The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



of a fortnight. During the year 1853, the annus mirabilis 

 of the Yarmouth fishery, 12,000 tons of fresh herrings 

 alone were despatched from that place to London and the 

 provinces. At Grimsby the quantity of fish landed in 

 1872, and transmitted by rail, averaged 600 t'ons a week, or 

 at the rate of more than 31,000 tons a year. The pro- 

 digious quantity of wholesome food now daily forwarded 

 into the interior of the country from our principal fishing 

 stations almost exceeds belief. The station-master of 

 Lowestoft informed the Royal Commission of 1864 that in 

 the two preceding years he had often despatched from that 

 town 100 truck-loads of fish a day, each truck containing 

 from three to four tons. From 4000 to 5000 tons of her- 

 rings, and 1000 tons of other fish, have been sent by rail- 

 way from the town of Dunbar alone in the course of a 

 single week into the interior of Scotland. Before this 

 rapid mode of transport was invented, the consumption of 

 fresh fish was restricted to the seaboard, the metropolis, 

 and a few of the most considerable provincial towns. To 

 the mass of our island population the red herring was the 

 only representative of sea-fish which ever met their eyes ; 

 now there is scarcely a hamlet in which the poor man's 

 frugal dinner is not occasionally varied by a dish of fresh 

 herrings or some other cheap fish, which the facilities of 

 transit from the coast have brought to his door. The 

 increase of fishing power brought of late years to bear 

 upon the sea is equally remarkable. In 1814 only five 

 vessels were fitted out as deep-sea trawlers from Yarmouth, 

 and not one from any other port of the United Kingdom. 

 There cannot now be less, on the most moderate estimate, 

 than 1000 sea-going trawlers, hailing from British ports 

 and working in the North Sea, and certainly not less than 

 300 in the English Channel, and 100 in the Irish Sea. For 



