPTER XVI

a
STORIES OF FISHER-LIFE.

Signs and Tokens—A French Fishwoman—The Fishwives of Paris—The
Story of a Prestonpans Widow—Psalm John of Whelkholes—Jean
Cowie’s Story—Fisher Names—Dramatic Sketch—Growth of a Storm
—The last Scene of all.

As has been already mentioned, the fishers are intensely super-
stitious. No matter where we view them, they are as much
given to signs and omens at Portel near Boulogne as at
Portessie near Banff. For instance, whilst standing or walking
they don’t like to be numbered. Rude boys will sometimes
annoy them by shouting—

* Ane, twa, three ; 5
What a lot o’ fisher mannies I see !”

It is also considered very offensive to ask fisher-people, whilst
on their way to their boats, where they are going to-day; and
they do not like to see, considering it unlucky, the impression
of a very flat foot upon the sand ; neither, as I have already
explained, can they go to work if on leaving their homes in the
morning a pig should cross their path. This is considered a
particularly unlucky omen, and at once drives them home.
Before a storm, it is usually thought, there is some kind of
warning vouchsafed to them; they see, in their mind’s eye
doubtless, a comrade wafted homeward in a sheet of flame, or
the wraith of some one beckons them with solemn gesture
landward, as if saying, “ Go not upon the waters.” At one
time when an accident happened from an open boat, and any
person was drowned, that boat was never again used, but was
laid up high and dry, and allowed to rot away—rather a
costly superstition. Then, again, some fisher-people perform a
kind of “rite” before going to the herring-fishery, in drinking

A FRENCH FISHWOMAN. 321

to a “ white lug "—that is, that when they “pree” or examine
a corner or lug of their nets, they may find it glitter with the
silvery sheen of the fish, a sure sign of a heavy draught.

But the fishermen of other coasts are quite as quaint,
superstitious, and peculiar, as those of our own. The residents
in the Faubourg de Pollet of Dieppe are just as much alive to

A FRENCH FISHWOMAN,

the signs and tokens of the hour as the dwellers in the Square
of Fittie, or those who inhabit the fishing quarter of Boulogne.
Itis a pity that the guide-books say so little about these and
similar places, The fishing quarter of Boulogne is not unlike
Newhaven : there is the same “ancient and fish-like smell,”
the same kind of women with very short petticoats, the only

Y

322 THE FISHWIVES OF PARIS.

difference being that our Scottish fishwives wear comfortable
shoes and stockings. We can see too the dripping nets hung
up to dry from the windows of the tumble-down-like houses,
and the gamins of Boulogne lounge about the gutters, squat on
the large side stones, or run up and down the long series of
steps, just the same as the fisher-folks’ children do at home. .

It is only, however, by penetrating into the quaint villages
situated on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, that we can
gain a knowledge of the manners and customs of those persons
who are daily engaged in prosecuting the fisheries. The
clergymen of their districts, as may be supposed, have great
power over them, and all along the French coast the fisher-
people have churches of their own, and they are constantly
praying for “luck,” or leaving propitiatory gifts upon the altars,
as well as going pilgrimages in order that their wishes may be
realised. A dream is thought of such great consequence among
these people, that the women will hold a conference, early in
the day, in order to its interpretation, Each little village has
its storied traditions, many of them of great interest, and some
of them very romantic. I can only briefly allude, however,
to one of these little stories, Some of my readers may have
heard of the Bay of the Departed on the coast of Brittany,
where, in the dead hour of night, the boatmen are summoned
by some unseen power to launch their boats and ferry over to
a sacred island the souls of men who had been drowned in the
surging waters. The fishermen tell that, on the occasion of
those midnight freights, the boat is so crowded with invisible
‘passengers as to sink quite low in the water, and the wails and
cries of the shipwrecked are heard as the melancholy voyage
progresses, On their arrival at the Island of Sein, invisible
beings are said to number the invisible passengers, and the
wondering awe-struck crew then return to await the next super-
natural summons to boat over the ghosts to the storied isle,
which was in long back days the chief haunt of the Druidesses
in Brittany. A similar story may be heard at Guildo on the
same coast. Small skiffs, phantom ones it is currently believed,
may be seen when the moon is bright darting out from under
the castle cliffs, manned by phantom figures, ferrying over the
treacherous sands the spirits whose bodies lie engulphed in the
neighbourhood. Not one of the native population, so strong is
the dread of the scene, will pass the spot after nightfall, and
strange stories are told of phantom lights and woful demons
that lure the unsuspecting wayfarer to a treacherous death,

A WIDOW’S STORY. 323

The Parisian fishwives are clean and buxom women, like
their sisters of Newhaven, and they are quite as celebrated if
not so picturesque in their costume. About a century and a
half ago—and I need not go further back—there were a great
number of fishwives in Paris, there being not less than 4000.
oyster-women, who pursued their business with much dexterity,
and were able to cheat their customers as well, if not better,
than, any modern fishwife. One of their best tricks was to
swallow many of the finest oysters under the pretence of their
not being fresh. Among the Parisian fishwives of the last cen-
tury we are able to pick out Madame Picard, who was famed
for her poetical talent, and was personally known to many of
‘the eminent Frenchmen of the last century. Her poems were
collected and published in a little volume, and ultimately by
matriage this fishwife became a lady, having married a very
wealthy silk merchant. The fishwives of Paris have long been
historical: they have figured prominently in all the great
events connected with the history of that city. Deputations
from these market-women, gorgeously dressed in silk and lace,
and bedecked with diamonds and other precious stones, fre-
quently took part in public affairs. Mirabeau was a great
favourite of the Parisian fishwives ; at his death they attended
his funeral and wore mourning for him. These Poissardes took
an active part in the revolution of 1789, and did deeds of
horror and charity that one has a difficulty in reconciling. It
was no uncommon sight, for instance, to see the fishwives
carrying about on poles the heads of obnoxious persons who
had been murdered by the mob.

