Of the roes of mullets is sometimes made the kind of caviar called _botargue_ or _botargo_. For this purpose they are taken out and covered with salt, for four or five hours. Afterwards they are gently pressed between two boards or stones, to squeeze the water out of them. They are then washed in a weak brine, and lastly exposed to the sun for twelve or fifteen days to be dried. This substance is said to quicken a decayed appetite, and to give a relish to wine. It is much in request, in Greece, as food on the numerous fast-days of the Greek church. 241. _The HERRING_ (Clupæa harengus) _is a small fish distinguished by its sharp and serrated belly, the body being without spots, the lower jaw longer than the upper, and the dorsal fins so exactly situated above the centre of gravity that, when taken up by it, the fish will hang in equilibrio._ _These fish, which are in general from eight to ten inches in length, are migratory, and found, at particular periods, in immense shoals, in nearly all parts of the Northern Ocean._ So great is the supply of herrings, and such is the general esteem in which they are held, that they have almost equal admission to the tables of the poor and the rich. They have been known and admired from the remotest periods of antiquity; but, as our ancestors were ignorant of the means by which they could be preserved from corruption, they were not so profitable to them as they are to us. The herring fishery, in different parts of the world, affords occupation and support to a great number of people. In Holland it has been calculated that formerly more than 150,000 persons were employed in catching, pickling, drying, and trading in herrings; and, on the different coasts of our own country, many thousands of families are entirely supported by this fishery. The principal of the British herring fisheries are off the coasts of Scotland and Norfolk; and the implements that are used in catching the fish are nets stretched in the water, one side of which is kept from sinking by buoys fixed to them at proper distances, and the other hangs down, by the weight of lead which is placed along its bottom. The herrings are caught in the meshes of the nets, as they endeavour to pass through, and, unable to liberate themselves, they continue there until the nets are hauled in and they are taken out. Herrings are in full roe about the month of June, and continue in perfection until the commencement of winter, when they begin to deposit their spawn. The art of pickling these fish is said to have been first discovered towards the end of the fourteenth century, by Guilliaume Beuchel, a native of Brabant. The Emperor Charles the Fifth, about 150 years afterwards, honoured this benefactor of the human race by visiting the place of his interment, and eating a herring on his grave.