particularly distinguished himself in protecting the shores of Picardy for three years, during which time he often triumphed gloriously over his foes; but fortune at length declared against him. Finding himself on one occasion surrounded, he fought nobly for three days, killing many of his assailants, and then took to his oars with the hope of escaping, though his sails were split and his rigging broken; but a gale suddenly coming on, his ship was thrown upon a rock, and went to pieces, and the gallant De Sertin, with all his companions, perished.

The English sustained a complete defeat in July, 1403, off Brittany, the particulars of which must be taken from French writers, because the affair is not mentioned by those of this country. For many months the coast of France was, as has already been observed, pillaged by English vessels, which had repeatedly returned to their own country laden with immense spoil unresisted, and with perfect impunity. Confident by their strength, they sent back the Bargonese ships which they had called to their assistance, and resolved to keep the sea; and while looking out for prizes, they took measures for preventing the French from going to aid the Scotch. They were aware that the Scotch had fixed the 15th of August to fight the English, and wished above all things to be present on that occasion. Notwithstanding their vigilance, Sir Peter des Essarts succeeded in crossing the Channel with some followers while the English were engaged in acts of piracy on the frontiers of Brittany, for neither the fear of the inhabitants nor of the dangers on the coast near St. Matthew, which required a skilful pilot, prevented them from coming there about the end of June, where they captured a ship with a rich cargo and ten empty merchant vessels. Pleased with their prizes, they were thinking only of their return to divide the spoil, "when they were taught that robbers were sometimes robbed in their turn.” The Bretons resolved to take vengeance for these proceedings. By the advice of Sir Oliver de Clisson, they collected 1,200 men-at-arms and a great number of crossbowmen and light troops, to intercept the English on their passage home, and chose the Sire de Penhort, Sir John his son, Admiral of Brittany, and Sir William du Chatel, all knights celebrated for their valour, to command them. The Bretons embarked in thirty vessels at Chastel Pol, near Morlaix, and weighing anchor about the 1st of July, proceeded after the English, having sent before them some small vessels with trusty men to reconnoitre their position. The next day the scouts reported that the English fleet was lying at the extremity of the coast, in the Race of St.

The

Matthew, and hastening there, they discovered them at sunset. It was with difficulty the Breton commanders could restrain the zeal of the young soldiers, and induce them to postpone the attack until the following morning. At dawn of day the English were discovered steering towards England, instead of seeking the Spanish sea, and every exertion was made to bring them to action. The Bretons formed their fleet in two divisions, one under Sir William du Chatel, and the other under his colleagues; and seeing this, the English divided their fleet in the same manner. Bretons began the battle by boarding their adversaries with great impetuosity, uttering terrible cries; but they were received with equal courage, it not being easy to decide which displayed the most ardour, fought with the greatest rage, or sustained the battle with most bravery and constancy. After the action had lasted six hours, the English, finding that they could not keep their ground with their ships in two divisions, united them in one body. The French did the same, and the combat was renewed, both sides using all their engines and missiles, and then fighting hand to hand. The English maintained the combat until all their missiles were exhausted, when five hundred of their men being either slain or drowned, their courage gave way, and forty ships with sails and one carack surrendered. Some of the soldiers threw their weapons into the sea, with the hope of being put to a lighter ransom if they were taken unarmed, or more probably to prevent them from falling into the hands of the conquerors; whereupon the Breton captains ordered these brave fellows to be thrown overboard after their weapons. One thousand prisoners and all the English ships were brought into port, and after sending intelligence of the victory to their Duke and to the French lords, the Bretons filled their ships with fresh soldiers to follow up the success, and carry the war to the shores of England.

(To be continued.)

THE SCOTCH HERRING FISHERIES.

THE Herring Fishery, whether it is considered what enormous interests are involved in it, how large the number of persons it employs, the great risks that are run by those engaged in it, or in whatever light the subject be viewed, there can be no doubt it is one affecting in no small degree the prosperity of a large coast population, and the supply of our markets with a cheap and wholesome article of consumption. We propose, therefore, to offer a few

remarks on the progress of this great industry as indicated by the official returns, which show a steadily progressive increase in the "catch" year by year.

Although the returns for 1874 will not be published till July next, the facts embodied by them are pretty well known. Generally the "catch" has been unusually large, and it is very gratifying to remark that it is almost certain to prove considerably more productive than that of the preceding three highly successful years.

At some of the stations the fishing has not been so successful as could be desired; notably so at Wick, where the decadence is so marked, that the extinction of this, the greatest of the fishing stations, is threatened, or will, it is almost certain, be reduced from its dignity as the fishing metropolis of Scotland, to a third-rate position among the Scotch fishing stations. At Wick there were always congregated the largest number of boats, well found in sails, nets, and gear. There were to be found numerous prosperous curers, whose myriad barrels lined the quays and streets, and filled the yards and stores. The drowsy southern traveller, nodding beside the driver of the mail-coach, as it rattled at five in the grey autumn morning over the rough street of the little town, was met with the all-pervading and by no means agreeable odour of the herring, rotting portions of which lay about putrescent; strong, active, tawny, and bronzed natives of Ultima Thule, or wiry, darkbrowed, grey-eyed Celtic Highlanders, all clad in dark blue suits and bonnets, later in the day lounging about the streets or hurrying along to make their preparations for the coming night's work; signs also of employment in plenty for coopers, branders, boat-builders, net and sail makers, labourers, women, and others. Shall all this be done away, and in a few decades the bustling town become the sleepy centre of a sleepier agricultural district? This much is certain, the number of boats fishing from Wick steadily decreases. In 1874 only 710 boats were engaged, the smallest number for half a century, and less by 251 than those of the preceding year, and in 1872 less again by about 200.

