Preface. 



The object of this essentially elementary handbook is 

 to provide illustrations and brief descriptions of the several 

 kinds of marine fishes which are marketed in this country 

 in appreciable quantity as articles of commerce, and in a 

 minor degree to give an added interest to those perchance 

 inexperienced sea-fishermen who wish to be able to 

 recoo-nise at a glance the various forms of fish which come 

 under their notice, or fall victims to their bait whilst 

 eno-ao-ed in a form of sport clear to the heart of every Briton 

 who takes pleasure in the sea and can endure its varying 

 moods. The work has been founded largely upon the lines 

 of others which have appeared of recent years in those 

 maritime countries of Europe in which fish forms an all- 

 important article of diet, and is to be regarded as in no way 

 scientific. 



It is a well-known fact thai although the supply of certain 

 s/uv/V\ of fish with which almost everyone is familiar, as 

 for example Plaice, Turbot, Haddock, Halibut, and Brill, 

 has been for years past steadily on the decline, yet there 

 has been a corresponding increase in the total iinanlily of 

 fish landed in the British Isles during the same period. 

 An examination of the statistics of the Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries not only makes this clear, but shows further 

 that with the decrease in supply of those species of better- 

 known edible qualities, there has been an undoubted 

 increase in the supply of others less secure in public favour, 

 and that these have been marketed with greater frequency 

 and in larger quantities. 



There can, however, be but little doubt that while this 

 condition has been slowly but surely demonstrating itself 

 in the stock-in-trade of the ordinary fishmonger, the public- 

 mind has undergone but little or no change so far as the 

 selection of what are technically known as "wet fish" is 

 concerned. This is especially noticeable in inland towns, 

 where the occasional supplies of comparatively unknown 

 but excellent fish for food purposes command practically 



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