956 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



say, 33,000 boats, and about 120,000 fishermen and boys. 

 The returns are, however, admittedly incomplete, and 

 would in no case take account of the large numbers of 

 fishermen whose boats are unregistered, and who do not 

 follow fishing as their only occupation. The estimate, 

 therefore, of a total fishing population of 150,000 does not 

 seem to be excessive. The Scotch Herring Board estimate 

 the average value of the 14,809 boats engaged in the her- 

 ring, cod, and ling fisheries, at ^"42 each, of their nets at 

 ^45 per boat, and of their lines at 8 per boat. This 

 average, applied to the 33,000 boats, would give a gross 

 value of considerably over ,3,000,000 sterling. Such a 

 calculation takes no account of the large and powerful 

 steamers engaged in the fish " carrying" trade, nor of the 

 whaling and sealing fleet, nor of other ocean-going 

 vessels directly engaged in the fisheries. The figures 

 must be taken as representing merely what may be 

 called the food-fisheries carried on in the seas imme- 

 diately surrounding our coasts. Even then they pro- 

 bably err, if at all, on the side of moderation. An estimate 

 of the value of the produce of the fisheries is still less easy. 

 The quantity of fish of all kinds delivered at Billingsgate 

 Market mainly the produce of the British fisheries in 



1880 was over 120,000 tons. This quantity, at an average 

 price of only 6d. per lb., would represent a value of 

 ^6,720,000 as a portion only of the consumption of the 

 Metropolis alone. The value of the produce of the Scotch 

 herring fisheries alone, in 1881, was probably not less than 

 ^3,000,000. 



A Parliamentary return of the quantity of fish conveyed 

 inland by railway, from each of the principal fishing ports of 

 the United Kingdom, states that the quantity so carried in 



1881 was, in England, 206,381 tons; in Scotland, 59,259 



