herring-scale

In those windy flights in the fishing season there is often the close smell of herring-scale, of bow tar and the bark-tan of the fishing nets; but this stair I climbed for the wherewithal was unusually sweet-odoured and clean, because on the first floor was the house of Provost Brown -- a

John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro

She brought a vague odour of fish with her, and a herring-scale showed like a tiny patch of mother-of-pearl near the little finger of one of her hands.

The Fat and the Thin ��mile Zola 1871