The short and simple annals of the fisher-folk are all
tinged with melancholy—there is a skeleton in every closet.
There is no household but has to mourn the loss of a father
orason. Annals of storms and chronicles of deaths form the
talk of the aged in all the fishing villages. The following nar-
rative is 4 sample of hundreds of other sad tales that might
be collected from the coast people of Scotland. It was related
to a friend by a woman at Musselburgh :—“‘ Weel, ye see, sir,
I haena ony great story till tell. At; the time I lost my guid-
man I was livin’ doon by at the Pans (Prestonpans, a fishing
village). The herrin’ season was ower about a month, and
my guidman had laid by a guid pickle siller, and we had
skytched oot a lot o’ plans for the futur’, We had nae bairns
o’ oor ain, although we had been married for mony years ; but

324 A WIDOW’S STORY,

we had been lang thinkin’ o’ takin’ in a wee orphint till bring
up as oor ain; and noo that the siller was geyan’ plenty, we
settled that Marion M‘Farlane should come hame till us by
the beginnin’ o’ November. My guidman was thinkin’ about
buyin’ a new boat, although his auld ane was no sae muckle
the waur for wear. I was thinkin’ aboot askin’ the guidman
for a new Sunday’s goon: in fac’, we were biggin’ castles in
the air a’ on the foundation o’ the herrin’ siller ; but hech, sir,
its ower true that man—ay, and woman tae—purposes, but
the Great Almighty disposes. The wee orphint wasna till find
a new faither and mither in my guidman and me; the auld
boat wasna till mak’ room for a new ane; and my braw
Sunday goon, which, gin J had had my choice, would hae been ’
a bricht sky-blue ane, was changed intae black—black as
nicht, black as sorrow and as death could mak’ it. There
was a fine fishin’ o’ the haddies, and the siller in the bank
was growin’ bigger ilka week, for the wather was at its best,
and the fish plentifu’. Aweel, on the nicht o’ the seventeent
o’ November, after I had put a’ the lines in order, and gien
Archibald his supper, aff he gangs frae the herbour wi’ his
boat, and four as nice young chiels as ye ever set an ee on for
acrew. An’ there wasna muckle fear o’ dirty wather, although
the sun had gaen doon rayther redder than we could hae
wished. Some o’ the new married, and some o’ the lasses that
were sune to be married, used tae gang doon tae the herbour,
and see their guidmen and their sweethearts awa’. I was lang
by wi’ that sort o’ thing; no that my love was less, but my
confidence was mair, seein’ that it had been tried and faund
true through the lang period o’ fourteen years. As I was
tidyin’ up the hoose afore gangin’ till my bed, I heard the
men in the boats cryin’ till ane anither, as they were workin’
oot intae the firth, Tae bed I gaed, and lookin’ at the lowe o’
the fire, as it keepit flichterin’ up and deein’ awa’, sune set me
soond asleep. What daftlike things folks think, see, and dae
in their sleep. I dreamt that nicht that I was walkin’ alang
the sands till meet my guidman, wha had landed his boat at
Morrison’s Haven. The sun was shinin’ beautifu’, and the
waves were comin’ tumlin’ up the sand, sparklin’ and lauchin’
in the sunlicht, dancin’ as if they never did only ill. I saw
my guidman at the distance, and I put my best fit forrit till
meet him. I was as near him as tae see his face distinckly,
and was aboot tae cry oot, ‘Archibald, what sort o’ fishin’ hae

A WIDOW'S STORY. 325

ye had?’ when a’ on a suddint a great muckle hand cam’ doon
frae the sky, and puttin’ its finger and thoom roond my guid-
man, lifted him clean oot o’ my sicht jist in a meenit. The
fricht o’ the dream waukened me, and I turned on my side
and lookit at whaur the fire ought tae be, but it was a’ black-
ness. The hoose was shakin’ as if the great muckle hand had
gruppit it by the gavel, and was shakin’ it like a wunnelstraw.
Hech, sir, ye leeve up in a toon o’ lands, and dinna ken what
astorm is. Aiblins ye get up in“the mornin’ and see a tree or
twa lyin’ across the road, and a lum tummilt ower the rufe, and
a kittlin’ or twa smoort aneath an auld barrel; but bless ye,
sir, that’s no a storm sic as we folk on the seaside ken 0’.
Na, na! The sky—sky! there’s nae sky, a’ is as black as
black can be; ye may put your hand oot and fill your nieve
wi’ the darkness, exceppin’ the times when the lichtnin’ flashes
doon like a twisted threid o’ purple gowd; and then ye can
see the waves lookin’ ower ane anither’s heads, and gnashin’
their teeth, as ye micht think, and cryin’ oot in their anger for
puir folk’s lives. Siccan a nicht it was when I waukened.
My guidman had been oot in mony a storm afore, sae I com-
forted mysel’ wi’ thinkin’ that he would gey and likely mak
for North Berwick or Dunbar when he saw the wather airtin
for coorse. I wasna frichtened, yet I coudna sleep for the
roarin’ o’ the wind. Mornin’ cam’. I gaed doon till the shore,
and a’ the wives and sweethearts o’ the Pans gaed wi’ me.
There was a heavy fog on the sea, sae thick that neither
Inchkeith nor the Law were to be seen. Naething was there
but the sea and the muckle waves lowpin’ up and dashin”
themselves tae death on the rocks and the sands, Eastwards
and westwards we lookit, an’ better lookit, but naething was
till be seen but the fog and the angry roarin’ sea—no a boat,
no a sail was visible on a’ the wild waters. Weel, we had a
lang confab on the shore as tae what our guidmen and our
sweethearts micht aiblins hae dune. It was settled amang us
without a doot that they had gane intill North Berwick or
Dunbar, and sae we expeckit that in the afternoon they would
maybe tak’ the road and come hame till comfort us. After
denner we—that is, the wives and sweethearts—took the gait
and went as far as Gosfort Sands till meet our guidmen and
the lads, The rain was pourin’ déon like mad ; but what was
that till us? we were lookin’ for what was a’ the world till our
bosoms, and through wind and weet we went tae find it, and

326 “PSALM, JOHN” OF WHELKHOLES.

we nayther felt the cauld blast nor the showers. Cauldly and
greyly the short day fell upon the Berwick Law. Darker and
darker grew the gloamin’, but nae word o’ them we loo’d afore
a’ the world. The nicht closed in at lang and last, and no a
soond o’ the welcome voices. Eh, sir, aften and aften hae I
said, and sang ower till mysel’, the bonny words 0’ poetry that
says—
“His very foot has music in’t,
As he comes up the stair.”

