The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-09 00:00:00

THE PILCIIARD FISHERY.

The little town of St. lye's has long been known
as the principal seat of the Cornish pilchard
fishery. For the last five or six years the takes of
fish have been very small, and during the past sum-
mer also the mackerel fishery was a comparative
failure. The town is dependent entirely on fishing
and mining, and the latter branch of its industry has
also suffered in common with other parts of Corn-
wall by the American war, which has caused a dimi-
nished demand for metals, a reduction in the price,
and thereby a corresponding reduction in the price of
ores, especially tin. Tin abounds in this and the ad-
joining parish of Lelant, and some of the richest
producing mines are therein situate. The falling
off in price has caused a lessening of operations and
reduction of productive labour. Hence the prospects
of the place have till recently been very gloomy.
About five weeks since they had their first take of
fish for the season—say, about 4,000 hogsheads (of
4cwt. of fish each) ; these have been sold at £3los.
to £3 12s. 6d. each and were a source of great re-
joicing to the people. On Monday, in this week,
the town was again thrown into a state of great ex-
citement, vast shoals of pilchards appeared in the
bay, and during the day 12 seines had enclosed, as
with walls, as many shoals of the fish. Accidents,
however, of various kinds allowed the fish to escape
from three of the seines ; still, in the remaining
nine thera were safely caught about 7,000 hogs-
heads of the finny visitors, bringing wealth to many
and plenty to the multitude of the neighbourhood.
These fish are not expected to realize quite as good
a price as those of the first catch, hut they will in all
probability be found to be about £2,000 worth,—not a
bad thing for one day's work. The curing consists
of laying them (called " bulking") in nice layers of
alternate fish and salt—in these " bulks" they pre-
sent a very singular and remarkable appearance,
being to the spectator nothing but a wall of fishes'
heads. Here they remain for about 28 days, after
which they are washed and the oil pressed out,
packed into hogsheads, and shipped away as
speedily as possible to the seaport towns of Italy,
chiefly up the Adriatic, where they are largely
consumed by Catholics during the time of Lent
especially, and in their fast days generally. Salted
pilchards also form a considerable portion of the
daily diet of the working miner, either with pota-
toes or bread. Thus, this visit of these myriads of
wandering '° pisces" has been the means of repay-
ing the capitalista their losses of past years, the
fishermen for their deficiencies during the summer
and past seasons, the miner with his staple of food,
and the poor of the whole district generally with
a cheap and healthy means of subsistence.

METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS.

The usual weekly meeting of the Metropolitan
Board of Works was held yesterday at the office in
Spring-gardens—Mr. J. Thwaites in the chair.
The financial statement was presented, which
gave the following cash balances in the hands of the
treasurer ;—Current accounts, £115,987 lls. 10d. ;
deposit accounts, £108,500; total, £224,487 1 ls.
10d. Government securities, New 3 per Cent. An-
nuities, £51,257 ss. ld,; !cheques ordered but not
presented, £12,003 12s. 3d. ; payments ordered this
day, £31,438 Bs. sd.