AN ACCOUNT of the Total Number of Barrels of White Herrings, which have been landed from the Fishery, or Cured on Shore, in the Year ended 5th April 1819;--in so far as the same has come under the Cognizance of the Officers of the Fishery.
An ACCOUNT of the Total Number of Barrels of White Herrings which have been from Great Britain, in the year ended 5th April 1819, in so far as the same have come under the cognizance of the Officers of the Fishery.
This rapid progress shows, that there is no art or mystery in the catching and curing of her rings that the English cannot accomplish as well as the Dutch ; which is further proved by the success ful experiment made by the Downs Society of fish ermen ; in the report of whose proceedings it is stated, that herrings had been taken within the Cinque ports, of a quality so nearly resembling the deep sea fish, that they were cured and sold as the best Dutch herrings, It will be seen, also, by Table I. that the progressive increase of the herring fish ery is confined to Scotland ; and that the quantity brought under the inspection of the officers in Eng land amounts not to one twenty-second part of the whole ; while the flourishing little town of Wick alone furnishes nearly one-fifth. But the most ex• traordinary increase is that which has taken place in the neighbouring county of Sutherland. Till a few years past, the people of this county were contented to hire themselves as fishermen to the adventurers of Wick. In 1814, they attempted a fishery on their own account, and the mouth of the Helmedale was fixed upon as the station. A storehouse and curing-house were here erected; the boats were manned by the people brought from the mountains, and the interior of the country. Every thing was new to them in the employ they were about to engage. The •fishing commenced on the 20th July, and ended on the 3d September 1814; and the produce of four boats was respectively L.105, Ss., L.83, 8a., L.96, 8s., and L.148, 3s. They ' were manned by four men each, so that they made, on an average, rather more than L.27 a man. In 1815, the number of boats employed amounted to 50, elm* entirely manned by Sutherland men ; and the number of barrels caught and repacked exceeded 4000, chiefly gutted. In 1817, this fishery gave em ployment to about 200 tenants, 17 coopers, and 130 women. In 1818, 70 coopers, 520 women, 700 men, 140 boats ; and, in the present year (1819), the quantity caught and cured at Helmsdale, as appears by the Table, amounts to no less than 22,876 barrels, besides upwards of 100,000 cod and ling. While the herring-fishery is making these rapid strides in the Highlands of Scotland, the ancient town of North 'Yarmouth, which owes its existence to the herring-fishery, and in the time of Edward III.. had an act usually called " the statute of herrings," pass ed in its favour, for the regulation of its herring-fair, now exhibits only the small number of 1039 barrels.
But not only does North Britain take the lead in the herring-fishery, but has of late, more than before, availed herself of her favourable situation for tarry ing on that branch which may be reckoned next, perhaps, in importance to it, namely, the cod and ling fishery. The whole extent of 'sea, from the
neighbourhood of the Orkney and Shetland Islands to Iceland on the one hand, and to the coast of Nor way on the other, and along the eastern and western shores of Scotland, to the Flemish banks on the east and the coast of Ireland on the west, may be consi dered. as one great fishing domain, over which the different species of the cod genus are most plentiful ly dispersed ; as are also turbot, skate, soles, had docks, and whitings. These fish, which constitute collectively what is usually called the white fishery, surround, as it were, the whole of North Britain, and give to that portion of the united kingdom advan tages which its southern neighbours cannot boast of.
The only fishery, perhaps, which neither the Scotch nor the English follow up with equal success as the Dutch, is that of the turbot, the finest of which are supposed to be taken on the Flemish banks. The turbot-fishery begins about the end of March, when the Dutch fishermen assemble a few leagues to the south of Scheveling. As the warm weather approaches, the fish gradually advance to the northward, and, during the months of April and May, are found in great shoals on the bank called the Broad fourteens. Early in June they have pro. ceeded to the banks which surround the small island of Heligoland, of the mouth of the Elbe, where the fishery continues to the middle of August, when it terminates for the year. The mode of taking turbot is as follows: At the beginning of the season, the drag-net is used, which, being drawn along- the banks, brings up various kinds of flat fish, as soles, plaice, thornbacks, and turbots; but, when the warm weather has driven the fish into deeper water, and upon banks of a rougher surface, where the drag net is no longer practicable, the fishermen have recourse to the hook and line. Each line 'extends from one to nearly three miles in length, and is arm ed with six, seven, or eight hundred hooks, fixed to it at the distance of several yards from each other. To keep these long lines properly stretched, and prevent their being carried away by the tide, heavy masses of lead in some places, and small anchors in others, are attached to them. The hooks: are baited with the common smelt, and a small fish resembling an eel, called the gore-bill. Though very consider able quantities of this fish are now taken in various parts of our own coasts, from the Orkneys to the Land's End, yet a preference is given, in the London market, to those caught by the Dutch, who are sup posed to have drawn not less than L.80,000 a-year, for the supply of this market alone; and the Danes from L.12,000 to L.15,000 a-year, for sauce to this luxury of the table, extracted from about one mil lion of lobsters, taken on the rocky shores of Nor way; though our own shores are, in many parts, plen tifully supplied with this marine insect, equal in goodness to those of Norway.