There might be some hope of a resuscitation of this fishery had the catch last year been a large one. But this was not the case, for whereas in 1873 there were caught 25,000 crans more with the fewer number of boats than in 1872, giving an average of 108 crans to each boat, in 1874 the catch yielded an average of only 94 crans, against an average of 218 crans taken at Fraserburgh.

On the West Coast, also, the returns are not expected to be favourable, the Loch Fyne herrings having again deserted their old haunts, where trawling is believed by the local drag-net fishers to have a very damaging effect.

The evidence of the fishermen at Campbeltown, Tarbert, and Ardrishaig, before the Loch Fyne Fishery Commission, certainly seems to bear this out,

for whenever the trawlers came among them the fishing was spoiled, the reasons given being that while the drift-net hung in the sea and allowed the fish to mesh themselves without disturbance, the trawl-net was forcibly drawn round the fish, causing those that escaped to shoot all through the phosphorescent sea, and so alarm the shoal that it sank to the bottom. The shoal so frightened might not rise to the surface that night, and so the drift-nets got no fish. The Norwegian fishermen have quite another theory, namely that the trawlers destroy the spawn of the herring, which, speedily decaying, scares the shoal, which for a long period after are loth to return.

A suggestion well worthy of consideration, and one that ensures instant approval, has been made to assist by means of telegraph the industrious fishers of the West Coast, and anyone who has seen the smacks laboriously make passages from the Clyde to Rothesay and Lochgoil, or from Greenock to Lochranza, Tarbert, and Campbeltown, and thence to the distant fishing ports, only to find their labour lost, and perhaps to hear of the presence of the shoal at some intermediate point unknown to the fishermen, cannot but wish to see this aid extended to them. Though the experiment would be new as regards our home fisheries, it is one that has been tried with most gratifying results on the Norwegian coast, where often, until the aid of the telegraph was called in, the poor fishermen met with endless disappointments in attempting to follow the shoal from place to place. What we have said of the Clyde is no less applicable to the distant fisheries. Telegraphic information regarding the movements of the fish would be of the utmost assistance to the large number of fishers between the Butt of Lewis and Barra, including such important stations as Lochboisdale and Lochmaddy, Stornoway, and others in the Minch.

With all the scientific appliances of modern invention at their command, would it be asking too much that the Fishery Board initiate an arrangement of this kind, which would, it is believed, be of the greatest assistance to the fishermen ?

Having seen that the fishing has not been uniformly successful, it will be a more congenial task to show what marked success has attended the remainder of the fishing stations. The season commences in the Hebrides about the middle of May, and operations are continued for about two months. In the Stornoway and Lochboisdale district upwards of a thousand boats are usually engaged. Shetland has for many years held quite an unimportant place among the herring fisheries, most of the men going now to the Faroe cod and ling fisheries, so that the yield is small, and seldom exceeds 2,000 crans.

The Orkney fishing commences about the middle of July and extends to the end of August, the same period as that during which the East Coast fishings continue. The great aggregation of boats has for some years been on the NorthEast Coast of Scotland, where for several seasons the catch has been enormous, and has nearly reached the total of the entire Scotch seaboard up to 1830.

It is this district which chiefly supplies the herring market, and includes twenty-eight stations, at which nearly 3,300 boats during the 1874 season found employment. More than two-thirds of these boats, however, were attracted to three of the fishing ports, namely, Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh, manned by nearly ten thousand men and boys, and casting into the sea, night after night, for the space of two months, a quantity of netting which if placed continuously would measure considerably over 3,000 miles. The catch by these boats in that district exceeds anything previously known there or elsewhere, the total take for 1874 on the North-East Coast of Scotland being estimated at 538,206 crans, against 479,312 crans in 1873; 375,029 crans in 1872; 358,486 crans in 1871, and 343,766 crans in 1870. When the averages obtained by the boats of the Aberdeen, Peterhead, and Fraserburgh fleets are observed, there need be little surprise that so many have deserted other stations for them. Thus the average secured at Aberdeen was 209 crans per boat; at Peterhead, with 750 boats, an average of 198 crans; and at Fraserburgh, with 682 boats, the large average of 218 crans. The aggregate catch, it will be seen, is thus unprecedented: returns, however, from some of the stations, those of Argyllshire, Rossshire, and Inverness-shire, are yet to be made up, but judging from the past, there is good reason to hope the totals will be fully up to the average, and should this be the case, the 1874 fishing will be the most productive on record. In 1860 the total cure was 637,000 barrels, and for the next few years the increase was not surprising, till coming to the year 1870 we find the number to have been 800,000 barrels; in 1871 and 1872 there were hardly as many, but in 1873 the number had increased to 950,000 barrels, while the cure of 1874 will probably be found to considerably exceed 1,000,000 barrels. This quantity of fish represents a large money value, namely, upwards of £1,500,000 sterling, and a total of eight hundred millions of individual fish, while the total catch, including those sold fresh as well as cured, has been estimated at fifteen thousand millions!

There is one peculiarity which has marked the last two years of the fishery, namely, the large proportion of "spent " fish amongst those caught. It is well known that fish in this condition are not as valuable a market commodity as "full fish;" but there is this to be said, that the greater number so caught, the greater certainty there is of illimitable future supplies. Thus each herring, it has been found, deposits from 30,000 to 40,000 eggs in the spawning ground, so that one morning's catch of "shotten fish" at a certain number of places represents the reproduction of herrings far exceeding the number caught in any one season, and this of course without taking into account the enormous number of fish which escape the nets, compared with which, it is believed, those caught are an infinitesimally small proportion.

How prolific the herring is, and how wonderfully regular in its habits, is exemplified by the uniformity of the quantity caught year by year; but with im