Yarmouth, in Norfolk, is the great and ancient mart of herrings in this country. The season for catching them commences about Michaelmas, and lasts during the whole month of October; and generally more than 60,000 barrels are every year cured in the neighbourhood of that town. Some of these are _pickled_, and others are dried. In the preparation of the latter (which have the name of _red herrings_) the fish are soaked for twenty-four hours in brine, and then taken out, strung by the head on little wooden spits, and hung in a chimney formed to receive them. After this a fire of brush-wood, which yields much smoke but no flame, is kindled beneath, and they are suffered to remain until they are sufficiently dried, when they are packed in barrels for exportation and sale. It will afford some idea of the astonishing supply of these invaluable fish, when it is stated that, about seventy years ago, near 400,000 barrels of herrings were annually exported from different parts of the coast of Norway; that, previously to the late war, about 300,000 barrels were annually cured by the Dutch fishermen; and that a considerably greater quantity than this is every year obtained on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. There is, in some countries, a considerable trade in the _oil_ that is obtained from herrings during the process of curing them. The average annual quantity of this oil exported from Sweden is about 60,000 barrels. 242. _The PILCHARD_ (Clupæa pilcardus) _is a fish of the herring tribe, and so nearly resembling the common herring, that the best mode of distinguishing the one from the other appears to be by the situation of the dorsal fin. If the pilchard be held by this fin, the head will dip downward; the herring held in similar manner continues in equilibrio._ _The length of the pilchard is from eight to about ten inches._ _These fish annually appear in vast shoals off the coast of Cornwall, and some other south-western parts of England. Their utmost range seems to be the Isle of Wight in the British, and Ilfracomb in the Bristol channel._ To the inhabitants of Devonshire and Cornwall the pilchard fishery is of as much importance as that of herrings is to the people on the eastern and northern coasts of Britain. Many hundred families are almost wholly supported by it. The first appearance of the fish is generally about the middle of July, and they usually continue until the latter end of October. As soon as the pilchards are caught they are conveyed to a warehouse, where they are covered with bay-salt, and suffered to lie for three weeks or a month. After this they are washed in sea-water and dried. As soon as they are dry the fish are closely pressed into barrels to extract the oily particles from them, which drain through holes that are made in the bottom. Thus prepared they become fit for use, and, when properly dressed, they are considered preferable to herrings.