But Archibald’s feet were never mair till come pap, pappin, in
at the door. Twa sorrowfw’ and lang lang days passed awa’,
and the big waves, as if mockin’ our sorrow, flang the spars 0’
the boats up amang the rocks, and there was weepin’ and wailin’
when we saw them, or in the grand words o’ The Book, there
was ‘lamentation and sorrow and woe.’ We kent then that we
micht look across the sea, but ower the waters would never
blink the een that made sunshine around our hearths ; ower the
waters would never come the voices that were mair delightfu’
than the music o’ the simmer winds when the leaves gang
dancing till their sang. My story, sir, is dune. I hae nae
mair tae tell. Sufficient and suffice it till say, that there was
great grief at the Pans—Rachel weepin’ for her weans, and
wouldna be comforted. The windows were darkened, and the
air was heavy wi’ sighin’ and sabbin’.”

The following sketches of life and character as seen in
Scottish fishiig communities may prove of interest to those who
are unfamiliar with such scenes.

At Whelkholes the great specialty is “the herring.” There
are curers at the “ Holes,” and about seventy boats go out during
the season to obtain that most abundant fish, which is captured
in its season in the immediate vicinity. Great excitement
always prevails during the herring season. It is looked forward
to as a time of money-making, and much speculation as to
whether the season will or will not be a “lucky” one prevails
from an early period. Psalm John, the village oracle, has made
the herring his peculiar study. He is the authority of Whelkholes
on all things pertaining to fishing economy. He tells his brethren
when itis time to start for the herring ; he knows full well what
signs indicate the appearance of that fish, When he sees the
dolphin sporting in the bay or the birds skimming the water,
then he knows that herrings are there. For some days before

“ REVIVAL” AT WHELKHOLES. 327

the general launching of the boats for the herring harvest, Psalm
John is wont to parade on the high cliff above the village, looking
over the water for the expected and ever-welcome herring.
Many a weary vigil has been held on that cliff. Many a weary
foot has wandered over it during the fierce storms of the spring
time, and many a beacon fire has been lighted there, as the women
of the village sat at midnight looking across the turbulent sea,
questioning with their anxious eyes each rolling billow that broke
upon the shore, as to the fate of those afar off on the ravening
deep. That cliff was the via dolorosa of Whelkholes. Many a
painful tragedy -had been witnessed from its pathway ; and it
led as well to that last resting-place of the villagers, the church-
yard. It was from the pathway on the cliff, one hot autumn
night, that Psalm John saw seven corpse-candles move from the
village in a weird procession to the cemetery, and his prediction,
that a wreck would occur, and that here would be seven corpses,
was too surely fulfilled, John always saw a corpse-candle before
a death, and all the people of the “Holes” believed in the
superstition. The fisher folk, as a body, are great believers
in apparitions and wraiths, and whenever a calamity of any kind
occurs, there is always some man or woman who was sure it
was to take place, as they had seen a funeral procession in
the clouds, seven days before, or heard the eerie tick of the
death-watch at midnight, or some other admonitory sign.

Psalm John was a man who never took spirits, and who
attributed to them all the ills that came upon the people. After
the great storm, he persuaded most of the male inhabitants to
become temperance men. He then conducted a revival in the
village, which was much talked of even in places at a great
distance from Whelkholes. It was at the close of one very
scanty herring harvest, that the village broke out into a great
excitement. Psalm John had enunciated that the short fishing
was a judgment put upon the people for their sins, and one day,
while attending the funeral of an old friend, he felt impelled to
kneel down among the mourners and pour out his soul in prayer.
The scene was impressive. The gloaming was beginning to
obscure the scene ; the waves broke slow and murmuringly on
the beach as the beautiful words of the Hundredth Psalm,

* All people that on earth do dwell,”

broke on the stillness that had hitherto reigned around. One
of the women then stood out and addressed the little crowd in

328 JEAN COWIE.

an earnest manner, enjoining them to leave off the evil tenor of
their ways, and at once seek the. path to heaven. From that
night there was a striking change in the village ; after that it
was no uncommon thing to hear a motley crowd of fishermen,
coopers, and herring-gutters, singing a hymn in the curing-yard
after they had finished the labours of the day. The revival was
a great triumph to Psalm John,:for next season the herrings
were more abundant in the bay than they had ever before been
known to be. ;

The reader is assured that this is a true sketch ; all that is
fanciful in it is the name of the village. The revival movement
was very general on the shores of the Moray Firth ; and although
some very inexcusable extravagances were perpetrated, a residue
of good has been left behind.

“ Preaching Cowie” had been left fatherless at the early age
of eight years, his father having been drowned in one of those
awful storms of the north-east coast, and his boat, with all its
dearly-bought fishing gear, lost ; but, in spite of all the disad-
vantages his son laboured under in. consequence, he became at
length a comparatively rich man, in the community of Shellbraes.
Jean Cowie, his mother, Bull Cowie’s widow, had since her be-
reavement grown a business of her own. She travelled for many
years to all the neighbouring towns, both with fresh and cured
fish, and only gave up doing so when her well-doing son had be-
come a curer, and when she had herself, by means of her indomi-
table industry, become in the circumstances a wealthy woman.
During the latter years of her life she was a rollicking self-
possessed widow, with a great “ gift of the gab.” She bought
fresh haddocks by the hundred from’ the fishers, and smoked
them yellow in old barrels with smouldering pinewood, then
packing up the fish in creels and other baskets, she carried
them by rail or cart to market, where she chaffered and bar-
gained, and sold and exchanged, and laughed and joked, or
wept, according to her humour, with all whom she met. But
those who scanned her countenance in} the early years of her
widowhood could easily observe the deep furrows that had
been worn by the tears in her face, There was a perpetual
sadness under Jean’s forced gaiety, even when she was in the
busy market-place; and where, in the intervals of business,
when she could gain a solitary place, she “smoked like mad”
to stifie thought and tranquillise her feelings. No one who
encountered widow Cowie, as she sallied forth to the nearer

