fish. 679 



to British enterprize in that branch of trade, and the laws 

 which so often are found to be opposed to industry have 

 relaxed and modified much of what was injurious to the pro- 

 gress of the fisheries. Parliament, instructed by the exertions 

 of the Downs Fishing Society, and the Fish Association, and 

 receiving annual reports from the commissioners appointed to 

 superintend the distribution of bounties, established 48 

 George III., continues the plan of a gradual improvement of 

 the home fishery in particular, and the beneficial result of the 

 measure in general is attested by a progressive increase of 

 supply and demand. The markets in this kingdom have not, 

 however, as yet obtained the complete attention of the legis- 

 lature. Monopoly of fish, that old and stubborn abuse, 

 though waning, is not destroyed, nor are the inland places, 

 and indeed many parts of the coast, supplied to the extent 

 the liberal hand of Nature affords for the use of the population 

 of these realms. 



On the banks of Newfoundland, notwithstanding that the 

 sovereignty of the coast belongs to Great Britain, the natives 

 of the United States, by means of some trifling indulgences 

 on shore, and the French, with the help of two small islands, 

 contrive to be formidable rivals to the British fishery, and 

 lately, the Norwegians have shown no less skill and industry 

 in the same pursuit. In the Indian seas, there have likewise 

 existed commercial fisheries from the earliest periods ; parti- 

 cularly on the coasts of Ceylon and Java ; and the insular 

 Malays may be considered as a piscatory people, following 

 their profession on all the coasts of Southern India, their 

 fleets making even an annual voyage to Australia for the sole 

 purpose of fishing and curing in those seas fish and other 

 marine molluscous animals, known by the name of biche de 

 mer. But we have already trespassed too long upon the 

 reader with considerations not strictly ichthyological ; for 

 even the appropriateness of an abstract of the fisheries of the 



