in Ichthyology, a fish which has a general resemblance to the herring, but differs in some essential particulars. The body of the pilchard is less compressed than that of the herring, being thicker and rounder: the nose is shorter in proportion, and turns up; the under jaw is shorter. The back is more elevated; the belly less sharp. The dorsal fin of the pilchard is placed exactly in the centre of gravity, so that when taken up by it, the body preserves an equilibrium, whereas that of the herring dips at the head. The scales of the pilchard adhere very closely, whereas those of the herring very easily drop off. The pilchard is in general less than the herring; but it is fatter, or more full of oil. The pilchard appears in vast shoals off the Cornish coast about the middle of July, disappearing at the beginning of winter, yet sometimes a few return again after Christmas. Their winter retreat is the same with that of the herring, and their motives for migrating the same. They affect, during summer, a warmer latitude; for they are not found in any quantities on any of our coasts except those of Cornwall, that is to say, from Fowey harbour to the Scilly isles, between which places the shoals keep shifting for some weeks. The approach of the pilchard is known by much the same signs as those that indicate the arrival of the herring. Persons, called in Cornwall huers, are placed on the cliffs, to point to the boats stationed off the land the course of the fish. By the 1st of James I. c. 23, fishermen are empowered to go on the grounds of others to hue, without being liable to actions of trespasses, which before occasioned frequent law-suits.

The emoluments that accrue to the inhabitants of that country are great, and are best expressed in the words of Dr W. Borlase, in his Account of the Pilchard Fishery. "It employs a great number of men on the sea, training them thereby to naval affairs; employs men, women, and children, at land, in falting, pressing, washing, and cleaning, in making boats, nets, ropes, sails, and all the trades depending on their construction and sale. The poor is fed with the offal of the captures; the land with the refuse of the fish and salt; the merchant finds the gains of commission and honest commerce; the fisherman, the gains of the fish. Ships are often freighted hither with salt, and into foreign countries with the fish, carrying off at the same time part of our tin. The usual number of hogheads of fish exported each year, for 10 years, from 1747 to 1756 inclusive, from the four ports of Fowey, Falmouth, Penzance, and St Ives, in all amounts to 29,794; since it appears that Fowey has exported yearly 1732 hogheads; Falmouth, 14,631 hogheads and two-thirds; Penzance and Mounts Bay, 12,149 hogheads and one-third; St Ives, 1282 hogheads. Every hoghead for ten years last past, together with the bounty allowed for each when exported, and the oil made out of each, has amounted, one year with another at an average, to the price of 11. 13s. 3d.; so that the cash paid for pilchards exported has, at a medium, annually amounted to the sum of 49,132l. 10s." The numbers that are taken at one shooting out of the nets is amazingly great. Mr Pennant says, that Dr Borlase assured him, that on the 5th of October 1767, there were at one time inclosed in St Ives's bay 7000 hogheads, each hoghead containing 35,000 fish, in all 245,000,000.