JEAN COWIE’S STORY. 329

towns, would have fancied that during one fatal morning her
boy son, her husband, and her father, had all been borne into her
house in a melancholy procession, drowned! They had sailed
away the day before to a distant fishing-bank, and while
returning home were overtaken by a sudden storm, which
dashed their boat upon the rocks within a few yards of the
landing-place. There was great lamentation in the village over
that calamity, for both Bull Cowie and his wife’s father had
been favourites in the Braes. Dancing Flucker, her father, had
only a few days before he met his own death saved the life
of a little child who had fallen into the sea. Thus Jean was
suddenly left a widow with four young children ; and when the
first keenness of her grief had been somewhat deadened, she felt
nerved to work as she had never worked before, for the sake of
her young ones—his children. Jean scorned to ask assistance,
or to go before “the Board.” “Na, na,” said the young widow ;
“‘neen o’ my bairns ‘ill ever hear it said that their mither geed
on the parish. I can work—I can mak’ nets or gather mussels,
an’ there’s a kind Providence aboon us a’, an’ neen that hae
hands needs to starve.” Like all her countrywomen, Jean Cowie
had an abhorrence of receiving parochial relief, or “ going on the
parish,” as the Scottish peasantry call it—even out-door relief
is distasteful to them. And as to going into the poor-house, it
is looked upon by some of the poorest of the poor as worse than
death.

Perhaps my readers would like to hear Jean’s story as told
by herself to a young lady who was buying fish from her.
-It was as follows :—“‘ What did ye say, mem, saxpence—sax-
pence! Saxpence for they eight bonnie haddies just new oot
o’ the water, as clean and caller as yersel’,mem! Na, na; gang
till yer fiesher, and see what he'll gie for saxpence. They
haddies, mem, cost me a clear white shillin’ oot o’ ma ain hand
this mornin’, mem, without the word o’ a lee; ay, mem, it’s
true; but div ye ken what jist sic another creelfu’ o’ fish as
this cost me aince no lang ago? J’ll tell ye if ye dinna ken.
It cost me a faither, a guidman, an’ a son,—yes, a’ the three at
aince were brocht in till me, stark starin’ drooned corpses, wi’
the saut sea faim rinnin’ frae their hair, and dreepin’ frae their
claes. Fish, ye see, mem, are no fish, they’re lives o’ men ; an’
yet ye wad offer me a saxpence for a’ they bonnie haddies! ye
valey men’s lives but cheaply, you leddies. Ay, a blithe hale
auld chap was my faither. My mither de’ed o’ the cholera.

330 JEAN COWIE’S STORY.

‘An’ wha in a’ the Braes had a lichter step or a merrier heart
than my guidman? He was nane o’ yer skulking men that. .
dread the blast on the tumlin’ waves, and wad let their wives
an’ their weans gang naked an’ hungry. Ay, he’s faced the
angriest sea that ever was seen, an’ he could tak a dram or sing
a sang wi’ the best; an’ as for dancin’, he was the best dancer
in the Braes; he was that. An’, oh, tae think, mem, o} ma
drooned laddie, ma bonnie laddie wi’ his hair like lint an’ his
cheek like rosy aiples, as braw an’ soople a son as ever helpit
tae trim a sail or cast a net; he was ma auldest born, an’ the
ane I loo’ed aboon them a’. Oh! weary day that brocht me
sae mickle grief; the Lord only can tell hoo I lived through it a’
—a faither, a guidman, an’ a son, a’ drooned at aince, an’ a’
jist for sic a creelfw’ as Sandy Flucker’s boat fush in this morn-
in’, It’s fine wather the day, say ye; ay ’tweel is’t, an’ the sun
nae doot gladdens your heart though it vexes mine, It shines
bricht an’ bonny 7’ the noo, but wha kens what it may be afore
nicht? for it was jist a day like this that the three gae’d awa
as happy an’ as licht o’ heart as the wee waves seem’d that
lapp’d and kissed the sides 0’ oor boat as she rocked at the shore,
while I stood wi’ Jamie in my airms an’ Jenny at my feet,
watchin’ them set oot, an’ wishin’ them gude speed. Ah, dinna
tell me, for I ken hoo clear the sky was, wi’ no a cloud tae be
seen on’t ava, an’ the sea wi’ jist a bit ripple on its breist that
caa’d the boat frae side tae side ; but then a darkness cam an’
covered a’ the bonny blue lift, an’ the thunder, burstin’ ower
oor hoose, as I sat mendin’ my guidman’s claes, sent the needle
richt intae my hand an’ wakened up Jamie in his creddle wi’
a skreich ; an’ as the lichtnin’ flashed in at the window I thocht
on my faither, an’ on ma laddie, an’ on ma guidman, an’ I
prayed God help them an’ bring them safe hame; safe hame,
ah! they never were tae be that, for the boat was already
strugglin’ ’gainst the awfu’ waves that dash in at our coast-side,
an’ tryin’ tae mak for the landin’ place ; then, wives, an’ men,
an’ bairns ran fast, an’ gathered on the shore wi’ mony a prayer
an’ cry for help. Wi’ Jamie in my airms, I ran as weel, an’,
kneelin’ on the rough stanes, the wind lashin’ the water aboot
me, an’ wi’ my bairn held ticht tae ma breast, I cried on
Heaven tae save them; but, O! my leddy, I saw them whirled
roon by the waves, an’ drooned afore ma vera een. Then what
a fecht has been mine sin’ syne! sic loads tae carry, an’ sic
weary rpads tae tramp! but there’s. Ane aboon that keeps us a’

. AT BUCKIE, 831

richt, an’ I’m thankfw’ for a’ the mercies I hae gotten. Thenk
ye, mem; thenk ye, mem; but eh, they’re cheap at tenpence.
Gude day, mem.”

As I have indicated, Jean prospered in her own way. In
the early days of her widowhood, she was up with the lark, she
washed for some of her neighbours, she gathered bait, she knitted
nets, and nets in those days were made at home of home-spun
twine. She also made and mended for the bairns. Meantime
her son became an apt scholar, being quick at arithmetic and
apt at such learning as was taught by Dominie Brewster in the
school of Shellbraes. When the boy reached the age of eleven,
he went out in his uncle’s boat to the herring, and the season
being a productive one, he earned no less than six pounds as his
share of the venture. At that time most of the herring boats
of Shellbraes were managed on the sharing system, or by “ the
deal,” as it was called. When but a lad, John Cowie wertt
two voyages to the whale fishery, and again earned quite a large
sum of money, as his mother said everything he put his hand to
was blessed. By and by he became the half proprietor of a her-
ring boat, along with one of his cousins, and so, little by little,
his prosperity increased till he became the owner of no less than
three fishing-boats, after which he started in business as a curer,
and found his industry rewarded with still greater success.

