Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

With a few exceptions French words are not accented.

In Chapter X, St Monance Uppertown and Overtown both used for the same location.

The footnotes are located at the end of the book.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.

THE HARVEST OF THE SEA.

THE

HARVEST OF THE SEA

_A CONTRIBUTION TO
THE NATURAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH FOOD FISHES_

BY JAMES G. BERTRAM

POLONIUS.—Do you know me, my lord?
HAMLET.—Excellent well; you are a fishmonger.
_Shakespeare._

_WITH FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS._

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1865

_Printed by_ R. CLARK, _Edinburgh_.

PREFATORY NOTE.

It is not my intention to inflict upon the reader a formal Preface. It would, however, be ungrateful were I not to take an opportunity of acknowledging the aid and information kindly afforded by various Members of the French Government; also by Professor Coste of the French Institute; M. Coumes of Strasbourg; the Authorities at Huningue; the Intendant of the Jardin d’Acclimatisation of Paris; Mr. Robert Buist; Mr. John Cleghorn; Jonathan Couch, Esq. of Polperro; Mr. H. Dempster; Thomas Ashworth, Esq.; Mr. Robert Cowie; Mr. R. P. Scott; Edward Cooke, Esq., R.A., to whose kindness I am indebted for the characteristic Sketches of “The Angler Fish” and “Jack in his Element.”

So far as I am aware, this is the first work in which an attempt has been made to bring before the public in one view the present position and future prospects of the Food Fisheries of Great Britain. Great pains have been taken to obtain reliable information and correct statistics, but in so wide a field of labour considerable allowance must be made for errors.

The excellent Fish Groups have been arranged and drawn by Mr. Stewart, the Natural History draughtsman of this city; while the Sketches of Fishing Scenes on Lochfyne and elsewhere are by Mr. J. R. Prentice.

EDINBURGH, _18th October 1865_.

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—Proposal
for a Marine Observatory in order to note the Growth of
our Sea Fish—Curious Stories about the Growth of the Eel—All
that is known about the Mackerel—Whitebait: is it a
Distinct Species?—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 1
CHAPTER II.

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—Comacchio—The Art of Breeding Eels—Progress of
Fishing in Scotland—A Scottish Buss—Newfoundland Fisheries—The
Greenland Whale-Fishing—Speciality of different Fishing
Towns—The General Sea Fisheries of France—French Fish
Commerce—Statistics of the British Fisheries 34

CHAPTER III.

FISH CULTURE.

Antiquity of Pisciculture—Italian Fish-Culture—Sergius
Orata—Re-discovery of the Art—Gehin and Remy—Jacobi—Shaw
of Drumlanrig—The Ettrick Shepherd—Scientific and Commercial
Pisciculture—A Trip to Huningue—Tourist Talk
about Fish—Bale—Huningue described—The Water Supply—_Modus
Operandi_ at Huningue—Packing Fish Eggs—An
Important Question—Artificial Spawning—Danube Salmon—Statistics
of Huningue—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—Statistics of Stormontfield—Acclimatisation
of Fish—The Australian Experiment—Introduction of the
_Silurus glanis_ 69

CHAPTER IV.

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. 129

CHAPTER V.

THE NATURAL AND ECONOMIC 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—Enemies of the Fish—Avarice
of the Lessees—The Rhine Salmon—Size of Fish—Killing
of Grilse—Rivers Tay, Spey, Tweed, Severn, etc.—The
Tay Fisheries—Report on English Fisheries—Upper and
Lower Proprietors 177

CHAPTER VI.

THE NATURAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
OF THE HERRING.

Description of the Herring—The Old Theory of Migration—Geographical
Distribution of the Herring—Mr. John Cleghorn’s
Ideas on 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 Sprat—Should
there be a Close-time?—Caprice of the Herring—The
Fisheries—The Lochfyne Fishery—The Pilchard—Herring
Commerce—Mr. Methuen—The Brand—The Herring Harvest
All Night at the Fishing—The Cure—The Curers—Herring
Boats—Increase of Netting—Are we Overfishing?—Proposal
for more Statistics 226

CHAPTER VII.

THE WHITE-FISH FISHERIES.

Difficulty of obtaining Statistics of our White-Fish
Fisheries—Ignorance of the Natural History of the White
Fish—“Finnan Haddies”—The Gadidæ 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 285

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NATURAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY
OF THE OYSTER.

Proper Time for Oyster-Fishing to Begin—Description of the
Oyster—Controversies about its Natural History—Spatting
of the Oyster—Growth of the Oyster—Quantity of Spawn
emitted by the Oyster—Social History of the Oyster—Great
Men who were Fond of Oysters—Oyster-Breeding in France—Lake
Fusaro—Beef’s Discovery of Artificial Culture—Oyster-Farming
in the Bay of Biscay—The Celebrated Green
Oysters—Marennes—Dr. Kemmerer’s Plan—Lessons to be
gleaned from the French Pisciculturists—How to manage an
Oyster-Farm—Whitstable—Cultivation of Natives—The Colne
Oyster-Trade—Scottish Oysters—The Pandores—Extent of
Oyster-Ground in the Firth of Forth—Dredging—Extent of
American Oyster-Beds 332

CHAPTER IX.

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—Scottish Pearl-Fisheries—Account of the Scottish
Pearl-Fishery—A Mussel-Farm—How to grow Bait 382

CHAPTER X.

THE FISHER-FOLK.

The Fisher-People the same everywhere—Growth of a Fishing
Village—Marrying and giving in Marriage—The Fisher-Folk’s
Dance—Newhaven near Edinburgh—Newhaven Fishwives—A
Fishwife’s mode of doing
Business—Superstitions—Fisherrow—Dunbar—Buckhaven—Cost
of a Boat and its Gear—Scene of the _Antiquary_:
Auchmithie—Smoking Haddocks—The Round of Fisher
Life—“Finnan Haddies”—Fittie and its Quaint Inhabitants—Across
to Dieppe—Bay of the Departed—The Eel-Breeders of
Comacchio—The French Fishwives—Narrative of a
Fishwife—Buckie—Nicknames of the Fisher-Folk—Effects of a
Storm on the Coast 418

CHAPTER XI.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Are there more Fish in the Sea than ever came out of it?—Modern
Writers on the Fisheries—Were Fish ever so abundant
as is said?—Salmon-Poaching—Value of Salmon—Sea
Fish—Destruction of the Young—Is the demand for Fish
beginning to exceed the Supply?—Evils of Exaggeration—Fish
quite Local—Incongruity of protecting one Fish and not
another—Difficulties in the way of a Close-Time—Duties of
the Board of White-Fisheries—Regulation of Salmon Rivers—Justice
to Upper Proprietors—The one Object of the Fishermen—Conclusion 474