boats from the coasts of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, produced in 1832, with the seal and salmon fishery, about $860,000. Besides this, the fisheries along the Labrador coast are extensive.

The American cod fishery, in 1833, employed vessels of 60,977 tons; their exports of fish, alone, amounted to over a million of dollars.

It is impossible to tell the actual number of these fish annually taken, but it amounts to many millions, and constitutes a material article of food throughout Christendom. The dried cod are dispersed all over Europe, and find their way by means of railroads, steamboats and canals, to the settlements along the great lakes and the waters of the upper Mississippi.

Whoever in crossing the Atlantic, has chanced to come across some of the vessels of the cod fishers on the "Banks"-and remarked the dreariness of the scene, amid those chill regions of fog and tempest, cannot but have experienced emotions similar to those expressed by the poet.

"A perilous life and sad as life can be,
Hath the lone fisher on the lonely sea,
In the wild waters laboring far from home,
For some bleak pittance e'er compelled to roam!
Few friends to cheer him in his dangerous life,
And none to aid him in his stormy strife;
Companion of the sea and silent air,
The lonely fisher thus must ever fare;

Without the comfort-hope, with scarce a friend,
He looks through life, and only sees-its end.

Eternal ocean! old majestic sea!

Ever love I from shore to look on thee,

And sometimes on thy billowy back to ride,

And sometimes o'er thy summer breast to glide;
But let me live on land-where rivers run,
Where shady trees may screen me from the sun;
Where I may feel, secure, the fragrant air;
Where, whate'er toil or wearying pains I bear,
Those eyes, which look away all human ill,
May shed on me their still, sweet, constant light,
And the little hearts I love, may day and night
Be found beside me, safe and clustering still.

THE HERRING FISHERY.

HERRINGS are perhaps the most abundant of all the finny tribes. They are found in the highest northern latitudes yet visited by man, and as far south as the coast of France in Europe, and Carolina in America. They are met with in the seas of Kamtschatka, and probably they reach the isles of Japan. Their great winter rendezvous is within the arctic circle. There they continue many months in order to recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning. The seas within that space, swarm with insect food in a far greater degree than those of warmer latitudes; the mighty army of herrings begin to put themselves in motion in spring. They appear first off the Shetland Islands in April and May; but these are only the forerunners of the grand shoal which comes in June, and their appearance is marked by certain signs, such as numbers of sea-fowl which bear them company, being thus sure of a perpetual feast. When the main body advances, its breadth and depth are such as to alter the appearance of the very ocean. It is divided into distinct columns

of five or six miles in length, and three or four in breadth, and their motion causes a strong rippling in the water. Sometimes they sink for the space of ten · or fifteen minutes, and then rise again to the surface. In fine weather they reflect a variety of splendid colors like a field of the most precious gems.

The first check which this great army meets in its march southward, is from the Shetland group of islands, which divides it into two parts. One wing takes to the east and the other to the western shores of Great Britain, filling every bay and creek with their numbers. The former proceed toward Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of herrings; they then pass through the British channel, and for the most part disappear. Those which steer toward the west after coasting the Hebrides, where there is a great stationary fishery, proceed to the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second interruption, and are obliged to make another division. The one portion deviates to the western side, and is scarcely perceived, being soon lost in the broad Atlantic; but the other half that passes into the Irish sea, is welcomed by the inhabitants of the coasts, who feed upon its countless multitudes. These brigades as we may call them, which are thus separated from the greater columns, are often capricious in their motions, and do not show an invariable attachment to their common haunts.

This instinct of migration was given to the herrings that they might deposit their spawn in warmer seas, which mature and vivify it more effectually than those of the frozen zone. It is not from a deficiency of food that they leave the regions of the north; for they

one to us very fat, and on their return are generally observed to be lean. They are full of roe toward the end of June, and continue in perfection till the beginning of winter when they deposit their spawn.

The herring appears to have been unknown to the ancients, being rarely, if ever, found in the Mediterranean. The Dutch are said to have engaged in the fishery in 1164. The invention of pickling or salting herrings is ascribed to one Berukels of Biervliet near Sluys, who died in 1397. The emperor Charles V. visited his grave, and ordered a magnificent tomb to be erected to his memory. Since this early period, the Dutch have uniformly maintained their ascendency in the herring fishery; but owing to the Reformation, and the lax observance of Lent in Catholic countries, the demand for herrings upon the continent is now far less than it was in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

The herring fishery of the British Islands is practised by drift-nets, and principally at night, as the fish strike the nets in much greater numbers during the darkness. It is supposed that in the daytime, the nets scare the fish, and drive them away from the grounds. Fishing with these by day is strictly prohibited. The darkest nights and those in which the surface of the water is ruffled by a breeze, are considered the most favorable. The food of the herring consists principally of the various kinds of crustacea, but they have been known to devour the fry of their own species. About 400,000 barrels of herring are annually taken and cured in Great Britain.

In the United States, particularly on the New England coast, the herring are also taken in great num

E

bers. During the season of spawning, the rivers, both large and small, abound with them. In Passamaquoddy Bay and the neighborhood, they are taken by scooping them up with hand-nets. This fishing, as in England, is mostly carried on during dark nights, and often displays the most striking and picturesque appearance to the spectator on shore. The fishermen go in small light boats, each carrying a flaming torch. The boats row with great swiftness through the water, and the herring, attracted by the glare of the light, crowd after the boat in such numbers, that those stationed in the stern for this purpose, scoop them up by thousands. The fish frequently throng together with such eagerness, as to throw one another out of the water. When there are large numbers of boats together upon the water, with the strong red glare of their birchen torches reflected from the surface, the lights swiftly crossing and re-crossing each other, now suddenly disappearing and again appearing among the islands as if by enchantment, the whole contrasted with the darkness that shrouds every other object, produce a scene of the most novel and romantic char

acter.

It is impossible to give any authentic statement of the number and amount of herrings taken; but in Great Britain alone, 439,371 barrels were inspected and branded by the government, during the year 1831. It is probable that this was less than half the whole number caught in Europe and America. If we suppose that a million of barrels are annually taken, and that each barrel contains 500, we shall see that the consumption of this fish in Europe and America, is 500 millions a year!