Resuming our tour, I may hint to the reader that it is well
worth while, by way of variety, to see the fishing population of
the various towns on the Moray Firth. Taking the south side
as the best point of advantage, it may be safely said that from
Gamrie to Portgordon there may be found many studies of
character, and bits of land, or rather sea scape, that cannot be
found anywhere else. Portsoy, Cullen, Portessie, Buckie, Port-
gordon, are every one of them places where all the specialties
of fisher life may be studied. Buckie, from its size, may be
named as a kind of metropolis among these ports; and it differs
from some of them inasmuch as it contains, in addition to its
fisher-folk, a mercantile population as well. The town is
divided and subdivided by means of its natural situation. There
is Buckie-east-the-burn, New Buckie, Nether Buckie, Buckie-
below-the-brae, Buckie-aboon-the-brae, and, of course, Buckie-
west-the-burn. A curious system of “nicknames” prevails
among the fisher-people, and most notably among those on the
Moray Firth, and in some of the Scottish weaving villages as
well, In all communications with the people thejr “to”

332 — FISHER NAMES.

(i.e, additional), or, as the local pronunciation has it, “tee”
names, must be used. At a public dinner held at Buckie
several of the fishermen were present; and it was notice-
able that the gentlemen of the press were careful, in their
reports of the proceedings, to couple with the real names of the
men the appellations by which they were best known—as “ Mr.
Peter Cowie, ‘langlegs,’ proposed the health, etc.” So, upon
all occasions of registering births, marriages, or deaths, the “‘ tee”
name must be recorded. Ifa fisherman be summoned to answer
in acourt of justice, he is called not only by his proper name,
but by his nickname as well. In many of the fishing villages,
where the population is only a few hundreds, there will not,
perhaps, be half-a-dozen surnames, and the whole of the inhabit-
ants, therefore, will be related “throughither,” as such inter- -
mixture is called in Scotland. The variety of nicknames,
therefore,'is wonderful, but necessary in order to the identification
of the different members of the few families who inhabit the
fishing villages. The different divisions of Buckie, for instance,
are inhabited by different clans ; on the west side of the river or
burn there are none but Reids and Stewarts, while on the east
side we have only Cowies and Murrays. Cowie is a very com-
mon name on the shores of the Moray Firth ; at Whitehills,
and other villages, there are many bearing that surname, and
to distinguish one from the other, such nicknames as Shavie,
Pinchie, Howdie, Doddlies, etc., are employed. In some
families the nickname has come to be as hereditary as the sur-
name; and when Shavie senior crosses “that bourne,” etc.,
Shavie junior will still perpetuate the family “tee” name. All
kinds of circumstances are indicated by these names—personal
blemishes, peculiarities of manner, etc. There is, in consequence,
Gley’d Sandy Cowie, Gley’d Sandy Cowie dumpie, and Big
Gley’d Sandy Cowie ; there is Souples, Goup-the-Lift, Lang-nose,
‘Brandy, Stottie, Hawkie, ete. Every name in church or state
is represented — kings, barons, bishops, doctors, parsons, and
deacons; and others, in countless variety, that have neither
rhyme nor reason to account for them.

As an instance of the many awkward contretemps which occur
through the multiplicity of similar names in the northern fish-
ing villages, the following may be recorded :—In a certain town
lived two married men, each of them yclept Adam Flucker, and
their individuality was preserved by those who knew them
entitling them as Fleukie (Flounder) Flucker, and Haddie

é

A COURT CASE. 333

(Haddock)jFlucker. Fleukie was blessed with a large family,
with probable increase of the same, and cursed with a wife who
ruled him like a despot. Haddie had possessed for many years
a treasure of a wife, but prospect of a family there was none.
Now these things were unknown to the carrier, who had newly
entered on his office. From the store of an inland town he had
received two packages, one for Haddie (a fashionable petticoat
of the gaudiest red), and the other for Fleukie (a stout wooden
cradle) to supply the place of a similar article worn out by long
service. The carrier, in simplicity of ignorance, reversed the
destination of the packages, which, of course, were returned to
the inland merchant, with threats of vengeance and vows never
to patronise his store again.

Let the reader take, as an example of the quaint ways and
absurd superstitions of the Moray Firth fisher-folk, the following
little episode, which took place in the Small-Debt Court at
Buckie, at the instance of a man who had been hired to assist
at the herring-fishery, and who was pursuing his employer for
his wages :—

On the case being called, the pursuer stated that he had been
dismissed by the defender from his employment without just
cause, indeed without any cause at all; and the defender, on
being asked what he had to say, at once admitted the dismissal,
and to the great astonishment of the Sheriff, confessed that he
had nothing to assign as a reason for it, except the fact that the
pursuer’s name was “ Ross.”

“Ye see, my Lord, I did engage him, though I was weel
tauld by my neibors that I sudna dee’t, and that I cudna expect
te hae ony luck wi’ him, as it was weel kent that ‘Ross’ was an
unlucky name. I thocht this was nonsense, but I ken better
noo. He gaed te sea wi’ us for a week, and I canna say but
that he did’s wark weel eneuch ; but we never gat a scale. Sae
the next week I began to think there beet te be something in
fat my neibors said ; sae upo’ the Monday I wadna tak’ him oot,
and left him ashore, and that very night we had a gran’ shot ;
and ye ken yersel’, my Lord, that it wad hae been ower super-
stishus to keep him after that, and sae I wad hae naething mair

‘te dae wi’ him, and pat him aboot’s business.”-

The Sheriff was much amused with this’novel application of
the word “superstitious ;” but, in spite of that application he
had no difficulty in at once deciding against the defender, with
expenses, taking occasion while doing so to read him a severe

334 SCENE IN A CURER’S OFFICE.

lecture upon his ignorance and folly, and to declaim, with some
vigour, against the many absurd superstitions of the fisher-folk.
The lecture, however, has not been of much use, for I have
ascertained that the “freit” in question is still as rife as ever,
and that there is scarcely an individual among the communi-
ties of white-fishers on the Banffshire coast, who, if he can
avoid it, will have any transaction with any one bearing the
obnoxious name of “ Ross.”

