The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-29 00:00:00

THE YARMOUTH HERRING FISHERY.

The herring fishery which bas just concluded, say'
the Bury Post, has proved the most successful ttl r return-
bered on oar coast—the retch of fish has been enormous,
quite unparalleled, and although prices have on the whole
not ruled so high as in former years, we believe that the
sates quantity of 6.h taken will far more than counter-
Wane that difference. The most beneficial results are
likely to accrue to our town from tbie successful termina-
tion of her staple support ; it is perhaps only a fair estimate
of its importance when we state that nearly half our entire
population, either directly or indirectly, obtain their Seth,
heed from it. Front the return of the catch of the boats
belonging to the principal owners, it appears that the quan-
tity of fish taken was 2,226 lasts. In addition to this must be
added the catch of the single boats, owned by other mer-
chants, reaching 1,047 lasts ; making a total, merely among
the 63 boats belonging to the members of the Fishing Club,
of 3,272 lasts, or 43 190.400 fish, iliciwiog a mean of nearly
60 lasts to each boat, the
but 30 lasts. 'There is also to be taken into account the
catch of about 66 other fishing boats belonging to the little
owners and merchants independent of the clue, and these
having an average very little inferior to the former, bring-
ing the entire "take" of herrings in the home fishery alone
to 7,000 furs, or the large number of 92,400,000. Even these
gigantic figures fail to convey a complete view of the entire
herring trade at Yarmouth, as there is a very extensive
"North Sea Fishery" carried on previously to the com-
mencement of the home fishery on our own coast, sad which
c moot be estimated at less than one-half the catch above
mentioned, making • grand total of 10,000 lasts, or
135,600,000 fish brought into Yarmouth ! the immense pro.
portion of the same being cured and imported to various places
not only in our owe, but also foreign kingdoms. The foreign
exports, as a necessary consequence upon so large a catch, has
bees unusually great, so lets than 25,184 hernia having
been shipped fram hence for various ports on the Mediter-
ranean ; each barrel containing 700 fish, thus equal to about
1,336 lasts of green fish, or one-eighth part of the whole
catch. The rareness home consumption may be estimated
in some degree from the railway returns, which show that
during the season so lees than 20'2,644 packages of herrings,
weighing upwards of 7,660 tons, have been despatched to
London ; with 31,206 packages, weighing 4,630 tons, to
Norwich and various other places in England. In the
"Trawling" Fishery, the catch has been by no means so
extraordinary, but it has born tolerably successful: the
packages of sod, soles, turbot, &c., sent by rail to London,
Norwich, Cambridge, and other planes in tee Eastern
Counties, amounted to 14,677, and weighed about 630 tons.
The largest number of fish caught by any single boat ever
recorded in the hirring fishery, was 126 lasts ; the craft
belonged to Mr. Thomas Lettis, fen.: one other boat, be
longing to Mr. Shuckford, reached lit lasts, also an enor-
mous number compared with former pea.