T should now like to give my readers a specimen of the patois
or dialect spoken by the Moray Firth fisher-folk, although it is
somewhat difficult to do it effectively on paper, as the mode of
spelling does not always represent the sound; but I will try,
taking a little dialogue between the fishermen and the curer
about a herring-fishing engagement, as the best mode of giving
an idea of the language and pronunciation of the Buckie
bodies :—

Scenze—A Curer’s office, PRESENT—The CURER and the
three “ SHAVIES.”

Curer—Well, Shavie, ye’ve had a pretty good fishing this
year,

Shavie senior—Ou ay, it’s been geyan gweed.

Shavie tertius—Fat did ye say, man? gweed—it’s nae been
better than last.

Curer—Well, laddie, what was wrong with last year’s
fishing ?

Bowed Shavie—Well awat, man, it was naething till brag
o’, an’ fat’s mair, I lost my beets at it; yell be gaun till gie’s
a new pair neist fishin’ ?

Shavie senior—Ay, that was whan he k-nockit his /-nee again
the boat-shore and brak his cweet.

Curer—Well, but, lads, what about next fishing ?

Shavie sentor—Ou, is’t neist fishin’ ye’re wantin’ till speak 0” ?

Curer—Yes ; will you engage ?

Shawvie junior—Fat are ye gaun till offer ?

Curer—Same as last.

Bowed Shavie—Fat d’ye say, man ?

Curer—Fourteen shillings a cran and fifteen pound bounty,

Shavie senior —Na na, Maister Cowie ; that winna dee ava,
man.

Bowed Shavie—We can get mair nor that at Fitehills.

.

GROWTH OF A STORM. 335

Shaviejunior—Il be fuppit, lathie, if I dinna hae mair siller
an’ mair boonty tee,

Curer—Well, make me an offer.

Shavie sevior—Ou ay, man; we'll tak’ saxteen shillin’ the
cran an’ a boonty o’ twunty pound, an’ a pickle cutch, an a
drappie whisky ; an’ that’s ower little siller.

Curer—W ell, I suppose I must give it.

Bowed Shavie—Gie’s oor five shillin’ then, an we're fixed wi’
you, an’ clear o’ a’ ither body. ,

And so, on the payment of these five shillings by way of
arles, the bargain is settled, and the men engaged for the next
herring-season,

The British fisher-people as a class are very sober and in-
dustrious, and they are becoming more intelligent, and, it is
to be presumed, less superstitious. The children in the fish-
ing villages are being educated ; and in time, when they grow
to man’s and woman’s estate, they will no doubt influence the
fisheries for the better. Many of the seniors are now teetotal,
and while at the herring-fishery prefer tea to whisky. The
homes of some of the fisher-folks, on the Berwickshire and
Northumberland coasts, are clean and tidy, and the proprietors
seem to be in possession of a great abundance of good cheer.

It is, no doubt, considered by some to be an easy way to
wealth to prosecute the herring or white fisheries, and secure
a harvest grown on a farm where there is no rent payable, the
seed of which is sown in bountiful plenty by nature, which
requires no manure to force it to maturity, and no wages for
its cultivation. But it is not all gold that glitters, There
are risks of life and property connected with the fishery
which are unknown to the industries that are followed on the
land. There are times, as I have just been endeavouring to
show, when there is weeping and wailing along the shore.
The days are not always suffused in sunshine, nor is the
sea always calm. The boats go out in the peaceful afternoon,
and the sun, gilding their brown sails, may sink in golden
beauty in its western home of rosy-hued clouds; but anon the
wind will freshen, and the storm rise apace. The black speck
on the distant horizon, unheeded at first, soon grows into a
series of fast-flying clouds; and the wind, which a little ago
was but a mere capful, soon begins to rage and roar, the waves
are tossed into a wilder and wilder velocity, and in a few

336 THE LAST SCENE OF ALL.

hours a great storm is agitating the bosom of the wondrous
deep. The fishermen become alarmed ; hasty preparations are
made to return, nets are hauled on board, sails are set and
dashed about by the pitiless winds, forcing the boats to seek
the nearest haven. Soon the hurricane bursts in relentless
fury ; the fleet of fishing-boats toss wildly on the maddening
waves; gloomy clouds spread like a pall over the scene;
while on the coast the waters break with ravening fury,
and many a strong-built boat is dashed to atoms on the
iron rocks in the sight of those who are powerless to aid,
and many a gallant soul spent in death, within a span
of the firm-set earth, Morning, so eagerly prayed for by
the disconsolate ones, who have all the long and miserable
night been watching from the land, at length slowly dawns,
and reveals a shore covered with fragments of wood and
clothes, which too surely indicate the disasters of the night.
The débris of boats and nets lie scattered on the rocks
and boulders, dumb talebearers that bring sorrow and chill
penury to many a household. Anxious children and gaunt
women—
“ Wives and mithers maist despairin’ ”—

with questioning eyes, rush wildly about the shore, piercing
with their frightened looks the hidden secrets of the subsiding
waters ; and here and there a manly form, grim and stark and
cold, cold in the icy embrace of death, his pale brow bound
with wreaths of matted seaweed, gives silent token of the
majesty of the storm.

INDEX.

—_—-

AIQUILLON, 278

Anatomy of the sprat, 171
Ancient epicures, 210 ~
fishing industries, 33
Anecdote of a fishwife, 305
Anglers’ fishes, 93, 99

Angling for salmon, 94
Anomalies in salinon growth, 86
American oysters, 263
Aquariums, 288

Arcachon, 289

with its oyster-beds, 53
Arran, island of, 119

Artificial fish-breeding, 66

Art of trawling, 228

Ashworth on oyster-parks, 244
Auchmithie, 316

Australia, introduction of salmon, 91
Authorities, list of, ix.

Average size of the herring, 170

Bap effects of trawling, 225

Bag and stake nets, 148

Bait for sea-fish, 114

importance of, 277

Balance of nature, 27

Bale, 67

Bargaining by fishwives, 304

Basin of Arcachon, 53

Basins for young fish at Huningue, 72.

a Nomiensonle, 12
illingsgate, 59

Boats, decked and open, 197

Boisérés, Viviers at Arcachon, 292

Beeuf, the oyster-breeder, 243

Bouchots, 282

Bounties to herring-fishers, 185

Breeding-ponds for salmon at Stormont-
field, 82

Brighton Aquarium, 293 2

Brown, Mr, William, Natural History of
the Salmon, 137

Buckhaven, 812

Buckie, 214

Buckland, Frank, quoted, 159

Buckland’s museum, 293

Buist, the late Robert, 86

Cancer Pacurus, 268

ae of the Hereng 175
‘arp-breeding,

family, 104

Cheek’s advice to anglers, 97

Chinese fish-culture, 61

Claires for oysters, 246

Classification of fish, 1

ar John, his views on the herring,

Close-time for herring, 173

for oysters, 234

Clyde, river, 118

Cod-curing, 208

— fish, 206

fishery of Newfoundland, 51
roe for bait, 206

Colne oyster-beds, 258

Colours of fish, 2

Commacchio, 45

Commerce in herring, 183

in lobsters, 269

in mussels, 287

Commercial fish-culture, 64
Concarneau, 57

Conditions under which oysters spawn,

Contents, table of, xiii.

oan between salmon and herring,
Controversies about oyster-life, 232
Co-operation among fishers, 313
Co-operative salmon-fishing, 161
Cornwall in the pilchard season, 182
Corry in Arran, 119

Crabs, land, 273

Cray fish, 277

Crustacea, natural history of, 272
Crystal Palace aquarium, 294
Cultivation of mussels, 281

Culture of the mussel, 284

Curing the pilchard, 183
Curing-yard for herring, view of, 187

Danvse Satmon, 75

Demand for white fish, 202

Dempster’s discovery, 144

Diagram of the herring-fishery, 200

Differences in the herring of differen
localities, 164

Diquemare’s description of oyster spawn-
ing, 237 .

Discovery of pickled herrings, 35

Distribution of fish, 30

of the herring, 167

Double migration of salmon, 136

Z

338

Drawings of salmon fry, 125
Dredge, the oyster, described, 261
Dredging at Cockenzie, 261

Drift nets, 180

Duke of Athole’s experiments, 134
Dundee bred carp, 105

Dutch cure of herrings, 40
fisheries, 33

salmon, 42

Earnines of fishermen, 227
Economy of an oyster-farm, 254
of a salmon river, 141, 153
Eel breeding, 45

Eels, 12

Egg boxes ‘at Stormontfield, 85
Eggs of fish, how impregnated, 5
Enemies of the herring, 176
Engagement for herring fishery, 184
English river scenery, 107
salmon rivers, 159 ~
Expense of a cod smack, 217
Extension of pisciculture, 91
External impregnation, 5

Fauxacies as to the natural history of
the herring, 163

Family waters, 283
Farms, oyster, 244
Fascines for oysters, 242
Fecundity of fish, 3-5
of lobsters, 265
of the cod fish, 207
Figures of the ancient Dutch fishery, 36
of the turbot fishery, 211
Fish breeding in China, 62
classification of, 1
commerce, 28, 29

35 in France 56
communities, 275
culture, 61
distribution, 30
— eggs, packing of, 74
Fisher folk, sketches of, 299-336
Fishes of the salmon family, 140
Fisheries Reform Bill proposed, vili.
Fishery Board of Scotland, vi.
Fishermen’s earnings, 227
Fisher names, 332
weddings, 301
Fishery expositions, 288
Fishing for the English markets, 229
industry in France, 55
place at Comacchio, 47
Fish life and growth, 1
Fish-market at Bale, 68
Tish ponds, $1
table, 230
Fittie, 317
Finnan haddies, 205
Flat-tish in Holiand, 36
spearing of, 116
Food of fish, 26
of the herring, 174
Foreign Fishery Exhibition, 288
French fish commerce, 56
fishwoman, 321

INDEX.

French oyster beds, 238

sea fisheries, 52
Fresh-water fish ponds, 32
—— fish, value of, 93
Friesland fishers, 39

Fry of salmon, 125

Fusaro Lake, 240

Gavip& family, 203

Galburt’s piscicultural establishment, 75
Gehin and Remy, 66

German demand for herrings, 186
pisciculture, 80

Gipsy anglers, 97

Gold fish, 104

Gravid salmon, management of, 87
Green oysters, 247

Grilse growth, 135

killing, 147

Ground plan of Huningue; 69
Growth of fish colonies, 27
of the salmon, 126
Gutting the herrings, 193

Hasrrs of the crustacea, 271

Hague fishery exhibition, 289

Hall of incubation at Huningwe, 71

Harbour of Corry, 120

Harbours, want of, in Scotland, 229

Hatching gutters at Huningue, 73

of young salmon, 9

Home aquariums, 288

Hawkins of Colchester on oyster growth,
58

Herring growth, 169
Herring-fishery, ees of, 48
e, 178

»
harvest, description of the, 188
mortality, 10
Herrings in Holland, 40
Herring talk, 179

e, its natural history, 162
worship in Holland,'39
Hints to oyster-farmers 252
History of the herring fishery, 48
Hoge’s experiments with parr, 129
Hogg the Ettrick Shepherd, 65
How do we obtain our haddocks, 201
Hull trawler, evidence of, 226
Humble life in Arran, 121
Huningue, 67

Ite De Re, 242

Illustrations, list of, xvii.

Irish fishing companies, 215

Trish white-fish fisheries, 215

Italian fish culture, 63

Italian, Scottish, and French fisheries,

45
Iteration of questions, 291
Jack, 102
Jack in his element, 102
Jean Cowie’s story, 329

KEMMERER on oyster-growth, 249
Kent and Essex oyster-farms, 255 :

INDEX,

Lake Fosaro, 240
Land-crabs, 273

Land of a thousand lochs, 98
La Rochelle, 279

Lates of the Nile, 110

Line fishing, 218

Loans to Irish fishermen, 217
Lobster, a, described, 271
catching, 117

fishing, 268

trade in, 269

Loch Awe trout, 100

Fyne herring, 24

— view of, 181
‘Leven trout, 24, 101
Maben, 23

Lottery, the herring-fishery a, 185
Life of an oyster, 232

Live crustaceans, 269
Lucullus, 239

Maas, Mr., of Scheveningen, 37
Machinery of herring capture, 180
Mackerel fishery, 213 -

growth, 14

Marked salmon, 189

Marshall Peter, as a pisciculturist, 89
Mayhew on the London fish supply, 212
Menageries of fish, 295

Migration of fish, 26

of the smolt, 133

Migrative theory, 163

Milton oysters, 259

Mode of greening oysters, 248
Monster salmon of the Tay, 155

Mud canoes, 282

Murray’s guides, 278

Mussel farm, visit to a, 279
Mysteries of salmon-growth, 127

Natives, 257
Natural history of the eel, 13
so, Herring, 162
a9 929, OYSter, 231
— x99 ay: Salmon, 124
ae employed in the herring-fishery,
198

Newfoundland cod-fishery, 50
Newhaven oyster-beds, 260
Night-fishing in France, 54
North Sea fisheries, 219,

Orriciat Statistics of the herring-fish-
ery, 194

Oil from the liver of the cod, 207

Orata’s oyster-beds, 63

Orata, Sergius, 239

Ova of salmon, plan for exporting, 92

Over-fishing of the herring, effects of, 177

———_,, ,,_ oyster, 238

Oyster-growth, 234, 249

———__——— illustrated, 235

in America, 264

——— parks, engraving of, 245

—— pyramid, 241

street, 259

339

Oyster, the, described, 231
les, 251

Panpors oysters, 260

Parks for oysters, 243

Parr controversy, 127

“ Parr-icide,” 142

Parr one year old, 128
Pearl-mussels, 297

Pennant’s myth, 163

Perch, 110

Periwinkle, a peep at the, 267
Pickled herrings, 35

Pictures of Dutch fisheries, 33
Pilchard-fishing, 181

Pike, 102

Pisciculture, modern, 64
Pleuronectide, 209

Poaching, 144

Pollack, 112

Pollan, 24 ~

Portrait of the fishing frog, 290
Portraits of the gadide family, 204
of the flat fish family, 211
Pont oyster grounds, 256
Practical fish breeding, 78

Preface, v

Powan, the, 24

Problem to be solved by aquaria, 296
Progress of a shoal of herrings, 199
Psalm John of Whelkholes, 326

‘| Raprprry of salmon growth, 139

Remy’s discovery, 64

Rental of Tay, 150

Report on English salmon fisheries, 159
Revival at Whelkholes, 327

Rhine salmon watch tower, 143

Sarnt Brieve, 241
Salesman’s, a, opinions on the trout
question, 228
Salmon a day or two old, 9
breeding, design for a suite of
ponds, 84
fishing in Holland, 42
egg, description of, 7
fisheries, progress of, 144
legislation, 154
—— mines of Tay, 153
supply at Billingsgate, 160
Sannox Bay, 122 -
Sardine curing, 58
fishery in France, 57
Scene in a curer’s office, 334
Scenes at the herring-fishery, 179
Scent of fish, 3
Scheveringen fishery, 37
Scientific fish culture, 65
Scotch pearls, 297
Scottish herring fishery, 49
Sea angling, 111
Sea fisheries of France, 52
Sea fly-fishing, 115
Seasons for particular kinds of fish, 230
Severn, 158
suggestion for ponds on, 90

340

shal, 18 Orata, 63

had meee
Shell- fish fisheries, 265

Shaw’s experiments in salmon-breeding,

130
Shaw of Dene, 65
Shoaling of fish, 6
Shooting the herring -nets, 188
Shrimping, 276
Shrimps, 266
Sights and scenes in Arran, 123
Sillock fishery, 209
Siluris Glanis, 295
Size and weight of salmon, 146
Smolt at two years, 133
and Brilse, | 132
Soles, 212
Song of the euabendredieets 262
Spatting of oysters, 233
Spatting of the mussel, 284
Spawning of oysters,’ 233
Speedie’s fisheries’ on the Tay, 153
Spey, the, 155 -
Sprats, 171, 183.
Sport for anglers, 95. E
Stakes for mussel, growth, 283
Stake nets on the: Solway, 147
Statements by trawlers, 224
Statistics, a plea for, vii
of Stormontfield, 88
of the herring-fishery, 196
wanted, 60
Stories of fisher life, 320
Store for live lobsters, 270
Stoddart’s calculations, 158
Stormontfield, 81
Sutherlandshire, 98

tats

Tack1e for sea angling, 113

Tay economy and real economy, 154
Tay, the river, 148

Thames anglers, 94, 109

Theory of spatting, 234

of the spat, 253

Tiles for oyster spat, 250
Transplanting the mussels, 285
Trawler, a, 221

INDEX.

Trawlers’ statements, 225
Trawl nets, 222

question, the, 220
Trout-fishing, 96

ponds, plan of, 77
Transport of salmon, 145
Turbot, 210

Turtle “culture, 79
Tweed Acts, 157

Uprer and lower salmon proprietors, 160

VALUE of carp 102

of early herrings, 187
Variety of the fisheries, 51
Vendace, 22

View of a mussel farm, 286
Village, a French fishing, 280
Viviparous fish, 11

Voracity of pike, 103

Warton, a shipwrecked fisherman, 280

Walton’s discovery of mussel farming, 281

Water supplies at Huningue, 70

Weight of fish carried by fish railways,
216

When herring spawn, 168

ought herring to be taken? 172

Where are the haddocks? 25, 204

White-fish iad: 201

Whiting, 20!

Whitebait, 15, 17, 18, 1

in the Firth of Porth, 16

Whitstable, 256

Wholesale prices of salmon in London, 150

Wick in the herring season, 192

Williamson, Rev. Dugald’s pamphlet,
136

Woodhaven salmon-fishery, 149

Working an oyster farm, 257 -

World of fish, the, 274

Yarmouta, 194
Yield of fish from Tay, 161
Young’s theory of parr growth, 131

Zouyver Zeer herring-fishery, 38

THE END.

Printed by R. & R. Crark, Edinburgh.

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